Originally Posted by: Poundhound

Hi.

One of the most wonderful guitar tones is that of Eric Johnson. One of Eric's greatest compositions is "Cliffs of Dover". So I was pleasantly surprised to find an EJ style lesson on the site that picked (no pun intended) some of the sweeter runs from the song to make a lovely, short and almost doable mini-song.

First things first - this is absolutely pushing the boundaries of my capabilities. It might be just a smidgen too far for me. However, even playing the parts I'm up to speed on, I'm struggling to get the phrasing right. Take the very 1st lead lick. It's only 7 notes, yet somehow I'm not getting it to sound right. I have a similar problem with at least another couple of the licks. I've got all the notes memorised and most licks up to speed. But something is missing that I can't explain.

I'm playing my guitar unplugged so as not to disturb anyone. I always do. I know that kind of defeats the purpose of having an electric guitar, but that's the situation. Could the fact that there's no volume and effects be affecting it, or is there some technical issue behind it?

TLDR; How can I improve my phrasing 😄

Thanks

I wouldn't sweat how much effort it takesto get Cliffs of Dover down. I recall Eric himself said that he worked on it a very long time to be able to 'get it down'. Eric has some amazing phrasing on that songs (and on everything else). It's a lesson in lots of very cool and interesting ways to approach melodic techniques.