Jack here, jbf music and guitar lessons, back with some of Paul Gilbert’s musical goodness
for you!
In this signature guitar licks we’ve got five Paul Gilbert lead lines; in ascending
difficulty- but I mean it’s not exactly beginner stuff! Timestamps and chapters below
for each one- if you appreciate these video don’t forget to let me know with a like
and a comment. If you want stuff like this in your feed do the old subscribe and notification
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By the end if this you should have the makings of 4 great licks and hopefully some inspiration
for new ideas of your own! These licks are manly focused on his picking and legato, so
hopefully by the end of this video you’ll have new licks, an insight in to some of Paul’s
habits, techniques and ideas. Tabs are up on my patreon.com/jbfmusic .Let’s just crack
on eh?
Kicking off with a C minor lick from Scarified, tone bend with
some vibrato- more on keeping that controlled with the I card up there. Probably using a
the edge of the pick, rather than flat picking to get that cutting aggressive tone on these
four notes, using pull offs. On to the B string, pick the first two notes, then legato the
rest on the b string, picking again on the G. Triplets in the next bar, hitting the b
string, then hammer twice; same idea on the e string. As a bonus tip, this pattern, or
perhaps more aptly this rhythm, is all over Paul’s playing, for example we can move
it up through the scale, starting on G- this 3rd fret on the high e string.
And we get a new, very Paul Gilbert sounding lick. And a bit slower. While close to his
iconic pattern, this isn’t quite it; I have however covered that before, which you can
check out with the I up there.
Alright, this is from one of his improvised solos, from a Mr Big show in Japan, this is
in E major, or C# minor. Picking up in the last beat of that 1st bar, the first half
goes . So, b string, trill on the e, back to the b. starting on that 16th fret on the
high e string. Again picking the first two notes, then legato. Followed by a position
shift to the 17th fret- this is a wee bit tricky, because we’re starting the next
phrase slightly ahead of the main beat. But provided you just chunk it in to those 4 sections,
as shown by that overlay, it should be fairly intuitive. If you’re legato feels a bit
weak, or stiff try out some of the tips with the I up there.
But yeah, we just take this same melodic idea up through the scale
ending on a tone bend with some vibrato. While being a pretty tonally flexible lick, because
we target a C# as the last note, it will work bets over that chord; or indeed any chord
from E major with a C sharp in it. I suppose We’re really out lining an: E major, F#
minor, G# minor, A- if I stick a drone in the background you can probably hear it.
Back to Racer X’s album Second Heat and Sunlit nights- if you’ve never given that
album a listen, it’s well worth a look. Paul gilbert and Bruce Boulette- sorry neve
sure how to pronounce his name! Totally slay all the solos, some great harmonized runs
and insane string skipping as well! Anyway, my fan-boying aside. This is a C Lydian lick,
I think this first note is here; play at your own discretion. We have some economy picking,
which while rare for him these days, popped up a fair bit back in the 80s or possibly
even early 90s as well.
So a sweep tap; going down through the G, B and E string, hammer on, tap, pull off to
that note you just hammered. Another pull off an here we go in to septuplets; more on
tackling that rhythm with the I card up there. In a nutshell any 7 syllable word will help
internalise this kind of poly rhythm. Sliding down from the 14th to the 12th fret, legato
the remaining notes. So while these phrases overlap, starting on the b strings 15th fret,
we have this
Picking the first 3 notes, then pulling off. Rolling the 1st finger on to the g string’s
12th fret, sliding down a semi tone, then hammering on or pulling off the subsequent
notes. Wrapping it up by picking these 4 notes, hammer, pull off, pull off, slide down, hammer,
pull off. A mini upward sweep across the B and G string, pull off, slide, resolving to
that 10th fret.
Ok, to gloss over it, we start off outlining a D major arpeggio; 5th, root, 3rd, root.
Then it’s in to C Lydian; starting on it’s 3rd, going through the scale and resolving
to the 5th. The last bar pick up on C- the root, then 3rd, #4th the money note for Lydian,
then going down the scale, resolving to the Root. I’m being a bit sparse on the theory
here because modal licks at this speed are maybe more about an overall contour; starting
and ending on target notes; than each note being meticulously chosen.
Ok, from Paul gilbert’s terrifying guitar trip; which I just prefer to technical difficulties,
although they’re basically the same song! This E minor lick includes a real staple of
Paul’s playing. Namey this pattern Sadly as far as I know there isn’t any clever
trick, or workaround; is just a case of getting comfortable either changing strings on the
outside; if you start on a down like me; or the inside if you opt to start on an up stroke.
The picking pattern in the video; with the little I, is the best an simplest exercise
I’ve come across for working on this very problem. Having said that, some light to heavy
palm muting- depending on your preference can really help keep this kind of thing clean.
The next part, some of you may already recognise from my Paul gilbert’s terrifying triplet
technique video- shout out to the lick squad elite- you guys rock! But aye, we want to
hammer the notes on the D string; so pick, hammer, hammer; use that time to hop voer
the string and pick the notes on the g string. We then have a semi tone bend, tone bend,
another tone bend, release, pull off and down to that 14th fret. Here Paul pull the strings
down for the bend; I’d recommend doing them that way to make things the tiniest bit easier!
Again, glossing over the theory, we start on B- es 5th and that not we keep hitting
on the G string? You probably guessed it; an E. The bends in the next bar are g, a,b;
so b3rd, 4th, 5th, then down to the Root. So you can see the usual suspects; root, 3rd
5ththe chord tone really help cement the lick’s tonality.
Alright! If you’re still with me give me a “aaargh my blistered fingers!!!” in
the comments, haha! Anyway this lick builds on that pattern from the last example, because
it’s such a big part of Pauls shred improvisation. Here we take it up the scale and we’re in
F major or it’s relative d minor this time, taken from another live improvised clip.
We pick every note here; using that pattern we just looked at. Then starting from this
2nd fret on the D string, we take this 6 note picking pattern And just take it up
the scale; moving it to the 3rd, 5th and 7th frets respectively.
At the 9th fret we have a bit of a change, going up a 3 note per string scale shape,
until that 10th fret on the high e string.
Then wrapping it up with this bit of picking in the final bar. Final bonus lick! This touches
on a pattern Paul seems to favour, so; picking every note it goes like this and a bit slower.
If you enjoyed this and want more Paul Gilbert licks and trick, check out that video. This
has been signature guitar licks, that’s the playlist there. But yeah, hit subscribe
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cheers guys!