Guitar Lick Factory: Great Blues, Rock and Jazz Lines [Paperback]

Jesse Gress (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

Guitar Lick Factory offers hundreds of ready-to-play licks to help create irresistible music. Beginning and intermediate guitarists can use these licks on their next gig, whether they play blues, rock, or jazz. This accessible "encyclopedia" presents the licks in modular form as short melodic fragments, which can be reconfigured into endless combinations. Includes hundreds of examples and exercises.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jesse Gress could have simply written a great technique book, but, he aimed higher.... The Guitar Cookbook helps you become a better musician." - Guitar Player.

About the Author

Jesse Gress, author of The Guitar Cookbook, lives in Woodstock, NY. He is music editor of Guitar Player, a leading magazine for aspiring and professional guitarists of all styles and levels, both electric and acoustic. Author of several guitar technique books, Gress has played guitar for everyone from Todd Rundgren to Paul Shaffer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087930734X
• ISBN-13: 978-0879307349
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #958,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent Book, March 23, 2004

By 

javaboost (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar Lick Factory: Great Blues, Rock and Jazz Lines (Paperback)

I like Jesse Gress's work. It's often simple and to the point. There are a lot of lick books out there to choose from and I think that this one is good because it provides not just licks but a variety of phasing options and rythmic patterns to try them on. This helps jump start you on adapting the lick to yourself. The only thing I don't like about this book is that it's not wire/coil bound. If you're gonna buy it, immediately take it out to and get it re-bound with wire or coil. It will make it much easier to work with.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly Helpful, March 2, 2010

By 

Brother MOLOCH 969 "MolochSorcery.com" (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Guitar Lick Factory: Great Blues, Rock and Jazz Lines (Paperback)

This is a handy guide with over 100 classic guitar licks in it for you to play around with & enjoy from many genres of rock music. It begins with some Scotty Moore licks & takes us all the way into modern day music.

The way I use these licks is to fiddle around with them on guitar & see what the originator had in mind when he came up with them. I've taken several & simply played them without distorition; then with distortion; then with varying effects; then with just the neck position humbucker; then with the bridge pickup; and so on.

Why?

To experiment & expand out of the box. Some think these are for copying old songs which they can be used in that manner but I like a good lick book because it helps me to get into the mindset of the lick's writer. What made it sound so cool? What about it grabs the attention? Is it the specific notes or note patterns? Could it be the clarity in which they're played? Or is it something more like the volume & depth of the notes?

I like to experiment & play for my own happiness. I don't do the bar-band scene so I'm not out to impress anyone other than myself with the occasional Eureka! moment. Lick books like this are fun like fake books in that they can help you to expand what you already know instead of simply just rely on them as patterns to mimic.

If nothing else, get this book to experiment & play with. Try your hand at digging into yourself to see what makes a lick, really tick. Remember, "the highest form of mind, is when it is acting in a creative manner" - quote me on that one cuz it's MINE!