How to Steal a Guitar Lick and Make It Your Own
There’s a fine line between being influenced and outright stealing.
It’s great when music inspires us, but there’s a fine line between being influenced and outright stealing. The trick is to put your own twist on your hero’s licks and make them your own.
In this video, guitar instructor Robert Baker is back with some advice on how to do just that.
“Throughout all these years of playing guitar, that’s pretty much what it all is,” he says. “We’re all just stealing each other licks and just kind of adding our own spin to it.”
Robert shows three licks from established songwriters and demonstrates his techniques for turning them into something of his own. As always, he provides TAB for the same, which you can get right here.
Take a look, and be sure to check out Robert’s videos on his YouTube channel.
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Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of Guitar Player magazine, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.