Dominant 7th 60s Soul Lick

In this video guitar lesson I’m going to show you a dominant 7th guitar lick that uses a double pull-off. And while I’m calling this a “60s soul lick”… that’s only because of the feel of the jam track I’m playing along with. In reality this can be used as blues guitar lick, a jazz guitar lick or really can be played in just about any style of music.

(Video Guitar Lesson)

 

60s Soul Lick Guitar Tablature

At the beginning of the video guitar lesson I’m demonstrating this soul guitar lick over 2 chords. An E7 and an A7. Below is the guitar tablature for this guitar lick over both chords.

 

The Music Theory Behind the Notes

This 60 soul guitar lick is made up of mostly the notes of a Dominant 7th chord. A dominant 7th chord is a term given to chords like A7, G7, E7 etc. A Dominant 7th chord is made up of the 1, 3, 5 and b7 of a major scale. The “b7” is just a note that is a half step (1 fret) lower than the 7th note in the major scale.

E Major Guitar Scale with b7

E7 Guitar Arpeggio

When you play the notes of a chord one at a time rather than all at once, that is referred to as a guitar arpeggio.

60s Soul Guitar Lick Functions

So there are only 2 notes in this dominant 7th guitar lick that are not part of the chord. The “7” is used as a passing note between the 1 and b7 on the 2nd string. And the “b3” is used as an approach note up to the 3 on the 1st string in the guitar lick.

This guitar lick can be played over any dominant 7th chord. You can just move it up or down the neck so that the 1st note is the root of the chord you want to play it over. So over an E7 chord you will start the lick at the 5th fret on the 2nd string…which is an E note. And over an A7 chord you will play the guitar lick starting on the 10 fret of the 2nd string…which is an A note.

60s Soul Jam Track

Below is the jam track  I used to demonstrate the guitar lick in the video guitar lesson. It’s made up of 2 measures of an E7 chord, and 2 measures of an A7 chord. you can download an MP3 of this Jam Track in the “Guitar Lesson Downloads” a below the video version.

 

Guitar Lesson Downloads

Below is a PDF file you can print out with the tablature for the guitar lick, and an MP3 Jam Track you can download.

(Right Click the links below and choose “Save As” or “Save Target As” or “Download Linked Files As”)

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Have fun with your new 60s soul lick. Be sure and move this all around the neck of the guitar. And start to plug this guitar lick into other music styles as well.