Week 17 – Lick-O-Matic

[ALAG]

The Lick-O-Matic is very hard for me. My ear training is a work in progress to say the least. I can see Lick-O-Matic will take a very long time for me to master. Do I have to be able to recreate each lick by ear before moving on to next week’s lesson?

What would be good benchmarks for me to strive for?

Does anyone have suggestions how to practice Lick-O-Matic?

[Shroud1969]

Not sure Lick-O-Matic is meant to be “mastered.” LOM is still in my review list but I’ve moved on. My approach – I leave a number of tabs open from previous lessons in GP for review – when I can play it 3-5x perfectly(ish), I close the tab.

FWIW – I basically paused here and practiced LOM for about 2-3 weeks. I had the licks down in a couple of days but I wanted to internalize them a bit more and lock-down some earlier material and techniques. Particularly “AC/DC Thing” (that walk-up to B -grr) and vibrato.

The other reasons is that the 4 note “solo” was a significant breakthrough for me – and I wanted to rest in it for a bit. When I improvised before – it always sounded scalar. Just by limiting my options to 4 notes – my improvisation sounded MUCH better. Odd that.

For LOM – I would play them twice through with Guitar Pro – once following the tab and once just ear training. Then I would put on a backing track (just YouTube – “Blues Backing Track in A” (or whatever key – it’s moveable) – and mix and match all the licks (and variations). Practicing bends and vibrato (which I still suck at but getting better). Doesn’t take that long – maybe 15 minutes.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Shroud1969.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Shroud1969.

[superblonde]

Yes it is really hard depending on how good your ears are. Mine were pretty bad, I think I only got through the first 4 or 5 within a week. I purposely didn’t repeat that lesson many times because I didn’t want to accidentally memorize the right answers. For me the lesson taught me that I need to try playing by ear much more than “playing by numbers” (of the tab). I revisited LickOMatic after going thru Easy Modes (where I focused much much more on learning Sarah’s solos by ear, rather than reading the tab) and I was much better at LickOMatic after having gone through those multiple solos, I got thru all licks except the last 4, I believe. So to me, LickOMatic is a continual process, and a lesson taught by attempting it, not really something to expect to complete in 1 week.

I also agree that LickOMatic taught me to improvise & write solos better thru reenforcing that 4-or-5-note-lead concept.

So, as to “how to practice LickOMatic” I would say, practice the skill all the time by first trying to learn all new subsequent lessons by ear, at least the first few times you see Doug do a playthru. Just the regular attempt of doing that, is actually practicing the skills LickOMatic taught. Then every so often, after you’ve forgotten LickOMatic’s licks (2 mos or whatever), go back and try LickOMatic just one single time, and make note how many licks were correct, and the number of correct ones should grow over time (after another try 1-2 mos later, etc).

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[rorygfan]

This exercise imo is great and should be a long term project.

I watched it and the way I look at it is to be able to hear intervals and relate them to sections of existing songs from artists you like in your “mental library”. Think about a specific song and categorize the lick in your head. This takes time depending upon how many songs you have learned or know by ear or have played. Also if you have learned or transcribed guitar parts into tab on your own. Repeating them continually will translate the idea from your head to your fingers to become second nature.

[ALAG]

Thanks All! I think I will continue the Lick-O-Matic drill on a continual basis. I will work on blocks at a time. The first few don’t seem too hard. The last 2 are very difficult.

[superblonde]

Yeah I think I slowed the GP tempo way down too and still was ridiculously hard, lol. But it was fun trying, more like a videogame challenge, than an exercise drill.

Speaking of games there is a lot of new research on the emerging science of gamification for various learning activities and LickOMatic is a good example of gamifying guitar and music practice.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[Shroud1969]

This probably needs another thread! I have used and played a lot of Rocksmith and Yousician. They are both tons of fun.

My only issue with gamification of guitar is that I can’t remember much of what I did outside the game. So if I play say “Blitzkrieg Bop” and I nail it 100% (which I did) – I can’t remember a lick of it outside Rocksmith.

Just my experience. I can see it as a great way of passively improving your technique while keeping it interesting!

[superblonde]

Speaking of LickOMatic, I pulled up some of my recent favorite blues rock vids and tried finding some of the licks by ear (just a couple notes..! nothing too crazy) and was surprised to make much faster progress at it than before. So here is the example, try the first few licks from this video. It reminds me that trying to play along with blues jam videos are maybe the best place to practice the skills learned from LickOMatic.

Use the youtube “slowdown” feature (right click while video is playing) to go down to 0.5x speed or slower if needed, and give the first few licks a try – without watching the screen. Hint.. old school blues licks are most often Open Position..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s42ewyu4C_8
“Money to Burn” Samantha Fish Live 2/6/16 Sold Out Show at Callahan’s

Fun stuff! But after not playing guitar for many months and jamming for hours late last night, and trying to bend strings near the nut, my fingers are raaaw to the bone. 🥵

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[Doug Marks]

Yes, don’t get caught up in trying to be perfect. Return to this exercise often. Over time you should notice massive improvement.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

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