Neo Soul Licks. . . Just The Tip

In this new episode, Chris goes over some common Neo Soul licks and variations based on triad inversions, as well as 3 note 7th chord voicings.

In case you are unfamiliar, think of guitar playing in Hip Hop, Neo Soul, R&B.  It is very similar to Hendrix's approach to rhythm guitar, i.e. playing a piece of a chord and hammering-on/pulling-off other available tensions or chord tones.

There is more to it than that.  However, conceptualizing in this way will get you very, very far along your way to playing saucey and soulful rhythm guitar.  Considering most live performance situations are 80% rhythm playing (unless you're Steve Vai), it is a massively useful lesson.

In Ex.1 play a 1st inversion Em triad (easily related to a 6th string root E Minor barre chord).  

High E String:  hammer on b3 or 9

B String:  hammer on b7 

G string:  hammer scale degree 4 or tension 11 

In Ex. 2 visualize a 5th string root E Minor, or E Minor 7 chord.  

High E:  Hammer on b7 

 B String  Hammer on 4 or 11 (same note +/- and Octave)

G String:  Remove the Root and replace it with b7 (whole step below).  Hammer on the Root

Ex. 3 Looks like a Dm chord in the Farmers Corner, which is actually a Dm/A 2nd inversion triad. In this case, we slide the same shape up the neck, to Em.

 High E String:  Hammer on the 5th 

B string:  Hammer on tension 9

G string:  Hammer on b7