Building Your Guitar Vocabulary: Essential Licks and Lines for Chord Changes

Having a collection of licks and lines ready to go is key to making your improvisations sound smooth and expressive. When you improvise over chord changes, your vocabulary— the repertoire of phrases and patterns you know well—will help you play creatively without hesitation. In this lesson, we’ll explore techniques to build and expand your vocabulary of licks and lines for navigating chord changes.

Why Vocabulary Matters in Improvisation

Vocabulary in music functions much like it does in language: the more words and phrases you know, the more expressive and versatile you become. For guitarists, vocabulary is composed of musical phrases (licks and lines) that you can pull from and adapt as needed. With a strong vocabulary, you can create coherent musical statements that flow naturally over changing harmonies.

Step 1: Learn Classic Licks

A great place to start is by learning classic licks in your genre. Whether you're into jazz, blues, rock, or fusion, studying licks from iconic players will give you a foundation of go-to phrases. These licks also often feature clever ways of navigating chord changes, so learning them expands your understanding of how lines connect across harmonies.

For example:

• Blues & Rock: Learn pentatonic licks with bends, slides, and vibrato.

• Jazz & Fusion: Focus on ii-V-I licks that resolve smoothly through dominant and minor chords.

Step 2: Develop Variations

Once you’ve learned a lick, practice creating variations. Change a note or two, modify the rhythm, or adjust the phrasing. This will keep your ideas fresh and adaptable. For example, if you have a blues lick based on the minor pentatonic scale, try playing it using slides instead of bends or syncopating the rhythm. By practicing variations, you’ll turn these licks into flexible tools rather than rigid phrases.

Step 3: Practice with Guide Tones

To ensure your lines match the chord changes, practice licks that emphasize guide tones (the third and seventh of each chord). Guide tones create smooth transitions between chords and give your lines a sense of direction. For instance, if you’re working on a ii-V-I in C major, try creating a lick that emphasizes the note F over Dm7, B over G7, and E over Cmaj7. These tones help to outline each chord change clearly, even when you’re improvising.

Step 4: Experiment with Rhythmic Displacement

A lick gains new life when you change its rhythmic placement. Instead of always starting your licks on the downbeat, try displacing them by starting on an upbeat or halfway through a beat. This adds unpredictability and interest to your lines. For example, if you have a four-note phrase, try starting it on the “and” of one instead of the downbeat. This small shift can make a familiar lick sound completely new.

Step 5: Create Connective Phrases

Connecting licks smoothly over chord changes is a skill that comes with practice. Work on creating short, connective phrases that help link one lick to another. Think of these as “bridges” between ideas. You might use chromatic notes or passing tones that connect the last note of one lick to the starting note of the next. This technique helps your solo feel continuous, rather than a series of isolated ideas.

Step 6: Build a Personal Vocabulary Library

Record and categorize the licks you practice, whether by key, chord progression, or feel. Over time, this collection will become a personal library of phrases you can draw from. When you're practicing, try combining licks from different categories to see what new ideas emerge. Developing your own library not only enhances your recall during improvisation but also helps you understand which types of lines work best over different chord changes.

Building vocabulary takes time, so keep exploring and practicing. The more you internalize licks, lines, and phrases, the more expressive and versatile you’ll become over any progression. Happy playing!