Common guitar riffs and licks - the "building blocks of rock"
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- Опубликовано: 8 июн 2024
- The most common riffs and licks in classic rock are found in more than one song, just like chords. And like chords, they can be shown as simple shapes.
If you're tired of just strumming chords and practicing scales, take the next step, by learning a few of these basic riffs and licks. This video will show you how to use my free web app for guitarists, "The Building Blocks of Rock", a visual library of hundreds of the most common riff, lick, and chord shapes. I'll also talk about how we learned these things back in the old days (the early 1970's), before computers, videos, even tab.
You can find the app here:
guitarviz.com/bbr.html
It's not an app like you download from the Apple app store or Android Play. It's just a web page, so all you have to do is open it.
Please leave comments or questions!
cheers, Kevin
0:00 intro
1:22 riff and lick examples
2:51 learning guitar in the 1970s
4:15 problem: learning common riffs and licks
5:05 solution: build an app
7:04 riffs, and how to use the app
10:08 chords
12:51 music theory
14:12 licks
18:03 scales
18:50 coda and more info
'It's free, it's just a web page, you don't need to sign up for anything. Its a labour of love I've been work on for many years.' Instant subscribe, you're the man.
Agreed. I’ve been playing for only 44 years but I’m really looking forward to heading to the website when I get home. I am always learning, I only came across triads as a formalised concept a few years ago. Yes. I’ve been using them forever but having it laid out as a concept refreshed my writing and playing when I was definitely getting stale. I’m hoping this approach will too. And yes, I also know people are trying to make a buck but it’s incredibly refreshing to not have to at least hand over my precious data to get something I may only look at once. I hope YT sees fit to reward this chap, at least.
TRULY, HE IS THE GENTLEMAN....
Yep
This man loves Rock N Roll. He's helping Zoomers not play that Math rock shit
The fact that your doing all of this for free is a testament of the kindness of the older generation. A true musical veteran.
the long suffering daughter is very proud!!! ❤️
Awww.... :)
His approach I think, is the camera angle on the neck and explanation. Monkey see, monkey do... and it's brilliant!
After watching "do this to improve your soloing", "do that to become faster", "this scale is all you need" for years, this video is what I was looking for, waiting for, longing for.
Thank you very much!
Man I'm a programmer and there's just something so heartwarming about someone passionate making a cool web page about something they love, I can tell gathering and putting together all that info took a ton of time, kudos to you. Really informative video too, and I love the insights beyond just the strictly technical stuff. Rock on man.
This is what the real school of rock looks like, Thanks good content.
I can't believe you give it to us for free. A saint
I will do everything I can to make your name be remembered as long as guitat exists. That's how much i'm grateful for your work
I starting guitar at 52 and been playing everyday for two year. Needless to say, there's a lot of ground to make up. Your web app is a massive game changer for me. I just wanted to pass along a sincere thank you for sharing your years of knowledge with this old guy.
from one old guy to another! lol
I'm 52 now and just beginning myself... to say this endeavor can be overwhelming would be an understatement! But... this looks doable!
I’m 57 … started at 25 … played on and off …. I always reach for an acoustic guitar and try to play 10-15 minutes a day . best advice I ever got was , to trust that lights will come on as you progress…. shapes of chords will connect and trust that there are only 12 notes and they repeat up and down a string and across the neck … for some people like me and brian may and mark knoepler lol , we look at the intervals as a little math !! …. I base it from C where there are no sharps or flats , then in other keys you will see how the tone tone semi tone , tone tone tone semi tone … start to make sense….and sharps and flats are simply just like a measurement on a tape measure for example …. I used to be so intimidated by theory and now I just visualize shapes and chords and practice .
My uncle started Banjo at about the same age and one thing he said that stuck with me was:
"Old people think they can't learn new things as we get older but they forget we have the time experience, we just lost the kids in us that makes new things exciting to learn. Never lose the kid in ya."
Or something like that lol.
Awesome! Thanks man!!
You have filled a void in the guitar teaching community. Many teach but very few actually show how to incorporate what you see and learn into proper licks and riffs. Most people have to try and figure that out. Subscribed. Thanks
Wow dude, so glad I came across this, doing this and putting it out for free, makes you a real guitar legend in my book, thanks man!
Gained more knowledge from this video in 10 minutes than I have in the last ten years 🙏🏻
WTF?!? Holy mother of Rock n'Roll, you are unbelievable! A biggest thank you from your 100th subscriber!
This is just what I needed to start connecting some guitar concepts that I've been stuck on
haha, thanks JAKE(bot)!
I’m a guitar teacher myself. This has to be of the greatest resources ever created. Definitely going to be sharing with my students!
You are a saint among men, thank you.
You can say that this video is made with heart.
Youre so cool for doing this for free! I love that. I know not everyone can do these things for free but I really think that type of labour of love is what the internet is all about.
Absolute legend, this may finally be what takes me out of my "campfire guitarist" phase. I feel like you covered everything ive ever wanted to know but felt like nobody would tell me!
LOVED the camera position! Finally someone understood!
thanks! yeah there's a few other YT channels showing this viewpoint, but for whatever reason they don't seem to have gotten much traction. But yeah, its kinda hard watching a guitarist and having to flip it around in your mind, especially if you're trying to relate it to an underlying shape or chord.
I'm gratefull God gave us You! You're the best I was looking for some licks to learn... And here I am! Rock on🤘 and hope you get the views you deserve.
Hey Kevin 👋😺
Thanks for the free tutorial, too many people try to force a data harvesting app on the unknowing majority.
I appreciate you giving us a website that I can view in incognito mode with cookies disabled and adblockers enabled.
Takes a kind-hearted, passionate person like you to pass on this knowledge for free, thankyou very much. Music is life ❤
Just wanted to say here that what you have achieved here is fantastic, and hands down the most valuable tool I've found online whilst being completely free. I have notebooks full of scale, chord and mode fretboard diagrams I've drawn and coloured by hand from formula derivation, but riffs and licks, as you say, is the vocabulary picked up usually from watching others play. So a massive thankyou from me, plus a congratulations on being the first I've seen to create a riff typography like a musical archaeology doctorate. If you ever set up a tip-jar or anything like that, I'd love to buy you at least a coffee or a beer! All the best!
"musical archeology", I like that :) Sometimes it feels like an archeologist when trying to dig down through layered guitar parts and figuring out what exactly they were playing
@@theBuildingBlocksOfRock My girlfriend is an archaeologist and was as excited to see this as I was, because you've captured that idea of things having a shared genealogy but no terms as such for them...and set to work on grouping or differentiating them by going through 'historical records', and yes, digging down into it to create a typology....much like the Oakeshott Typology for historic swords for example. Please note it is not a comment about age or music being out of date, very much complimentary and not insulting. Again, thankyou so much, absolutely wonderful, have already been using it today to learn things myself as well as teach a new guitar player.
interesting, I was trying to think of other genres where things have no name but there are definite relationships between them. I have a new appreciation for the word "typeology"! (never knew what it meant until you mentioned it, looked it up just now :)
It's been 6 minutes and I stopped the video to say:
This information was what I always wanted to learn about 20 years ago, when I began to immerse myself in the songs of the Rolling Stones and their intertwined guitars. I was fascinated by the work of rhythm guitars.
THANK YOU!
If I could have one rock and roll wish granted to me it would be access to the original multitrack recording of Jumpin' Jack Flash, to be able to listen to all those different guitar parts. Fascinating!
Omg on 2nd watch this is exactly how we did it growing up! I was born 75'. I know you're giving this away, but you should charge something small like $5 for the app before this blows up. Because it will. Anyone who knows about this stuff will spread the word and share. $5 is affordable and reasonable. You deserve something for all this hard work putting this together. What a gem this is!!! Consider a few bucks for the app... You deserve it! I think of all the people who shell out a few hundred for a guitar course that's confusing. This is how to do it! Learn some stuff and let the theory makes sense as you learn more. I can't praise this system enough!
Man, you should put a "sort by player" option, then we could learn the vocabulary of an specific player! This is truly gold.
huge idea
i hear you :) a search function, also being able to hear audio examples, look like they're the most requested features
It's not often these days that youtube will recommend me a video from a small channel I've never heard of before. But thankfully it recommended your video! Great idea, the 'blind spot' riffs/licks have in our guitar vocabulary is something I've definitely I've felt, almost on the tip of my tongue, but never really articulated as it just seemed the natural way of things. You've done a great job articulating it and I will certainly be checking out the app and subscribing to your channell!
Ive never seen playing riffs over chord changes explained in such a concise manner: (9:44). And with context no less.This is how guitar parts are recored in studio, baby chords, triads, etc. Welcome to youtube!
Great material, great teaching style, great editing, great diagrams, great examples, great script/talking, great pacing, great playing. Amazing video!
Kevin's simple web app is undoubtedly the finest guitar-playing resource available. I'm confident in declaring this because Kevin truly understands that all music consists of common, boilerplate elements with sprinkles of uniqueness. Not only does Kevin name and categorize these boilerplate components, but he also provides references to songs that incorporate them. You're the man Kevin!
Thanks! The app is a constant work in progress, with several limitations (ex: can't display > 5 frets), housed in a primitive web page, populated with licks and riffs that are just my subjective take on things. But I'm glad you like it!
I'm a new player over 50. This is great! Stuck on chords and a few easy scales. Played around with the app for about 10 minutes so far and got a compliment from my 15 year old on how "cool" I sound. Thank you for putting in this effort!
Same..now to apply!
:)
Been looking for this kind of thing forever, as someone who is self taught I always felt like I was missing crucial foundational stuff
You're the best. Thanks for sharing this with us! This is huge! This is easily one of, if not the most musicaly important and comprehensive guitar lessons I've ever seen on the internet and from any guitar player.
This is an excellent lesson. It's like you time travelled from the 70s to teach hands on guitar in 2024. Subscribed and liked. The old school way of learning music by watching and the ear. Thank you so much!!!
haha, thanks! dinosaur time travelling :)
Thx!! Stuck 62 yr old..played as young man along with drums and kept playing drums until arthritis introduced itself to me.. now back to guitar. TYGB!!
Ive been looking for something exactly like this for so long! Thank god for the internet letting young bucks like me get to hear wisdom from the masters !
I wish I could hang out with you for 6 months.
You are an incredible wealth of knowledge and information.
You make everything seem so easy.
You're a genius. What a great method to learn!
The teacher that I needed in my whole life. ❤
21 and learning guitar since I was about 16; this is the best guitar lesson I’ve ever seen for free in ages, kudos to you dude rock on
I'm blown away. No one else on RUclips has phrased guitar learning this way. The learning grammar before words thing really blew me away. Also, your app is looks to be an awesome tool for learning. Thank you for your generosity in giving this to us for free, very grateful for it. Subscribed!
Мать моя женщина
Да это ж реально сокровище для гитариста! Без преувеличения! Дед играет на гитаре пятьдесят лет, коллекционирует опыт и компилирует всё это в подробнейший интерактивный справочник и видео объяснение. "Это у вас в браузере, это бесплатно, никуда не надо регистрироваться" - what a genuine chad
This is a fantastic piece of work. What an effort. Should be one of the greatest guitar learning tools available. Well done, sir!
The concept of making everything more visual for guitar students is something important to me, so thanks for making this!
this is the most usefull video i have ever watched after learning some music theory
Great resource, this is what the internet (should be) all about. Thank you!
Extremely innovative and organized. I love this. I’m not a beginner anymore but this is a beginners dream!
This is a brilliant little lesson!
I would've loved to have more videos demonstrating small licks and embellishments like this growing up, I wouldn't learn most of those licks until I was already 2 or 3 years into playing.
This gave me more insight on how to be a better guitarist in twenty minutes than the ten years of noodling before that. Thanks a ton, and please keep creating new content!!! It’s all super useful!
When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Thank you friend this is just what I needed!
Wow, what a wonderful contribution you have made to guitar players everywhere. Many thanks!
You are a truly good man for sharing this with us purely for the joy of helping others. The world is a better place for people like you. Thank you sir!
This man is an international treasure
Hey Kevin, what an amazing surprise to find your channel, I like and share your point of view, and I already know a lot of theory, but I like to make music, learn vocabulary and songs, I think it is the best way.
I think your channel will grown up to the moon, best wishes, I will follow very interested.
I can see you have a huge acknolegment in music and you did a huge work to classify/find all these material in songs, chords, voicings, riffs, scales.... I am very impressed!
Congratulations and thank you very much for sharing Kevin!
(sorry for my english, I am from south of Spain)
¡muchimas gracias, rafa_guitar! (un poco tarde, dispensame :)
Man, this is what I've been hoping to find for years! I've been playing for a long time now but there are so many basic licks I still don't know how to play. (And was too lazy to figure out by myself.)
This is gold man! Your work of love is much appreciated and will be by many! I can't imagine how much of your time went into this. I am sincerely grayeful. To your wife also, for sharing her husbands time and attention with a bunch of guitar geeks from around the world. I feel inspired already, and I haven't opened the app yet!
You are putting in so much effort to help everyone else... and its working!! thank you!!!
Great way of teaching. I have about 20 beginner guitar students and I'm always looking for resources.
I've been playing for 2 years and this is what i have been looking for since the beginning.Thank you!
The algorithm is smiling on this video, you deserve it because this is awesome
Brother... I Love your App!
I just found your channel, and I wish it could've been possible to see this 20 years ago. You laid out exactly how I learned guitar. I'm actually still learning, but I started at like 16, way back in 1993 or something. I progressed very slowly, as I didn't practice every day, plus I was alone in it. I sat with friends every once in a while. I put the guitar away when I had kids - around 2001, which gave me about 7 years of kinda playing. Fast forward to 2018, and I picked it up again. I remembered pretty much everything from before, but I sucked at implementing it. This time, I practiced every day, and the last 7 years I learned a whole lot more than I did the first 7 years, thanks to RUclips! But, if I had your App, I would've probably cut most of that time. For me, this is the most intuitive way to learn how to find a voice on the guitar by learning how to combine chords with scales and modes...
"The Building Blocks of Rock!"
Thank you, Kevin!
This is revolutionary. Simple as that. It's an educational revolution. Congratulations on the work of your life!
From a player who grew up learning like this in the late 80s early 90s then got a jazz diploma in 99, I have to say... This might be the best RUclips video I've ever seen for beginners and intermediates. Modes are so unnecessary for intermediate or even pros if you know the scale of the key and how see the current chord shape over it to know which chord tone you're targeting. I say the same thing to my friends. You don't have to learn the whole neck for a long time. Learn the main two rock penta positions and a ton of songs. I taught very briefly and all I did was say "What song do you want to learn?" Then Id learn it and show them! That's why they're really there right? This whole idea is incredible. Great job!!!! The Stones riff. The Clapton box( I use this for the penta with the root on the G string b3rd and 4 the on B string, 5th and b7 on high E)... The BB Box. Chuck Berry lick... We had names for everything. Our own language. It's ear training by example!!!
"Learn the two main rock penta positions and a ton of songs" -- exactly!
What a cool concept! I appreciate all your hard work to create such a useful resource for learning guitar!
That chart you have at 6:45 was exactly the route I used to learn a lot of my acoustic guitar. I wish I had this app's information while I was doing it - its laid out SO well.
This is really something you got here, it makes so much sense to use and explore. Thank you for making this. I'm going to go and explore as much as I can.
OMG!
This mic positioning is genius!
This is so cool. I can tell it's taken a lot of love and labor to make this app. And the fact that you're offering it for free is just over the top cool. I'd gladly have paid for this back in the day. Heck, I'd pay of now! I'm showing this to everybody!
Absolutely love this and your app! As a programmer and guitar player I am 100% loving this!
that chord you play around with around 12:30 is also used as a moveable shape in “high and dry” by radiohead!
this video seriously helped me find a new direction for getting better at songwriting, and i’ve been playing for ~16 years at this point. hella good video dude
Nice, thanks! Just added that Radiohead example to the chord in the app (to see it, go to E/chords in fixed position, then just hit the back button, it's the last chord shape in that category)
Incredible work! Pls keep it up, your knowledge will be extremely useful for the new generation of guitarists and musician
This is the single best resource for guitar i've seen in a while. An app, simple tutorial- and its free! Thank you so much.
THIS!!! This is what I have been looking for.🥰
The boomer rock/dad rock sage.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
had to pause the video halfway through because one of the riffs you showed off inspired me to write something. wonderful thing you've made here
Man this is such a refreshing take on guitar learning.
Probably the best guitar video i have seen in years.
No BS approach, this is extremely cool
So many years in YT and your video is the first one that I've seen for those who wanna play guitar for real.
Absolutely brilliant. Easy to see that this has occupied you for many many months. Thanks so much for your efforts.
It's amazing your software is free and doesn't harvest our data. You're the man!
I’ve been playing for a few years, i know my chords, scales, fun riffs and common licks and patterns. I can learn most marty schwartz tutorials in 10 seconds and i can learn things by ear. But getting past that is so difficult, as like you mentioned, licks and little riffs have no real names. I feel like i’ve been stuck for months not knowing what to learn… (i’ve been hearing the term intermediate plateau a lot). This webpage is exactly what i need to get further, thank you so much for your work! The visualizations are perfect, not exactly what to play but just patterns you can work with in all keys. I love it!
yeah, I think a lot of players learn chords, scales, but then unsure where to go next. The "intermediate plateau" like you say. Thanks!
INCREDIBLE APP! Thank you so much for this in-depth explanation
The thing of seeing music theory behind every lick/riff/chord is cool af
You are the kind of man that deserves to go down in guitar history I will spread this to all my guitar buddies
So happy i found this channel. Really fantastic take on riffs and licks and the web app is great! Thanks a ton for makng the guitar jouney for so many others so much easier than you had it
Hello, old guitarist here. Please keep it up. Your lessons are very valuable. Actually I am a very trained classical pianist, but also play guitar and have for years.
Thank you, you're very kind for offering this service for free, especially as a hands on/visual learner
This is so awesome!!! Thank you so much for making this free and so well thought out! So excited to try it
Kudos 👏🏻
I appreciate your efforts Sir, thank you very much❤
This is fantastic. Thanks for building this. Thanks for being so generous!
Subscribed. Instantly. With no exaggeration, you're doing the work of god here.
This is very well informed and presented in a way that’s going to help,so many up and coming guitarists. Thanks for your services.
I recognize all those licks, and have played most of them. I'm not really a newbie, been on and off guitar for more than 25 years. Your vid is very informative. Definitely wished I had vids like these when I was learning and was younger. So easy to learn songs nowadays compared to older times where you had to learn by ear, or by a song book or watching how it's played.
You are awesome! A great teacher, instructor. You put everything together beautifully. BRAVO 👏 👏 👏!!!
This is an excellent approach to rock guitar. I've been playing for 20 years, and this would've saved me a lot of time!
At first, I thought I have to purchase the app or subscribe with expensive price. 😂
Once I clicked on the link and I just gave a 90 degree bow and salute to this guitar hero❤
You save the world
Man, this is a really effective way of teaching. Thank you for making this available.
Only 30 seconds into the video, and, I am familiar with all these licks, and have thought for a long time it should be documented and organized instead of painstakingly having to go hunt for them in tons of recordings and compiling the data by yourself. I really appreciate you did the work !
You just blew me away. I have been playing for 38 years. I play beautifully. But only if I know the song note for note. If I get lost, well, then I'm lost. You just answered the question I have always had, which is why can't I play in a band, or follow along if I F&** up. Now I know why. Because I'm not playing, I'm mimicking. When you said that chords and scales are grammar, licks and riffs are words, it made so much sense to me. I think now I get it.
Your video covered a lot. I didn't absorb it all. But you have sparked something in this old guitarist. Thank you.
Even after 55 years of guitar, I've never liked the terms,"riffs or licks." Never knew why either..Thanks for erasing those terms off the chalkboard 🎵🎶🎵🎹🎸🎷🎸
Amazing man your helping so many guitarist with this project
This is a holy grail for guitar playing, thank you so so much!!!
You nailed it. Not only what to do but the repeated licks in many rock songs. When you start playing this would have been so helpful. Took me years to figure it out.
You made my day, what a guy. Legend!