How to Make Licks Sound Like Your Own (Licks Are Not Language)
Oct 06, 2026How to Make Licks Sound Like Your Own (Licks Are Not Language)
Most guitarists never figure out how to make licks sound like their own — and it's not because they haven't learned enough of them. The problem is that nobody ever showed you how to develop real guitar melodic vocabulary from the licks you already know. In this lesson, Nate breaks down the process he uses to convert any lick into real musical language — a framework borrowed from jazz legend Clark Terry, whose students included Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, and Pat Metheny. Here's what's covered:
- Why a lick is an 'artifact' of musical vocabulary — not the vocabulary itself
- The three-step framework: Imitation, Assimilation, and Innovation
- How to extract the melodic grammar hidden inside any lick
- How to personalize a lick by changing its grammar, rhythm, pronunciation, and punctuation
- What it actually sounds like when a lick stops sounding like someone else and starts sounding like you
This is part of Dymecast's ongoing series on creating expressive guitar melodies through emotional contrast. If you've been stuck at a plateau and can't figure out why, this is the lesson that explains it.
