
Sometimes slow and steady doesn’t win the race.
Advanced
Intermediate
• Develop a better sense of shred.
• Understand how to phrase in odd-numbered groups.
• Create blistering pentatonic lines in the style of Joe Bonamassa and Eric Johnson
Once you’ve integrated these licks into your playing, you’ll start combining them in new and fresh ways when improvising. Feel free to alter these licks anyway you want with hammer-ons, pull-offs, alternate picking, hybrid picking, or however else you feel comfortable.
Let’s go all the way back to 1968. Johnny Winter’s The Progressive Blues Experiment is one of my favorite blues records, and Johnny could really play a lot of notes for a blues player in the late ’60s. He’s a fingerstyle player, which I am not, so I’ll use a pick, but if you really want that Johnny Winter sound try playing these without a pick. His sound was also not too overdriven.
It's My Own Fault (2004 Digital Remaster)
Ex.1 works great over the I chord in a blues. It starts out with a flurry of fast bends—which sound a lot faster than they are—packed with the wildness of rock. It then goes into a repeating, syncopated pull-off figure where you keep jumping back to the G on the 12th fret of the 3rd string. Shifting the accent around was a staple in Johnny’s playing. In notation it looks more complicated than it is, so just follow your ears with this one. You can either try to play it rhythmically more on the grid or just somehow squeeze the figure into each beat.
Ex. 2 is in Bb and is played over a V–IV–I turnaround at the end of a 12-bar blues. It starts off with some tremolo picking going into the V chord and then another pull-off figure that keeps going over the IV chord before ending in a bend from Ab to Bb (the 5th of the IV chord) on the 2nd string. It ends with syncopated notes and double-stops over the I chord.
Another player that shredded the blues was the incredible Gary Moore. After his phase as one of the greatest hard rock players of the ’80s, he went back to his blues roots and infused it with his lightning-fast licks.
Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues (Live)
Ex. 3 is pretty much a blues/rock cliché lick but Moore would add some rhythm intricacies like the 16th-notes in the middle of a 32nd-note run. He would play this with a mix of alternate picking and legato, but you can try to hybrid pick the sections where he only plays one note per string. Otherwise, it’s a straightforward blues-rock lick. Don’t worry too much about playing it super clean, Gary wasn’t the cleanest with these kinds of licks either. It adds to the filthy attitude of these phrases. Ending it on the open 5th string and adding the open 3rd string (the b7 of A) makes it even filthier.
We stick with the key of A for Ex. 4, which is a lick that you can often find in Moore’s playing. It looks quite complicated rhythmically, which stems from the fact that a lot of Moore’s fast licks are basically sped-up versions from players he learned from. He would take these little figures and squeeze them into smaller sections. As with the first Johnny Winter lick, it’s more about getting a feel for the it and making sure to land the first note of a pattern on the beat. It sounds wild and frantic, especially ending it on the open 5th string when the progression moves back the I chord.
Our final Gary Moore lick is in 6/8 and works nicely over a V–IV progression in measures 9 and 10 of a 12-bar blues (Ex. 5). I used a similar pattern as Ex. 4, but moved it horizontally on one string instead of vertically through one pentatonic position.
Let’s check out some more contemporary players. The next two licks are from the incredible Josh Smith. They’re both pretty similar, and show how you can get in and out of an idea and vary the phrasing to get more bang for your buck. Both work over a D chord. They’re lengthier ideas that work great over a vamp.
Josh Smith - Multi Cam 4K - 2020-02-17 Boca Raton, Florida - The Funky Biscuit - Full Show
Ex. 6 starts slow with a little melodic fragment before going into an intervallic lick that mixes 32nd-notes, 16th-notes, a septuplet and 16th-note triplets. Practice each one individually before combining them to get a hang of it. It then goes into a fast 32nd-note run that ends with a syncopated screaming bend after scraping some random open strings. Pretty wild.
Ex. 7 starts lower on the neck and slides up to the same position as Ex. 6 where we go into a variation of the rhythmically irregular intervallic idea, this time a bit more straightforward. Instead of launching into another full-on shred attack, we end the idea by immediately jumping back up to the 1st string and playing a surprising short melodic phase.
Ex. 8 is one of Joe Bonamassa’s cascading pentatonic runs. It’s mostly straightforward 32nd-notes but uses sequences of five and seven to get that cascading sound of displaced accents. This works over the I chord of a D blues progression (major or minor) as well as any rock riff in D. It’s clearly inspired by Eric Johnson’s cascading pentatonic runs and a rather tough one, technically. Bonamassa pretty much picks every note in this phrase, which is quite hard due to the string skipping and the odd accents. But there’s no shame in using pull-offs, which sounds cool as well. Smooth pull-offs or aggressive picking: your choice. Ideally learn both and play it how the situation requires.
Kicking the speed up a notch can add excitement to your solos. But remember to use it with taste, not as a crutch. Break down these licks into more manageable pieces and work them up to face-melting speeds to prevent sloppiness. In the end, the better the context you place these licks in the better they will sound.
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Cort Essence-GA4 Demo - YouTube
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Adding a new model to their line of overdrives, Moth Electric has released the C. regalis. Equally suited for guitar and bass, the meticulously designed C.regalis is capable of massive boost, natural, singing overdrive, and searing mid-gain distortion. Its six op-amps power a dynamic, crunchy overdrive circuit with a suite of features including:
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OK WOW. Moth Electric C.REGALIS - Pedals and Tea EP 57 - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.Jack White's 2025 No Name Tour features live tracks from his album No Name, with shows across North America, Europe, the UK, and Japan.
The EP is a 5-song collection of live tracks taken from White’s 2024 edition of the tour, which was characterized by surprise shows in historic clubs around the world to support the 2024 album No Name.
No Name is available now via Third Man Records. The acclaimed collection was recently honored with a 2025 GRAMMY® Award nomination for “Best Rock Album” – White’s 34th solo career nomination and 46th overall along with 16 total GRAMMY® Award wins. The No Name Tour began, February 6, with a sold-out show at Toronto, ON’s HISTORY and then travels North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Japan through late May. For complete details and remaining ticket availability, please visit jackwhiteiii.com/tour-dates.
White’s sixth studio album, No Name officially arrived on Friday, August 2 following its clandestine white-label appearance at Third Man Records locations that saw customers slipped, guerilla-style, free unmarked vinyl copies in their shopping bags. True to his DIY roots, the record was recorded at White’s Third Man Studio throughout 2023 and 2024, pressed to vinyl at Third Man Pressing, and released by Third Man Records.
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JACK WHITE - NO NAME TOUR 2025
FEBRUARY
11 – Brooklyn, NY – Kings Theatre
12 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
17 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
18 – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
21 – Paris, France – La Cigale
22 – Paris, France – La Trianon
23 – Paris, France – La Trianon
25 – Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg (Ronda)
26 – Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg (Ronda)
28 – London, UK – Troxy
MARCH
1 – London, UK – Troxy
2 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy Birmingham
3 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland Ballroom
10 – Hiroshima, Japan – Blue Live Hiroshima
12 – Osaka, Japan – Gorilla Hall
13 – Nagoya, Japan – Diamond Hall
15 – Tokyo, Japan – Toyosu PIT
17 – Tokyo, Japan – Toyosu PIT
APRIL
3 – St. Louis, MO – The Factory
4 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
5 – Omaha, NE – Steelhouse Omaha
7 – Saint Paul, MN – Palace Theatre
8 – Saint Paul, MN – Palace Theatre
10 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed (Indoors)
11 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed (Indoors)
12 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Temple Theatre
13 – Detroit, MI – Masonic Temple Theatre
15 – Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe
16 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre
18 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
19 – Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
MAY
4 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater
5 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater
6 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
8 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
9 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
10 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Union Event Center
12 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
13 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
15 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
16 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
17 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
19 – Seattle, WA – The Paramount Theatre
20 – Seattle, WA – The Paramount Theatre
22 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
23 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
24 – Troutdale, OR – Edgefield Concerts on the Lawn
A dose of magic gain potion.
Works like a little vial of magic gain potion. Fattens without obscuring individual frequency bands.
None.
$129
Solodallas SVDS Boost
solodallas.com
The Schaeffer-Vega Diversity System—an early and very successful wireless system—excelled at the tasks it was designed for. But there was more magic than met the eye. Though designed to sound as transparent as possible, it nonetheless colored the signal in a way that people like Angus Young and Eddie Van Halen found essential.
SoloDallas explored the possibilities of this circuit before in pedals like theSchaeffer Replica, but the new SVDS Boost strips the formula to essentials. Minimalist controls—one knob, that’s it—make this boost no less delicious. I’m not surprised Angus Young was smitten with the original SVDS. An SG and Marshall 18-watt amp sound fantastic naked, but the SVDS Boost has the rare talent for fattening everything without seeming to favor or obscure any frequency band too much. And as zest to the PAF/Marshall style formula, it makes the kind of rowdy, organic, airy, large, and punch-packing Marshall sound you would dream of getting in a studio or hearing on the radio. There are many shades of this basic awesome color in spite of the single knob. Unity gain lives in the earliest third of its range. From there you certainly get more volume, but mostly you bathe in various hues of compressed, saturated, thick, and dynamite growl. You don’t need a Gibson and a Marshall to use it to devastating effect, either. A Telecaster and Vibrolux snap with attitude and whip-crack energy with the SVDS in the line. And with both guitar/amp combos, the SVDS’ wide dynamic responsiveness to volume and tone attenuation assures that things stay cracking when you need more control.