Cool Zakk Wylde Guitar Licks – Lead Guitar Solo Lesson
Technique Much Faster
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If you like Zakk Wylde's style of lead guitar playing...
... you'll love this week's article.
Because I'm about to show you 5 awesome Zakk Wylde-influenced guitar licks that:
- are simple to learn
- are easy to build guitar speed with
- sound awesome and will impress your friends
- help you improve your fretboard visualization...
... and give you cool new lead guitar ideas to play in your guitar solos.
And after I show you the licks...
...I'll give you more lead guitar playing tips that help you:
1. Create your own Zakk Wylde-inspired guitar licks...
2. Have a lot more fun playing guitar.
Technique Much Faster
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
To begin...
Check out this video where I show you 5 awesome guitar licks inspired by Zakk Wylde:
Here are 5 more lead guitar playing tips that help you create your own guitar licks in Zakk Wylde's lead guitar style:
Lead Tip #1 For Creating Guitar Licks Like Zakk Wylde: Learn Your Pentatonic Scale Shapes All Over the Guitar Neck
If you want to play lead guitar licks like Zakk Wylde, you need to master all 5 pentatonic scale shapes all over the fretboard.
Problem is...
Most guitarists learn only the first position of the pentatonic scale... and don’t go any further than that.
This is what leads to getting stuck in a box when you play guitar solos and severely limits your lead guitar skills (both when it comes to playing cool and fast guitar licks... and writing your own guitar solos).
To learn the 5 pentatonic patterns all over the fretboard, play the pentatonic scale starting from each of the 5 notes. This does 2 things:
- It makes it easy to understand how the patterns are created
- It helps you see that the five pentatonic positions aren't 5 different scales – they connect to form one large lead guitar pattern covering the entire fretboard.
Watch this video to see how to best practice fretboard memorization with scale patterns:
To memorize scale shapes faster, practice them away from the guitar.
Put your fretting hand on your picking hand’s forearm (pretending it’s a fretboard) and mime the notes of the scale patterns.
You can do this while stopped at a red light while driving, while falling asleep, while standing in line at the grocery store (or during any other idle time in your day).
These brief practice sessions will quickly add up – allowing you to memorize the 5 pentatonic scale shapes and use them to play guitar licks in the style of Zakk Wylde.
Lead Tip #2 For Creating Guitar Licks Like Zakk Wylde: Get Good At Pinch Harmonics
Pinch harmonics are perhaps the most recognizable element of Zakk Wylde's lead guitar style.
How do you play pinch harmonics the right way?
Here are the most important tips to know and use:
1. Use the bridge pick up on your guitar. This means, flip the pick up selector switch all the way to the bottom.
2. Crank the gain (distortion) on your amp up to 10.
And as for how to ‘do’ harmonics?
Play the note... flick the wrist up (so your thumb comes down on the strings to produce the harmonic... and then immediately lift the thumb off the string, so the harmonic continues to ring.
Watch this video that shows a demo of how to do screaming pinch harmonics Zakk Wylde style:
Question: "Tom Hess, I can sometimes get pinch harmonics to work, but when I use them in my guitar solos, they're inconsistent. How can I make them more reliable for my lead guitar playing?"
Answer: The key is finding the "sweet spots" on your guitar. These are locations where harmonics naturally ring out more clearly.
These sweet spots vary depending on the notes you’re playing (and – to some extent – on the guitar you’re playing).
Part of your lead guitar practice should be about memorizing where these sweet spots are and moving your pick in the correct spot to produce the harmonics.
Once you locate these spots, your pinch harmonics will become more consistent in your guitar licks.
Question: "What type of pick should I use for pinch harmonics when creating Zakk Wylde-style guitar solos?"
Answer: Use a thick, rigid pick (at least 1mm) for best results in your lead guitar playing.
Thinner picks flex too much, making it harder for your thumb to contact the string properly after picking.
Question: "How do I add vibrato to pinch harmonics to make my guitar licks sound more like Zakk Wylde’s?"
Answer: After hitting the pinch harmonic, immediately apply a wide, aggressive vibrato. Hold the string firmly and use a rotational motion from your wrist and forearm (like turning a doorknob). This creates that intense, emotional quality in your lead guitar playing that's characteristic of Zakk Wylde’s guitar solos.
Here is what your hand position ought to look like when playing vibrato and bending strings:
This lead guitar video shows you how to practice vibrato in your guitar licks.
Bonus tip: when you do pinch harmonics, focus on controlling string noise over the strings you’re not playing.
Mute the lower (thicker) strings using your picking hand’s thumb. Rest the thumb on the strings and slide it up and down as you play your guitar licks.
(As an added benefit, resting your thumb on the strings puts your pick in the trench (space) between the strings making your picking technique more efficient and helping your guitar speed.)
And for the higher (thinner) strings?
Mute them using the index finger of your fretting hand, as well as the fingers of the picking hand that aren’t holding the guitar pick.
Watch this lead guitar technique video to see a demo of these techniques in action.
Lead Tip #3 For Creating Guitar Licks Like Zakk Wylde: Improve Your Pick Attack
Zakk Wylde's aggressive pick attack gives his lead guitar playing its powerful, percussive quality.
Here are proven tips that develop a stronger pick attack for your lead guitar playing (while boosting your guitar speed and helping your synchronization at the same time)...
1. Make sure that your guitar pick doesn't move in your hand to give yourself more control and power when playing guitar licks.
To achieve this, hold your guitar pick the way I recommend in this video:
2. Move the pick fast for each note, even if you let the note sustain for a long time after playing it. This makes your notes louder and your pick attack stronger.
3. Relax between notes even when playing slowly. This avoids tension building up throughout your arm and prevents the common problem of the notes become weaker as your guitar speed increases.
4. Use more of the pick to hit the strings to make the notes louder (I show how in this guitar technique video).
5. Angle your guitar pick about 30 degrees (towards the head of the guitar) to allow the pick to slice through the strings with minimal resistance from the string for each note.
6. Practice unplugged to challenge yourself to make your notes just as articulate on an unplugged guitar as when you’re plugged in.
When you can do all this, you’ll have kind of pick attack that Zakk Wylde would be impressed by.
Lead Tip #4 For Creating Guitar Licks Like Zakk Wylde: Practice Creating Sequences Using Pentatonic Scales
The guitar licks you heard me show you at the start of this article are based on scale sequences... like the kind Zakk Wylde uses in in his guitar licks and guitar solos.
What are scale sequences? They are melodic patterns give you a new way to play through scales (and build guitar speed) without simply playing the scale up and down.
A basic sequence to practice is playing the pentatonic scale in groups of three notes. Accent the first note of each group of 3 as you play up (and down) the scale to create a cool rhythmic feel. Plus, this sequence is a good exercise for building guitar speed.
A specific example:
Take the A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G). Play the first three notes (A, C, D), then start on the second note and play the next three (C, D, E), then start on the third note (D, E, G), and so on.
Apply this pattern across all positions of the scale.
This sequencing technique creates awesome guitar licks that sound advanced yet are based on simple patterns.
Of course, you can also play scale sequences in guitar solos using sixteenth notes or other groupings.
Each of these ideas creates a different rhythmic feel for your guitar solos and makes practicing scales more fun.
This lead guitar video shows you how to create scale sequences the easy and fun way:
That said, many of Zakk Wylde’s guitar solos (the ones where he displays a lot of guitar speed) are played using horizontal scale sequences.
This is where you play a scale on the same pair of strings moving up the fretboard (from the lowest frets to the highest frets or vice versa)...
... instead of playing vertically (staying in the same box pattern and moving from the 6th string to the 1st string and vice versa.
Question: "Should I use alternate picking or directional picking for these sequences in my guitar solos?"
Answer: Use directional picking instead of strict alternate picking when practicing lead guitar (including these Zakk Wylde-style guitar licks). Directional picking makes it easy to build guitar speed and develop a strong pick attack and articulation in your guitar licks and solos.
Watch this video to learn how to practice directional picking the right way (and build a lot of guitar speed with it very quickly):
Lead Tip #5 For Creating Guitar Licks Like Zakk Wylde: Improve Your Fretting Hand Stretching Ability
Many of Zakk Wylde's signature guitar licks require good stretching ability in the fretting hand. This is because playing pentatonic guitar licks (on string pairs) require big interval jumps.
Fortunately...
You can develop greater stretching in your fretting hand (and build a lot of guitar speed with Zakk Wylde-style guitar licks) even without having big hands.
Everything comes down to understanding basic fretting hand biomechanics and technique principles.
This guitar technique video shows you how to improve your fretting hand reach:
Question: “Tom Hess, what’s the best thumb position in the fretting hand for playing Zakk Wylde-style guitar licks? Is it with the thumb wrapped around the neck of the guitar? Or with keeping the thumb behind the guitar neck?”
Answer: Your thumb position is a byproduct of understanding the open-hand principle I laid out in the video above.
Get your hand in the open-hand position I described in the video above and your thumb will naturally land in the proper position it needs to be in for the guitar licks you’re trying to play in your guitar solos.
That said, when you’re bending strings (or doing vibrato) ...
... do wrap your thumb around the neck. This lets you use the web between your thumb and index finger as a pivot point to get the right leverage for controlled string bends (and vibrato)
Question: "Tom Hess, I feel pain in my hand when practicing stretches for lead guitar playing. Is this normal?"
Answer: No. Pain indicates that you're pushing too hard. Stop immediately if you feel pain during your practice of guitar licks. And if pain doesn't go away – go see a doctor.
Question: "How can I make my lead guitar playing sound more like Zakk Wylde’s without directly copying his guitar licks?"
Answer: Focus on understanding the principles behind his playing (e.g. the ideas I described in this article) rather than memorizing specific guitar solos. Apply those concepts to your own musical ideas. This approach helps you develop your own voice while maintaining the spirit of Zakk Wylde’s lead guitar style.
Speaking of understanding the principles...
This guitar mastery video shows you how to ‘think in principle’ to master any lead guitar (or rhythm guitar) skill much easier and faster:
Now that you know how to play guitar licks in the style of Zakk Wylde, I want to help you relax excess muscle tension in your body so you have a much easier time building guitar speed. Excess tension makes everything about playing guitar feel harder and I help you relax it in my free video class Total Guitar Playing Tension Control. Watch it now and discover the lead guitar playing secrets most guitarists will never know.
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