Whenever I teach students ‘licks’ I try to keep them as short as possible. The reason for this is that I like to think of licks as words that you would use to construct a musical sentence. The first words that we start to learn as children are small words not big articulate words and we certainly don’t learn to talk by memorising sentences.

I’m often asked how to ‘use scales’ so here is some Major Scale Vocabulary. I’ve included firstly short phrases in C major, then added a little chromaticism, then I’ve added some lines where you superimpose G7 Altered (1 b9 #9 3 b5 #5 b7) over C major7 (hinting at V7 - I movement). Finally I’ve included some longer lines but these tend to have obvious logic that you will be able to extrapolate such as descending arpeggios playing ascending 3rds (last lick).

It’s worth noting that especially for the smaller chunks of vocab, you should learn these in as many different areas on the neck as possible. This will allow you to become fluent with them and use them like you would connecting words in a spoken language.

Also transpose these ideas into all other keys in order that you can use them when ever you see a Major 7th chord.

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Thanks so much, James.