How to Turn Other Guitarists' Licks Into Your Own Improvisation
A lick is a short, memorable phrase taken from someone else's solo or transcribed by ear (see [[how-to-learn-guitar-solos-by-ear:the article on transcribing solos by ear]]). Exact transcription is useful for study, but publishing or commercially reusing someone else's material depends on its extent, recognizability, and applicable law. The musical goal is to understand the phrase and absorb its devices into your own vocabulary.
Shift the lick into a different key
Closed pentatonic shapes that use no open strings can usually be shifted as a unit to a different root, producing the lick in a new key (see the article on transposing). If the phrase uses open strings, a fixed drone, or fingering tied to the end of the neck, a simple shift will not work; preserve the intervals and find a new note layout instead.
Change the rhythm, keep the notes
Play the same set of notes from the lick with a different rhythmic pattern - stretch it over more beats, compress it into half the time, add a pause where the original had none (see the article on building phrases). The notes stay recognizable, but the phrase stops being an exact copy.
Take only part of the lick
You don't have to use the whole lick - take just its beginning or its most memorable detail (usually 2-3 notes) and build your own continuation around it. This is exactly how licks from different guitarists gradually become part of a shared vocabulary of techniques, rather than staying separate quotes.
Blend two licks into one
Take the beginning of one transcribed lick and the ending of another - if both sit in the same pentatonic position, physically connecting them isn't hard, and the result no longer fully matches either source. It's the fastest way to get something that sounds familiar without being a direct quote.
The test: is the source still recognizable
After a couple of changes, play the result for someone who knows the original - if the lick is no longer recognizable as a direct quote but still sounds musical, the changes are enough. If it still sounds like 'that solo from X', keep changing the rhythm, the notes, or the context the lick is used in.
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