Simple & Fast Guitar Licks To Give Your Solos Lightning Speed With Little Effort
Gaining speed on guitar and becoming a killer shred player takes time. Regardless of your current playing level, you are already able to play tons of simple, fast guitar licks that are sure to impress your friends and sound awesome. These licks are based on the concept of “getting a lot from a little”.
Not only do these kinds of guitar licks sound cool, but they are a great transition to help you build better technique and play more advanced patterns.
Use these simple but fast guitar licks to quickly add tons of speed into any solo:
Guitar Lick Idea #1: Make Your Guitar Solos Sound Melodic & Fast With 2 String Sweep Picking Arpeggios
Playing cool sweep picking ideas don’t have to be about big, 6 string patterns or complex arpeggios with multiple notes on some strings… You can get TONS of musical expression out of just three notes using fast arpeggio licks.
Here is a cool guitar lick that sounds great and can be played pretty easily whether you are new to sweep picking or not:
This simple and fast guitar lick doesn’t require advanced technique and still achieves a cool sound using 2-string major and minor arpeggios.
You get a ton of musical expression from these basic patterns by creating basic variations using different note rhythms.
For example: Try playing the first arpeggio using its own, unique rhythm. Then play the second using a unique rhythm, and the third arpeggio using the same as the first and the fourth using its own unique rhythm.
This gives the lick a sense of structure, so you practice improving your technique while also learning to make the arpeggios sound musically expressive.
Guitar Lick Idea #2: Easily Add A Virtuoso Sound To Your Guitar Solos Using Short Tapping Licks
One of the most flashy and complex-sounding guitar techniques is two hand tapping. Many guitarists first heard tapping through players like Eddie Van Halen or in songs like Metallica’s cover of “Am I Evil?”.
Despite sounding difficult, basic tapping licks are also easy and fun to play. Using simple and fast guitar licks with tapping makes your solos sound amazing with little effort.
A great way to start with this is using basic open string licks.
For example: The short tapping lick below uses open strings and tapping to easily add tons of speed into your playing.
This simple guitar lick doesn’t take long to master and gives you the ability to play something fast and impressive without developing your skills for many years.
Guitar Lick Idea #3: Play Catchy & Fast Guitar Licks By Borrowing From The Neo-Classical Style
A great way to give your guitar playing style more depth is to add a neo-classical flair to it. You heard this in the tapping lick above, but there are many more ways to achieve this sound. One simple way is to use “pedal point” licks. Pedal point refers to continually returning to a specific note while playing other notes in between.
Playing this guitar lick quickly adds a neo-classical flair into your playing:
This concept of “pedal points” is easily applied into regular guitar playing as well (besides neo-classical). Practice playing in this manner with scales and licks to give your soloing a creative and interesting sound.
Guitar Lick Idea #4: Learn How To Make Your Own Guitar Licks By Integrating Different Ideas Together
The best way to improve your guitar licks is to practice creatively combining different ideas together. This helps you use your skills in a musical way and develop the ability to think faster while improvising.
Here is an example of all 3 ideas being integrating together:
Start combining them together on your own by think of a short guitar lick that uses just one of the 3 ideas.
Then add a few notes to your lick that use one of the other ideas. For example: A short sweep picking lick that uses pedal point as seen in the first two measures of the lick above.
Mix and match these 3 ideas to create tons of simple, fun guitar licks that sound impressive and are easy to play.
Learn more ways to create killer guitar licks while playing with speed by checking out these free guitar playing resources.