Lost your password?

Having command of a versatile and extensive vocabulary of fills to connect chords and accompany singers is an essential skill for all guitarists. Rick Stickney’s collection of 30 Timeless R&B Guitar Fills can be applied to any style of music you play, from rock and country to jazz, funk and blues.

“In contemporary music, the tastiest fills we hear today root directly back to classic Soul and R&B music from the 60s and 70s. To broaden your fills vocabulary, I’ve put together 30 of my favorite and most versatile R&B fills, which you can use as presented or tweak any way you wish to create your own variations. I’ll show you fills that you can play over major, minor, and dominant chord progressions, in a variety of keys and feels. As you learn the fills, you will also gain valuable insight into how to visualize them relative to common chord shapes and positions on the fingerboard, making it a breeze to move these to other keys later. We’ll practice all 30 of these fills over jam tracks for real-world musical context.”

Grab your guitar, and let’s dig in with Rick Stickney!

Free Guitar Lesson #1: HOPO Heaven

This first free guitar lesson will focus on major chord tonality. These hammer-on pull-off combinations played over a major chord in the relative minor pentatonic position are pure gold. Resolving to the double stop at the end is the icing on the cake.

Free Guitar Lesson #2: Encounters of the 4th Kind

Learning where you can use sliding 4ths is a crucial piece of the building fills puzzle. This one uses one of the most common placements of it.

Free Guitar Lesson #3: The 6th Sense

Using intervals of 6ths over a 6/8 ballad feel is R&B/Soul guitar 101. Here you will learn to visualize these as parts of the chord shapes as well

Free Guitar Lesson #4: Descend and Maintain

Descending on 3rds horizontally down the neck is a beautiful sound, especially when articulated with slides.

Free Guitar Lesson #5: Trail Mix

Using descending intervals of 6ths in Mixolydian is a great-sounding, fun way of leading from the V7 to I chord.

Free Guitar Lesson #6: Altered Ego

Using the altered scale to connect a V7 to i minor voicings is a beautiful way to get tension and resolution.

Dig These Free Guitar Lessons?

Get the full course for all of TrueFire’s advanced learning tools at your fingertips to personalize your workspace and learn at your own pace.

You can loop, slow down, or speed up any lesson section. Plus, all the tabs and notation are synced to the videos for the optimal learning experience. You’ll also get the tab, and standard notation files to print out, Guitar Pro files, and all of the backing tracks to practice with.

Grab your guitar, and dig in with Rick Stickney!