Steppin’ In Style – Lick of The Week #21

This week, Nick Manners is steppin’ in style through the shapes of the minor pentatonic scale in this triplet infused lick. Based in A minor, the lick hammers and slides its way from the D-string 2nd fret up to the E-string 12th fret. This is a great one for playing outside of the box scale shapes we tend to default to as guitarists. Working more horizontally across the fretboard like this is very useful for freshening up old licks and discovering new ones.

Nick also demonstrates how you might use a lick like this in the context of a full solo. In this short improvisation, you can see how he uses this lick to link the two halves of the solo. As shown, licks like this can be a great way to transition from one shape to another. This can really help to give a solo a sense of progression and interest rather than feeling static and boring. Try integrating this lick and the idea of horizontal movement in your own playing!

If you want to learn more about the scales and techniques used in this lick, you can find them in Level 3 of our online guitar syllabus. Our syllabus covers the six fundamentals of guitar playing over five levels and will take you from a beginner to expert. To find out more head over to our Syllabus page or our Online Shop to subscribe.

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