The Building Blocks of Rock

About

Are you feeling stuck, not getting better at guitar? Now you can find new ideas quickly, in a visual guide to hundreds of the most-used riff and lick shapes in rock guitar. RIFFS AND LICKS Riffs and licks are key to building "vocabulary" on guitar -- things you can do besides just strumming chords or picking out scales. The most common riffs and licks are found in more than one song, just like chords and scales. But unlike chords and scales, they don't have names -- so a lot of guitarists never learn very many of them. The Building Blocks of Rock for guitar shows you hundreds of the most common riff, lick, chord and scale shapes. Over half are all new *riff* (rhythm guitar) and *lick* (lead guitar) shapes -- like chord and scale shapes, but with a few added symbols for things like barres and bent strings. Each shape has: * a visual diagram * a detailed description * a pro-quality sound example * a list of famous song examples * the music theory underneath it HOW IT WORKS Looking at a shape, you pick up your guitar and place your fingers to match it; using the root (red circle) as a reference point. For moveable shapes, the handy fretboard map under the shape shows you where the root lives, for any given note name, or song example. Listening to the sound file, you try to copy what you hear there, or in the song references. Even if you don't get it right away, moving your hands in different ways, to different places on the neck, sparks new connections and muscle memory.