UpCourse Tutorials
Become a Jiffy Partner Template by JiffyCoursesOnline
Learn how to turn one Keystone Lick into many ideas through creativity, variation, and chord targeting.  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

The Problem

Learning more licks doesn’t necessarily make you a better improviser. If every lick only exists as one memorized phrase, you’re constantly dependent on learning something new.

This game trains you to get a lot from a little by discovering how many musical ideas you can create from one small piece of vocabulary.

Why This Game Matters

This is one of the most important improvisation games you’ll learn. You’ll return to it throughout the Blues System, and it’s a practice method you can continue using throughout your entire improvisational career.

The Rule

Improvise using ONLY the notes contained in the Keystone Lick.

You can:

  • Change the rhythm
  • Repeat notes
  • Skip notes
  • Reverse direction
  • Change the order of the notes
  • Start or end in different places

The only rule is that you do not add notes from outside the lick.

How to Play

Choose a blues backing track and begin improvising using only those notes. Keep looking for different ways to rearrange, repeat, and phrase them.

If you’re more advanced, you can also think about the intervals inside the lick and use them to target the chord changes. If you’re not there yet, simply use your ear and imagination.

Challenge: See if you can improvise for 2 minutes without leaving the notes of the lick.
 

What This Teaches You

This game develops creativity within constraints. Instead of constantly collecting more vocabulary, you’re learning how to vary what you already know, hear where it works over the progression, and turn one small idea into many different phrases.

If you can create a lot of music from one lick in one area of the neck, imagine what becomes possible as you add more licks and more of the fretboard.

Don’t Worry About Sounding Polished

This exercise may sound repetitive, awkward, or less musical than a finished solo. That’s okay.

The goal is not to perform a perfect solo. The goal is to experiment, discover new ideas, and become more comfortable creating with the vocabulary you already have.