Phil hilBorne’s one-minute licK

Cell combination lick

This month’s lick contains three short melodic ideas or ‘cells’ that are moved in sequence down the neck. The lick will work great over Major or Dominant chords – here it’s played against D9. All the ‘cells’ are four notes long. The first ascends chromatically from the 3rd (F#) to the 5th (A); the second R-2-b3- is a bluesy approach of 3; and the final cell ascends from the 5th (A) to the root (D) – 5-6-7-1. These cells are repeated an octave lower and then cells 1 and 2 are played another octave lower before coming to rest on the root note. With practise and re-application, this idea can propagate many other interesting lines. So, experiment with these and other ‘cells’ in both ascending and descending directions. Have fun!