In the world of bluegrass, improvisation is essential. And, more times than not, players will base improvisations off of a song’s main melody. To further this notion, it’s important to note that it can greatly help a player’s improvisational abilities if they already have a larger vocabulary of licks to pick from.
In his course, 30 Bluegrass Licks You MUST Know, Roberto Dalla Vecchia helps you expand this vocabulary. This way, when it’s your turn to improvise, you fingers will already be geared up to play some tasteful lines.
Here are 5 free bluegrass licks guitar lessons from the course. For the full course, check out 30 Bluegrass Licks You MUST Know on TrueFire!
Bluegrass Guitar Lesson – Pull Off Tricks
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Starting with this lick, let’s learn some licks in the key of G, the king of all keys in the flatpicking world. This lick uses a very common three-note pattern that can be easily played really fast. Pay attention to the picking directions I’ve noted down.
Bluegrass Guitar Lesson – Tony’s Stamp
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A personal favorite. This comes from the endless bag of licks of Tony Rice. Watch your timing while playing all those pull-offs.
Bluegrass Guitar Lesson – Fancy D
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This dominant lick is so classy, the open E string is our friend and it fits perfectly! Very useful when you’re up the neck and you need to close your solo.
Bluegrass Guitar Lesson – Double Exposure
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Lick 28 is based on a very common chord progression: I V I I. This lick combines typical Tony Rice double stops with a short (1 measure) D dominant lick.
Bluegrass Guitar Lesson – Pull The Trigger
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Another symmetrical lick that works so good on this sequence of dominant chords. Learn it slowly first making sure all the pick strokes are correct, and then it will be very easy to speed it up.
Digging these free bluegrass licks guitar lessons? Check out Roberto Dalla Vecchia’s 30 Bluegrass Licks You MUST Know.