I wanna play like Dickie.

Patience, practise, determination, talent, dexterity.......

Actually, Dickie plays so many different ways it's kind of hard to classify him - rock, country, blues, electric, acoustic, slide - the guy can turn his hand to just about anything.

Far better to develop your own style of playing - guitarists who copy other guitarists never seem to get the credit or kudos they deserve. Classic example - Robin Trower. Huge fan of Hendrix, heavily influenced by Jimi - to this day he's somewhat unfairly pigeonholed as a Hendrix copycat, and nothing more, when in actual fact he's a very fine guitarist.

Just my opinion, of course.....

EDIT - after reading this post, and replying, I noticed a similar topic here.....

https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=38970

You might care to read what Wes Inman has to say on the subject - he puts it a lot better than I do.

:D :D :D

Vic

Vic has a lot of great points. Dickie's dexterity is awesome. When that guy was at his peak his fingers moved like lightning.

I'm not trying to say that Dickie's playing can be boiled down to a few licks, but here's something he did often during extended solos (Blue Sky and Jessica come to mind right away).You know those licks he kinda sits on for a couple measures, throws in a bend, sits on the lick again, another fill, back to the lick... maybe the easiest one is to play 1 - 2 - 1 - 6 - 1 (in they key of Cmaj, C - D - C - A - C). Play this in a few places, see where it's easiest for you and where it sounds right. Try and improvise with it as well. Dickie's almost always varying that up and sneaking in a few extra notes. He'll also play different patterns in similar timings... 5 - 6 - 5 - 3 -1 (G - A - G - E - C)

It's easy to get lost in Dickie's playing because he's so fluid, but keep your ear peeled for those quick repetitions.

As a counterpoint, I don't think I've heard him play a Midnight Rider with ANY of those little repetitions. It's not like I'm giving you the keys to the Les Paul here.

Didn't he take over the slide after Duane got killed? Seems to me that I remember something about him teaching that whole open-e slide thing to Derek Trucks?

I'm not sure if its still there, but a while back the Gibson website had a video lesson on playing in the style of Dickie, with printable tab. If I recall, the lesson was based on the solo in "Statesborough Blues."

Thanks guys for the replys :D

Learn your major scale and major pentatonic scales. Whereas a lot of players used the minor pentatonic most of the time, Dickie often played using the major pentatonic instead. Even during straight blues tunes like "Statesboro Blues" and "Done Somebody Wrong", which gave his solos a distinct country feel. He would play the major scale for that real melodic style he has.
Didn't he take over the slide after Duane got killed? Seems to me that I remember something about him teaching that whole open-e slide thing to Derek Trucks?

Dickie did take over slide after Duane was killed, but didn't teach Derek slide. Derek started playing slide when he was 9 years old by listening to Duane and Elmore James, years before he ever met and played with Dickie.

Didn't he take over the slide after Duane got killed? Seems to me that I remember something about him teaching that whole open-e slide thing to Derek Trucks?

Dickie did take over slide after Duane was killed, but didn't teach Derek slide. Derek started playing slide when he was 9 years old by listening to Duane and Elmore James, years before he ever met and played with Dickie.

I wasn't sure. I know his father or uncle (Butch Trucks) was with the band though. Thought there might have been some more than usual influence kind of thing.

Thanks stormymonday :D
I was wondering are the pentatonic scales moveable?

Thanks stormymonday :D
I was wondering are the pentatonic scales moveable?
The pentatonic scales are a series of notes with a set relation to each other. What you probably want is the pentatonic scale pattern of which there are five 2-note per string pentatonic patterns. Those patterns are moveable. You need to locate the root note of the scale on the fretboard and then anchor the pattern you want to use at that point.

You might want to look at Blues You Can Use since that book does a great job of teaching the pentatonic scales and how they link together and then how to start moving beyond them.