Okay, today I’m going to give you a little freebie: my Ultra Mega Lick Of Doom. This started out as a melody I was working on for a song I never got around to finishing. Frankly, as a melody it kinda sounded a bit boring. But I soon realised that a) whenever I practiced it, it greatly improved the whole of my playing and b) whenever I did it as an exercise during a line-check immediately before a set with my old band The Upperhand, the fellow guitar geeks checking out my pedals from the front row used to freak the @&$# out. FREAK THE @&$# OUT. And hey, even though the melody itself isn’t particularly innovative, it can sound kinda cool as a little link from one ‘real’ melody to another.
So what’s going on in this monster lick? Check out the tab in Figure 1, then meet me back here in a minute.
Figure 1

And here’s what it sounds like, rocking through a Pegasus humbucker on an Ibanez Iron Label 8-string.

Okay, got that? Well, work on it one note at a time, very slowly, with just your left hand, to teach your hand the pattern via the magic of muscle memory. Maybe cross your picking hand over to near the headstock to mute each string from ringing out unexpectedly, and practice simply hammering every note in the sequence. Start very slowly to get your fingers used to the pattern, then gradually increase the speed. You’ll hear how that lovely arpeggio resolves quite nicely as it travels up the neck, and it’ll get you using a decent amount of fretboard space from beginning to end.
Got it? Okay, cos now you have to cram it all into a single bar.
I guess that’s why everyone freaked the @&$# out.
Figure 2

And here it is at full speed. Sure, it’s not the cleanest-sounding lick in the world, but by the time you’ve torn your audiences’ heads off with it, they won’t have noticed.

Now, although I love me some shredding, I don’t do it all the time. But this lick helps to keep my technique relatively in shape for when I do. I’ve included the hammering and sweeping (and tapping) details for the fast version of the lick. Use the tip of your middle finger to tap the notes so you can still hold the pick for the rest of the lick. I’m not gonna lie to you: it’s very tricky. But if you practice it every day you’ll begin to notice little improvements, and eventually you’ll be able to cram all those notes into that single bar of 120bpm. And then 124 (the infamous Disco Tempo). And then whatever else your fingers will let you get away with.
Even if you’re not into this kind of style, it’s a very handy lick to learn simply because it trains your hands to move efficiently around the fretboard. And imagine how much fun it’d be to play a restrained, tasteful blues lick, then throw that one ridiculously excessive splatter of shred into one single bar just to see the faces of the audience.
Hehe.