Lick # 20: Triangles (Guitar Lesson LK-020) How to play

(playing "Triangles" guitar lick)

Hi how you doin'

Justin here

this lesson we're doing today

is called triangles

it's a pretty weird little lick, this one

it's a bit, kind of atonal

which means, it doesn't really have a key

only it does

I'm going to show it to you
in the key of A

but the idea of it is atonal

and the reason it's called triangles

a funny kind of long story,

for a friend of mine who had taken
far too much acid

and really cooked his brain

he really couldn't function properly

and it's pretty kind of sad really

it's not like, you know,

look at my cool friend whose taken
too much acid,

you know he spends a lot of time in
hospital

but we still get to jam now and then

and he did this lick once,

that really just blew me out
we were just kinda jamming

I can't remember what exactly, think it
was funk,

and he played this lick (plays guitar)

and I was like, "Man! what was that lick?
that was really cool!"

and he said, "man, I'm just playing
the triangles"

and I went, "what do you mean?"

and he showed me!

and it was, he made up

little triangle shapes on the guitar neck

and he was playing them

now, it shouldn't really work

cause it's not musical is it,
playing triangles on your guitar neck

but, sometimes
weird stuff like that does work

a lot of Van Halen stuff funny enough,

he's not doing the triangles thing right,

but a lot of times, what he plays
are patterns

so it's not like, strictly sticking
to the scale

he's just playing a particular,
you know, lick or whatever

a group of frets that he likes the look of

that he can play quick
and the playing it real fast

and it sounds cool! None of us go,

"Woah that 4th note there, that wasn't
in the scale"

that doesn't happen, does it?

so, part of the reason I'm showing you

this lick is to get you used to that idea

that you don't always have to be using

the proper notes and the proper scale

it's just sometimes stuff sounds cool

and thats okay

you know it's cool if things sound good

and they don't stick to the rules
sometimes, you know?

so, okay plenty enough talking from me

let's get to a close-up
and have a look at some triangles

(playing "Triangles" guitar lick)

okay, here it is a bit slower

(guitar playing)

Now, the triangle (plays guitar) is here

it's made up if we kind of play
dot to dot on the guitar

we have the 5th fret,
on the thinnest string (e string)

the 7th fret on the thinnest string
(e string)

and the 6th fret on the 2nd string
(B string)

(playing the guitar note by note)

if we kind of joined up those dots

if you like, we'd have a little triangle
(plays lick)

and that's exactly what you play
in this lick, so (plays note)

5th fret, (plays note)
7th fret, (plays note)

6th fret on the next string over

(plays note)
and then back to the note, you started on

(plays lick on the guitar)

that's it, that's the 16th notes
one beat group

(plays lick on guitar)

(while still playing lick)
down, up, down, up, picking

then you move exactly the same thing

towards the sky, one string

so we're starting now

with the 1st finger on the 5th fret
of the 2nd string

(plays lick on the guitar)

then we move the whole shape
up one fret

so now we're starting with
the 1st finger in the 6th fret

of the 2nd string
(plays lick on the guitar)

then we move it toward the sky one string

so now, 1st finger is in the 6th fret
of the 3rd string

(plays guitar lick)

and we move it up one fret

(plays guitar lick)

towards the sky one
(plays guitar lick)

and that's, were just finishing on there

we're starting and finishing on the A
cause it kind of gives it some

sense of tonality, you know?

so it sounds like it's, you know,

based around the A

(plays "Triangles" guitar lick)

one more time

(plays "Triangles" guitar lick)

okay, now I'm gonna take it right out

(demonstrates "Triangles" guitar lick
with backing music)

well, I'm pretty sure

you are gonna have a lot of fun
exploring this little triangle idea

maybe you could try to make up circles
or squares

and see where that gets you

it's kind of a big deal this, really

what I'm kind of touching on here

which is the idea of atonality

of not being restricted to
a particular scale

or a particular sound or an arpeggio

or anything like that,

it's just what sounds good

and that's really important because

that's really what music
boils down to

it's not about scales and
arpeggios and stuff

it's about what sounds good
because we listen to music

we don't look at it, we don't

well, we can analyze it

but we don't have to.

it's just really about what sounds good

so try, you know, and explore that
a little bit

see if you can try, sometimes

notes that you think are the wrong notes

cause sometimes they might be a good note

big deal, big concept

something I'm gonna talk about

more in complete lessons

not really in a little lick lesson
am I gonna try to explore that one

that would be a huge can of worms

to tip out all over this video

so, I'm not gonna go there anymore

then I have already

hope you enjoyed that, have fun with it

and I'll see you for another lick
or lesson very soon

take care of yourselves

bye bye