Rock-Blues Targeting Lick

The idea here is to target chord tones of an arpeggio; in this instance G major (G-B-D). Notice that the root (G) is always played straight and that the other two notes are always approached chromatically from a semitone below, thus creating typical bluesy 5 and 3 movements. The way these notes have been treated is important. There are two different ways; either as melodic notes played as even eighth notes or as ‘grace notes’ played quickly before the beat. Being able to interchange these two functions at will is a great asset and should be worked on when you develop your own ideas. I have given a suggested fingering but you can obviously modify this to suit; just take care that all the slides are played for the correct durations and it should be pretty straightforward to work through. Make sure you transpose it to other keys and also compose some similar ideas of your own using both the same and different chord types – and mix these ideas in with regular licks to avoid it all sounding too much like an exercise.