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April 2008 · Bimonthly
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A Collection of 20 Cool Licksby Bob Altschuler My first article in Banjo Sessions in April 2007 was "Adding Exciting Fill-In and Tag Licks To Your Playing." I wrote about where to find and how to use these licks and how they can spice up your playing. The article had 14 sample one-measure G licks, and showed how to plug them into measures of "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms." Fill-in and tag licks are great for improvisation and give variation and character to your music. You can use them as modular units to plug into breaks and backup and to emphasize parts of a song. They can be substitutes for parts of the melody and fill chord space during pauses in vocals or melody. You may want to refer back to the April 2007 article to read (and hear) more about these licks. Here are 20 more G based fill-in and tag licks you can take to jams, festivals or just enjoy playing in your living room. I collected the licks from tab, CDs and live performances (I also made some of them up). Choose ones you like and put them into your breaks and backup. The licks can be played as one-measure phrases or combined into two or more measures. In fact, you can create entire breaks for certain songs (depending on the chord progression) by stringing the licks together. Some of the licks can be used as a transition from G to C and are marked "leads to C." All of the licks have at least one slide and/or pull-off, and some have a hammer-on. You may want to refer back to the August and October Banjo Sessions articles "Essential Left Hand Techniques Parts 1 and 2" for more information about these techniques. A few of the licks are at the beginner level, but most are intermediate and above. Try them out, listen to the MP3 and then play each one slowly until you get up to speed (for whatever song you will put them into). A good way to start is with a song you know. Find measures with tag and fill-in licks; these generally don't have melody notes and occur in pauses in the melody. Then substitute the licks shown below for the ones in the song and see which sound good. You can also start putting the licks into backup by adding them to your vamping. One way I've learned new licks is to practice a few at a time and then tape a small paper tab of them to my banjo. When I go to jams I can glance at the tab and try the licks out in songs for backup and leads. You can play all 20 licks slowly one after another as an exercise to hear how they might be combined. If you combine ones that end and then start on the same string, change a note so you don't play the same string twice in a row, or use a quarter note to create a space before the first note in the next lick. For example, to combine licks in measures 2 and 3, make the string 4 fret 2 note in the second measure a quarter note and delete the note that follows. This creates a space before the first note in the third measure. Or, to combine measures 3 and 4, simply omit the last note in measure 3, which makes the note before it (string 5 open) into a quarter note. I've included the first 13 measures of John Hardy to show how to substitute the licks for the G measures. You are actually substituting for part of the melody, but it works well in this song. Try out other licks from the 20 and find which you like. I experimented and decided to use lick numbers 7 with 8, 6 with 17, and 19 with 13, as shown in the tab and MP3 below. I listened to how the licks sounded together and how they worked going to the C and D chords. This is just a tiny sample of the huge number of possible fill-in and tag licks. You can create your own, watch other players and find licks in books, tab, instructional DVDs, on-line banjo sites and Banjo Newsletter. The more of these licks you add to your repertoire, the more variation and interest your playing will have. This can help develop your own style of playing. Happy picking!   20 Cool Licks mp3  John Hardy Using the Licks mp3 About the Author 
Bob Altschuler lives in upstate New York and has played bluegrass banjo since 1970. As a banjo instructor, his 25 years of experience includes teaching many students at Banjo Camp North, where he has been the Beginner Bluegrass Track Coordinator since 2003. Bob's training and work as a public school teacher sharpened his teaching abilities, and helped him become a patient and sought after banjo instructor (his day job is now with the NY State Retirement System).Bob performs with the Dyer Switch band at concerts and festivals across the Northeast, Midwest and South, and recorded American Airwaves and Family Business CDs with the band. His banjo playing has also been heard on Northeast Public Radio and on television and radio commercials. You can contact Bob at arobanjo@aol.com, or through the Dyer Switch website at www.dyerswitch.com. [ top ]
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