3 easy rock guitar solo licks you need to know

Rock music is usually the main reason people get into guitar lessons in the first place. Shredding a mega solo under big stage lights is any guitarist’s dream!

Don’t worry if you’re still new to guitar, though. In this lesson, we’ll go over three easy rock guitar licks for your solos. You can also head to Guitar Tricks where you’ll find more in-depth and step-by-step rock guitar lessons.

The licks we are sharing here will utilise the D minor pentatonic scale, which we’ve shown across the page, along with a couple of other related shapes.

This first lick is a shred-style line, so, although it’s best to practise slowly, be prepared to speed up and get shreddy! The pull-offs help with that classic shred sound.

The second lick introduces more notes on the high E string, and almost sounds like Van Halen-style tapping. It can get a bit tricky since you’ll be jumping from the E to B strings so take it easy. Finally, we add more notes in our third lick, including the “blues” note.

There’s plenty to learn here in just three licks. We recommend practising slowly, and, if you’re struggling, try to home in on short, bite-sized phrases. Just three or four notes can be all you need to make progress.

Scales

These are the three shapes we’ll be using in this lesson. First, the good old minor pentatonic scale. It’s probably the most commonly used scale in lead guitar, so make sure you know it. The other two are variations on the pentatonic theme – so take note of where there are new or different notes in the tab examples.

Rock Licks You MUST Know | Guitar Tricks - YouTube

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Example 1. Shred style

Start at the 10th fret position, then pull off from the 13th fret to the 10th. See that the lick is a mixture of these pull-offs on the first and second strings. Your goal is to identify the pattern that the pull-offs repeat in.

Example 2. Tapping style

We’re in the 10th position again here, but keep an eye out for the extra notes on the high E string. You’ll need a good stretch to reach the 15th fret. Notice that adding more pull-offs at a faster speed gives the sound like you’re tapping.

Example 3. Triplet lick

Utilising some tremolo picking and pull-off sequences, this next-level lick will make you sound like the pros. Take care with the rhythm though. Break the lick down and you’ll see how it’s phrased around three-note ‘triplets’.

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