Lick of the Week 8: Sliding Sixths

Today’s guitar lick comes from the key of C major. We’re working with sixths, which are also sometimes called inverted thirds. If you like that kind of thing, checkout my Secrets of Tasty Riffs & Solos course for a lot more of it.

The main difference between a sixth and an inverted third is which note of the pair you consider to be the root note. If the lower note is the root, then the higher note is a sixth of it. If the higher note is the root, then you’re dealing with an inversion, because normally the root note would be on the bottom and any variation from that is called an inversion.

But enough theory. Call them double stops for all I care, because that’s true too! The big takeaway here is that you can find these beautiful intervals by pulling them straight from your chord scale, if you know your Root 5 bar chords!

Don’t forget to checkout the Lick of the Week archive!


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  1. Great lesson Jonathan ! Lots of primo guitar knowledge packed into those six minutes — Thank You !

    Is that some sort of locking nut on your green guitar? If so, what is the advantage in using it?

  2. Sweet sounding lick.

    Can this be used as a turn around and if so does it need to be modified by say not playing the chord that ends the lick?

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