intro licks sample

Looping Sound Clip 1

Lyle: Your first lick is the background guitar part for the looping jam track. Learning to play this is a great place to start. The chords for the jam track are E and D.

Lyle: Here's a video clip of lick 1

lick 1

Lyle: See if you can play lick 1 right along with the jam track.

Lyle: All the licks today are in the key of E blues. Memorize these and learn to transpose them into other keys by simple moving the position of the lick on the neck.

Lyle: VH used this type of rhythm lick often. Instead of using a power chord (root and 5th), it's using the root and 3rd to give a bit more harmonic expression.

Lyle: Lick 2 is a short pull off lick VH used sometimes to add a little spice to a rhythm lick.



Lyle: Strike the note while your second finger is down on the 5th fret.

Lyle: Pull off to your 1st finger and bend up a half step and release.

Lyle: Then strike the 5th fret again with your second finger. A little tricky at first but keep trying!

Lyle: Here is a close up video clip showing this technique in action.

pull off lick

Lyle: What you're going to do now is play both lick 1 and 2 together to create a bigger lick.

Lyle: Here is lick 3. It combines lick 1 and lick 2.



Lyle: Here's a video clip of lick 3

lick 3

Lyle: This is how you'll approach all the licks in this lesson.

Lyle: You'll keep combining them in the order you learn them to create a long string of licks, just like the "intro licks sample" at the beginning of the lesson.

Lyle: You can mix them up and play them in different orders too once you've memorized them.

Lyle: Here is a scale called the E Mixolydian. This is a typical scale to use over an E7 chord. The Mixolydian scale is a mode. It's just like a major scale but with a flatted 7th.



Lyle: You're learning it on just the E string slowly at first. Once you have learned this scale up the neck, pick each note real fast to get the "Eddie" sound out of it. Listen to the lick 4 sample or watch the video clips.

lick 4 sample

lick 4 sample

lick 4 sample right hand

Lyle: To pick real fast, alternate your pick down and up.

Lyle: Lick 5 is a great follow up to lick 4.

Lyle: It starts where the lick 4 ends and descends the scale using a series of hammer-ons and pull-offs.



Lyle: Here's a video clip of lick 5

lick 5

Lyle: In all these licks, there are many techniques involved.

Lyle: Practice these until you have them down.

Lyle: You'll end up with riffs that will have that EVH sound to them.

Lyle: Lick 6 is a classic minor pentatonic lick. The way you'll play it gives it the EVH sound.



Lyle: As you are coming down the scale, pick each note with a heavy attack. Bend the last note up just a half step.

Lyle: Here's a video clip of lick 6.

lick 6

Lyle: EVH does this lick often as a "fill in" type of phrase.

Lyle: So far you've learned 6 basic licks. If you were to play them all in order, they might sound something like this. Listen to the audio sample.

licks 1 thru 6 sample

Lyle: Lick 7 is a favorite of mine as far as the VH style goes.

Lyle: It's simple, yet hard to learn by ear.

Lyle: It's the half step bends that can throw you off.

Lyle: This lick is built from the E minor pentatonic scale up at the 12th fret.

Lyle: Here's lick 7. Notice how it is played from the high 3 strings of the pentatonic pattern.



Lyle: Check out a video clip of lick 7.

lick 6 and 7

Lyle: Lick 8 is using chromatics, or one fret at a time.

Lyle: Use all 4 fingers when playing this lick, and pick each note hard so each note has a "bite" to it.



Lyle: Here's a video clip of licks 7 and 8.

lick 7 and 8

Lyle: Lick 9 is a lick that you can use to develop your speed with.



Lyle: Practice the first measure of this lick over and over until you can play it faster than you ever thought possible.

Lyle: Watch this video clip of lick 9. I'm playing the first bar repeatedly, and then I finish with the 2nd bar of the lick

lick 9

Lyle: Since these are all blues licks, you can use them in many types of jams and in any keys.

Lyle: Lick 10 shows the technique of sliding your right hand finger on the string.



Lyle: Here's a video clip of lick 10

lick 10

Lyle: On lick 10, notice the use of the hammer-ons and pull-offs combined with the finger slide.

Lyle: That's 3 techniques all in one lick.

Lyle: It's little things like using several techniques together to give your playing style more feel and personality.

Lyle: It takes a lot of practice but well worth it in the long run.

Lyle: If you practice enough, you'll get it.

Lyle: Lick 11 uses the right hand finger tapping technique.

Lyle: EVH almost wrote the book on two-handed tapping.

GFSalles: Very cool!

Lyle: The virtual guitar neck will show a 'T' for the right-hand tapped notes when you play it back.

Lyle: Here's the video clip for lick 11.

lick 11

Lyle: Lick 11 is a prime example of a VH signature lick.

Lyle: You'll be combining the right-hand tapping with the finger slide at the end of thick, just lick in lick 10.

Lyle: Learn each one of these licks just right so you can copy some of VH best trademark licks.

Lyle: Always take your time with learning new licks.

Lyle: You want to make sure you understand what you're playing and how you're playing it.

Lyle: That's all for this lesson. Hope you all had fun! See you next lesson...!