It's fantastic to train our picking hand to move faster and faster, but using hammer ons and pull offs is not cheating! It's a compeltely valid technique for building speed, and does take out a lot of the restrictions that your picking hand can cause!
5 Fast Rock Guitar Licks For Beginners
13 May 2024
–Dan Holton
As a beginner electric guitar player it can be frustrating to not be able to get the speed you want out of your soloing! I'm here with 5 super fast sounding licks that are actually not very hard to play at all! In actual fact, this video is really all about a subject or technique called "Legato playing". Legato simply means smooth playing. In the guitar world, that directly translates to using a lot of hammer ons and pulls offs, rather than lots of picking.
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Dan Holton
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Let's dive in with the video
If you haven't seen this video yet, then here it is to watch. At the time of writing this the video has around 350,000 views on YouTube, so thank you to everyone who has taken the time to watch and engage with the video! Hopefully this extra blog post will continue to help you learn these licks. Also, don't forget to download the backing tack and lick audio here!
E Minor Pentatonic Scale
Let's begin by taking a look at the E minor pentatonic scale, which is the scale that we are playing through in each of the 5 licks. It is so important to be able to attribute a lick to a scale shape or arpeggio, as this will allow you to use the lick in other keys and in your own improvisation.
Never learnt this scale?
If this scale is quite new to you and want to understand how it works and how to properly use it, you need to try the course recommended below! This is where you'll learn this scale, how to change keys, and fundamentally how to start soloing with it!
The Licks!
So let's dive into the 5 licks in the video. As I said above, all are within the first pentatonic shape in the key of E minor, so do your best to relate them to this. Let's start with the first two licks:
Pay close attention to where the "H" and the "P" are on the tab. H is for hammer on, and P is for pull off. Building up the strength to do these correctly can take time, so please don't rush these. When you're ready, try the next licks:
As you can see, the licks are getting progressively more twisty, so don't rush ahead. Make sure that the sound is nice and clear, as well as even in rhythm. The more evenly they're played, the clearer they will sound! Now for the last lick:
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As I've said a few times here, the best practice is to play these licks nice and slowly, making sure the hammer ons and pull offs are even and the same volume. It may take a little longer, but in the long run your speed with shoot through the roof!
Dan Holton
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Want to learn more?
In the blog post I recommended some great beginner courses to develop your lead playing. On top of this, we have some great challenges that will help you push your speed forward, and even understand how to properly learn and play licks in your improvisation. All around it's a lot of great learning, so have fun with it and I'll speak to you soon!
