Are you ready to rock?
Check out Liquid Legato Fire, a course is for rock and metal guitarists interested in developing their legato chops within a rock context. This is a very packed course with different materials to help you develop rock legato chops.
It’s made by Nick Layton, a professional guitarist, recording artist and teacher based in Vancouver, Washington, USA. Nick is also the lead guitarist and co-founder of the USA melodic metal band FireWolfe.
What’s in the course?
This is what you get in Liquid Fire Legato:
- 3 hours of video demonstration & instruction
- Mp3 files demonstrating all the licks taught in the course
- A 40 page e-Book (PDF File)
- 45 legato licks in the style of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Richie Kotzen, Warren DeMartini and many more
- 3 jam tracks for Lydian, Dorian, Phrygian Dominant and Aeolian modes
- Scale Diagrams for all scales used in this course
- Guitar Pro and individual PDF files for all 45 licks
There are 3 chapters in the e-book, each with 15 licks. Everything includes audio examples as mp3 files and videos demonstrating and breaking down the licks. An overview of each chapter explaining the provided backing track and scale possibilities is included before the actual lick demonstration and explanation videos. Nick is generous by giving the material in multiple formats to fit the needs of different guitarists. I know that a number of my students are fan of Guitar Pro so they would definitely welcome the GP files to help them practice the licks, change the tempo etc. For me, I usually enjoy scanning through the book first, then listen to the audio examples before watching the video for the lick that I’m interested to practice.
The format works great because you can choose the scale you’d like to explore and easily dig into the licks for study. Unless typical collections of licks with audio examples (fast and slow) e-books, Nick goes the extra mile to explain where the licks are derived, how to play them and how to practice them to develop your own ideas. There is also enough variety to help most guitar players find something new to challenge and develop their playing.
My favourite aspect of the course is how musical the ideas are. Over the years of buying and studying instructional material, I’ve grown fond of teachers who learn from transcribing and filter their interpretation of common stylistic traits into licks that are very compact but are filled with melodic and creative depth.
The first chapter covers a variety of Lydian licks that are reminiscent of 90s Satriani classic sounds. Playing these licks, you’ll get some good musical workouts to develop your vocabulary within the style. In the video breakdowns, Nick explains how to practice the lick and how it’s constructed as well.
The second chapter goes on a more minor bluesy shred angle with Dorian licks tinged with pentatonic and blues flavours. This chapter will give the hardworking guitarists some great ideas for sequences and runs to kick your soloing up a notch for those minor key rock jams. For myself, I found myself labelling my favourite licks for further study by assigning colour tags on the files on my computer.
The third chapter is an exploration of Phrygian and Phrygian dominant sounds that remind me more of the 1980s shred era. For fans of these classic rock and metal runs, you’ll get a lot of ideas spanning the fretboard with various subdivisions. Some of the runs remind me of Malmsteen inspired runs but played more legato.
A lot of the licks in the course included cover the gamut of more precisely timed legato playing as well at the more lyrical “floating time” legato playing. All in all, I would definitely see this course being very useful for rockers in general and guitarists in other styles who are curious about the vocabulary. The course is definitely a style specific course though from a technical perspective would benefit any curious electric guitarist.
Pros: Video, Audio, PDF, Guitar Pro files – the course gives you many ways to consume and digest the material. This isn’t your old school VHS and paper handout rock video. Nick also gives very specific practice suggestions, backing tracks, drones and the included scale diagrams are likely to be helpful for guitarists who are new to the scale and mode fingerings in this style.
Cons: The main e-book layout has the notation not optimised for the PDF size so it’s smaller than I expected & has different page sizes for the some sections. However since this is digital media, you can easily zoom it to read the notation. Also, on the flip side – each of the licks also come in individual Guitar Pro and PDF files so that may be a good way to study each lick visually.
TLDR: If you’re into 80s and 90s rock & metal style legato playing, get this course. You’ll learn a lot of idiomatic classic sounding licks and develop your chops in the process.
How to Buy:
The course is available here:
https://nicklayton.podia.com/liquid-fire-legato
To explore Nick’s entire course catalog, go to:
http://www.nicklayton.com/courses.html
To have a feel for Nick’s teaching style and materials, get his free Sweep Picking Bootcamp ebook here: http://www.
A review copy of this book was provided by the author. Thanks Nick!
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