Unit 4: The Ultimate Lukather Solo (Part 1)

The Ultimate Lukather Solo

Your first task is simple, listen! This solo is pretty massive, so we would highly recommend listening through the whole piece a few times. The piece runs through a few different keys, uses arpeggios, pentatonics, Mixolydian pentatonics and much much more! There is so much in fact that we have broken the licks down into 7 different videos spanning two parts of the course, so please take your time and have fun learning it!

Lick 1

Our opening lick is based around the E minor pentatonic in the open position, but includes the E Dorian note to kick-off! This is a classic combination used frequently by Steve. As the lick continues we run through a D major arpeggio and a Cmaj7th arpeggio, which runs very nicely along with the chords shown in the fretboard diagrams.

Lick 2

In the second lick, we really dig into the guitar strings to carve out some aggressive bends! The first bend is in the E minor pentatonic shape 4, and you continuously pluck the bent note to create the attack and aggression you need. We then draw upon that Dorian note, yet again, for the second bend, before jumping up to a classic rock lick in shape 1. Check out the full shapes in the fretboard diagrams.

Lick 3

The third lick is a D major arpeggio that includes the 4th note as well. Not only does the arpeggio sound better using the 4th, but it also makes the arpeggio easier to play across the neck. To end the arpeggio Ollie jumps back to the C note to highlight the chord progression which moves to C major. The full arpeggio is written out in the fretboard diagrams.

Lick 4

The final lick of this section uses the E minor pentatonic to start with, specifically in pentatonic shape 4. Take a look at the fretboard diagram to see the shape.

Theory: Diatonic 6ths

For the second part of the lick, we move into a really cool hybrid picking lick in diatonic 6ths. This means that every single lower note you play, you then play the 6th note from the scale above that. The scale we are using once again is the E Dorian scale.

So, for example, if you started by picking the E note, you would then look at your E Dorian scale (E F# G A B C# D E) and take the 6th above the E, which is C#. Equally, if your first note was G, you would come back to the scale (E F# G A B C# D E) and take the 6th above it, which is E. It's a great technique to use in your improvising, so really try to nail this lick!