Lick
A short, self-contained melodic phrase, often a stock pattern, that a player can drop into a solo at will.
Licks are the vocabulary of improvisation: small phrases learned by ear, memorised in several keys and positions, then recombined in performance. A good lick is portable, meaning it can be moved up and down the neck or shifted to fit different chords. The risk is that a player who only chains licks together sounds predictable, which is why teachers push students to vary the rhythm, starting note and ending of each phrase rather than repeating them identically.
Example: A blues solo in which the same descending phrase returns in three different places is built from a single lick.
See also
Related
- PageRiff
- PageAccent
- PageAction height
- PageAlternate picking
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley
- PageAd-Rock
- ReferenceCircle of fifths