Golden Age of Guitar Instrumentals

Surf Guitar Instrumentals
Today's lick, the second lick from the golden age of the rock instrumental, is also reminiscent of the Ventures style.  This phrase takes place over an A-G-F-E chord progression.  The melody of the lick is in the A Natural Minor Scale (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) and is situated in the first position.  It can be thought of as being built around an open A minor chord.  The lick uses a simple diatonic melody line in the A Aeolian Mode and is colored with tremolo bar vibrato in its final notes.  In this typical early tremolo bar style notes and chords are vibrated by moving the bar in time with the rhythm of the music.  The effect is similar to the singing vibrato produced by the steel guitars of the country and Hawaiian styles; which the Fender tremolo bars were designed to emulate.  Due to the popularity of The Ventures the tremolo-equipped Fender Stratocaster and Jazzmaster models became the axes of choice among instrumental combo players of the period.  With The Ventures, Fender tremolo bar vibrato entered the mainstream in the soundtrack of Americana.

Learn this lick and then practice to