Quick licks: advanced #10

Eric Johnson and Wes Montgomery-style

Guitar Techniques, Fri 13 Jan 2012, 5:15 pm UTC

Advance lick one: Eric Johnson lead

A Pentatonic line based around Eric Johnson's trademark lead style. The line is based around a G major chord using both the G major pentatonic (G, A, B, D, E, G) and D major pentatonic (D, E, F#, A, B, D) scales similar to Johnson's approach.

Follow the position shifts and picking carefully (Eric may favour crossing strings with the same stroke where possible, though). A thick sustaining lead tone with a good bit of analogue delay works just fine here.

Advanced lick two: Wes Montgomery octaves

Here's a workout for octaves playing in the jazz genre using your picking hand's thumb with all downstrokes - watch out for blisters!

Harmonically this line features Wes-approved arpeggios and the use of a dominant diminished scale in bar 2 over the G13b9 chord (G, Ab, Bb, B, C#, D, E, F, G).

Watch your timing as this is at a ballad tempo (46bpm) and use a clean, dark neck pickup sound. You could use a pick (downstrokes) but thumb is more warm toned.