Quick Licks - Albert King: A Guitarist's Guide to Blues Mastery

Dive into the heart of blues guitar with Licklibrary's "Quick Licks - Albert King" guitar lesson series. This specialized collection of tutorials taught by Steve Trovato are crafted for guitarists eager to infuse their playing with the legendary elements of Albert King's style, focusing on key techniques such as string bending, vibrato, legato, and the minor pentatonic scales.

What You Will Learn In This Course

35 killer blues licks in the style of Albert King. This course also includes a backing track to play over. The techniques you will learn include:

• String Bending
• Vibrato
• Legato
• Minor Pentatonic Scales

Technique Breakdown

String Bending

String bending is a powerful technique that brings a vocal-like quality to guitar playing, perfectly mimicking the natural ebb and flow of the human voice. These lessons focus on helping you master bends with the same emotional depth and precision that Albert King showcased, adding a new layer of expression to your licks.

Vibrato

King's vibrato was slow, wide, and deliberate, forming a hallmark of his playing. Mastering vibrato as taught in these lessons will help you enrich your notes with sustained richness, allowing your solos to resonate with the same depth and feeling.

Legato

Legato, characterized by smooth and connected note transitions mainly using hammer-ons and pull-offs, is key to fluid guitar playing. Through legato techniques, these lessons will enhance the fluidity of your playing, increasing your speed while maintaining note clarity.

Minor Pentatonic Scales

The minor pentatonic scale forms the backbone of blues music. These lessons guide you in mastering these scales, enabling the creation of inherently bluesy and soulful licks reminiscent of Albert King's memorable riffs.

Advantages of Learning These Techniques

These lessons are about more than just playing notes; they are about channeling emotions through your guitar. Each technique, whether a bend, vibrato, or legato run, becomes a tool for musical storytelling, essential for both improvisation and composition in conveying a wide range of emotions.

The Importance of a Backing Track

Accompanying backing tracks in each lesson provide an invaluable experience of playing in a band-like setting. Practicing with these tracks aids in developing your sense of timing, rhythm, and dynamic control. It also allows for real-time experimentation with the licks, enhancing your ability to use them expressively in a musical context.

Albert King's Impact as a Lead Guitarist

Albert King was more than a blues guitarist; he was an innovator who influenced giants like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. His lead guitar style, marked by powerful string bends and intense vibrato, was less about technical flamboyance and more about the emotional weight of each note. Integrating King’s approach into your playing transcends learning licks; it involves embracing a part of blues history and learning to communicate deeply through your instrument.

Albert King stands as a colossus in blues guitar history, renowned for his fluid fingerwork and unique tonal expression. His signature techniques, especially his expressive string bends and soulful vibrato, have greatly influenced the blues genre. The "Quick Licks - Albert King" series offers an insightful exploration into these unique stylistic elements, helping you incorporate the essence of King’s iconic sound into your playing.

The "Quick Licks - Albert King" series is a treasure trove for anyone aspiring to channel the spirit of a blues legend into their music, enhancing both technical proficiency and expressive depth.

Conclusion

Albert King’s towering influence in the guitar world is undeniable, and the "Quick Licks - Albert King" series is your gateway to capturing the spirit of his style. These lessons will not only allow you to honor a blues legend but will also significantly elevate your playing in both a technical and expressive sense.

Guitar Techniques Featured

In these lessons, you will encounter a variety of techniques that are pivotal to mastering the blues genre. Below is a list of these techniques:

• String Bending
• Vibrato
• Legato

Embracing these lessons will not only endow you with a slice of Albert King’s iconic style but also arm you with a comprehensive set of skills essential for any blues scenario and beyond.