Rhythm Guitar:

The backing track is a 12 bar blues in the key of A with a La Grange style rhythm. This groove is influenced by John Lee Hooker’s 1962 hit ’Boom Boom’.

I’m treating each chord as minor which means I can stay in A minor the whole time. In fact all of the licks us the A minor pentatonic or blues scale.

Lick 1:

The first part of this lick follows the drum groove- so keep it swinging.

The next part is a descending group of 3 from the A minor pentatonic scale.

These are phrased in triplets which means 3 notes per beat.

Lick 2:

This lick starts with a repetitive rock lick followed by some bluesy swing.

Lick 3:

Here we start with a repetitive lick-always a good idea. If we repeat ourselves we must mean it!

Lick 4:

Once again we start with a repetitive phrase. This time the lick features some fast picking on the same note.

Lick 5:

A Billy Gibbons classic-the pinched harmonic. The technique is to pinch the string with a combination of the pick and

the side of your thumb. Rumor has it Billy used a Mexican peso as a pick. Can be done with a good ol’ Fender style as well.

Lick 6:

Our last lick uses open strings. These pull offs work great in A and it’s an easy way to get in the groove with the rhythm section.

Billy Gibbons has always been one of my favorite guitarists. The tone, the songs; the voice, the vibe. Steeped in the rich tradition of the blues Billy has taken his early influences of Jimmy Reed, Eddie Taylor, Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, BB King, etc. and developed his own unique blend of Texas rock’n blues.

Their landmark ‘Tres Hombres’ sounds as fresh and lowdown as ever. A lot of the guitar licks we’ll be learning today are influenced from this recording.