The obvious danger of the "lick" approach

[alez]

The advantages are obvious, but so are the drawbacks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDxhnaKD7Q

Enjoy "the lick"

[jazzman1945]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0hfO4UW9Kc

[Aquatist]

I just had to log in just for this topic. On the piano, this is something I definitely struggle with. It's not that practicing licks is hard for me, but I absolutely HATE practicing licks because to me it's unoriginal I don't want to end up being a copy cat of someone else.

Unfortunately, sometimes in order to learn the musical vocabulary a lick is a must to learn as long as you treat it as a grain of salt for your own improvisational ideas.

Here is a youtube video about Hal Galper's Master Class explaining his approach on musical vocabulary. I just thought I would share it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4kVU...feature=relmfu

[jazzman1945]

It's not that practicing Beethoven sonata is hard for me, but I absolutely HATE practicing Beethoven sonata because to me it's unoriginal I don't want to end up being a copy cat of someone else.

[alez]

Originally Posted by Aquatist

Here is a youtube video about Hal Galper's Master Class explaining his approach on musical vocabulary. I just thought I would share it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4kVU...feature=relmfu

Excellent video, thanks. Interestingly enough, when I read your post (but before watching the video) I was thinking much in the same way, that maybe the key to lick learning is that you should pick the licks that you personally enjoyed when you discovered them in records, gigs or whatever (as opposed to the licks that an instructor tells you to study because they are useful for whatever musical situation, licks found in books and so on). Whenever a lick strikes you, that's a sign that the lick belongs to you too (to your emotional self, like the video says), therefore if you learn it you are just learning how to play something that was inside you anyway, only in a more subtle way. I think there's no way you can sound like whoever else by learning licks THAT particular way.