Jimmy Page Rock Lick

In this lesson we're going to be going over a really simple and yet amazing sounding blues/rock lick, that Jimmy Page himself used quite a bit. In fact it was by listening to Led Zepplin that I learned this riff. He has used it on several recordings, but it is at the halfway point of Good Times, Bad Times where it really stands out.

I have heard Zakk Wylde use this same riff, or a variation of it in his earlier days with Ozzy, and my memory has failed me at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if I heard it turn up again on one of the Black Label Society albums.

Its really simple, sounds good slow or fast, and it can be put to your playing immediately. Also the example below will show it in one position, but you can move it anywhere you like. Just use the same fingering and picking. This particular version of it is my own variation, but Jimmy Page's isn't all that different from the one that I'm going to show you. Let's get crackin!!

Now, you can pick this anyway that you like, but the first note, which is a full bend, I prefer to pick this with an upstroke. The next two notes would be down, up - in that order.

Being a straight blues lick - it is constructed from the Major Pentatonic Scale.

The fingering is simple. On the first pattern, use your finger like this. Barre the 10th frets with your index finger and use your middle finger to bend the 12th fret. Then for the 3 notes after that, use your ring, middle and index finger, in that order. Keep your index finger barred throughout. When you move to the next pattern use the same fingering.

Note: Don't forget that you are bending a whole step. This means that you bend from the 12th fret to the pitch of the 14th fret. On the pattern that follows that, you bend from the 10th fret to the pitch of the 14th fret.



Don't like the picking on that version? no problem - let's try it with pull-offs for a much cleaner sound.



Remember, you can start this pattern on any fret that you like and you should be able to fit it in with most blues, rock or metal songs. Pop in some Clapton and try it!