Five Santana Inspired Licks

It’s hard to imagine how many thousands of guitarists Carlos Santana has inspired and influenced over his amazing career as a musician. He plays with such ease and fluidity, always managing to create incredibly interesting musical phrases. I’ve often heard people refer to his sound as ‘exotic’ or ‘full of flavour’. 

This lesson is going to showcase five Santana inspired licks for you to learn and practice! To take your learning to the next level, we’ll provide all the theory you need to understand how Santana uses various scales to craft his wonderful sound. Use this as an opportunity to explore new sounds in your own playing as well! 

The lesson

Be sure to watch the video below to really get the most out of this lesson. Tabs will be provided below for each lick, but the video will help you replicate the feel and rhythm for each of them!

The theory

Let’s take a quick pit-stop and dive into some theory before we get to the licks. I truly believe understanding how each scale is crafted will help you get the most out of each lick, as well as being able to explore new avenues in your own playing! 

Santana’s sound is heavily based around the natural minor scale, and two slight variants of it – the harmonic minor, and the dorian mode. Though these two minor variants share six out of the seven notes from the natural minor, they create a very different flavour. Let’s take a look at the construction of each of them. 

Natural minor

The natural minor scale is what many people refer to as just the ‘minor scale’. Let’s have a look at A natural minor as an example, as it has no accidentals (the collective term for both sharps and flats). The notes within the A minor scale are A(1), B(2), C(b3), D(4), E(5), F(b6), and G(b7) – with the numbers relating to each interval. So, where do the b3, b6 and b7 come from? If we look at A major, we have the notes of A(1), B(2), C#(3), D(4), E(5), F#(6), and G#(7). Therefore, we can see that we need to flatten (lower by a semi-tone) the 3rd, 6th and 7th degree to transform the major scale into the minor. 

If the theory behind scales is new to you, be sure to swing by the Guitar Club and check our incredible course on harmony! It will help you understand how scales are crafted, how to harmonise them, and how to use them in practice! 

Harmonic minor

Now that we know the notes and intervals that make the minor scale, we can take a look at the one change needed to transform it into the harmonic minor! The single difference between the two scales is that we’re replacing the G – the b7 degree – with a G# – the major 7 degree. You’d expect the major 7 to make it sound brighter and happier, but it actually makes the scale sound darker, as there is a large amount of tension between the b6 and 7. 

Dorian mode

Modes are often shrouded in a bit of mystery, as they can often be presented as a whole new paradigm music theory and knowledge. However, they’re a lot more simple than you might think! The dorian mode, for example, is just the natural minor scale with a raised 6th interval – we just need to change the F(b6) natural into an F#(6). Unlike the harmonic minor, the dorian mode gives a slight flavour of major to the minor scale, which Santana uses frequently! 

Dorian is just one fantastic example of how modes can be used to take your playing to new levels! Learn everything you need to know about the dorian mode in this free lesson, or get a full understanding of the modes from our in depth course!

The licks

With the theory out of the way, let’s take a look at what you’ve come here for – the five Santana inspired licks! Referring to the video will be the best way to really nail these licks, but I’ll provide a short description for each one as we go along! 

Lick 1

This first lick is an excellent example of how changing the F(b6) from the natural minor scale to the F#(6) of the dorian mode can have a huge impact on the overall feel. In this case, we’re using the F natural as an embellishment or passing note. 

Lick 2

Here’s another example of how using the dorian mode ‘lifts’ the feel of the track. We’re using the same concept of using the F as a passing note to get to the F# of the dorian mode – just in a different position of the fretboard. 

Lick 3

You could argue that this third lick is in either the natural minor, or the dorian mode. Why? Because we’re not playing any form of the 6th degree, without harmonic context, it’s impossible to discern between the two. It’s safe to assume that we’re in the dorian mode with Santana’s playing, but experiment dropping in both the F natural and F# to see which flavour you prefer! 

Lick 4

Now that we’ve seen a handful of examples of the dorian mode, let’s see how we can make use of the harmonic minor! Remember, the only difference between the natural minor and the harmonic minor is the major, or natural 7th degree. Experiment by making this small adjustment in your own licks to see what you can come up with! 

Lick 5

Though the dorian mode and harmonic minor are fantastic scales to change the dynamic of a lick, or an entire track, we can’t forget the beautiful sound of the natural minor! The challenge in this final lick is not in the theory, rather in the speed and ferocity in the playing to emulate Santana’s passionate playing! 

I hope you find lots of value in both the licks and the theory behind them! Remember to always reflect on any new material you learn and ask yourself – “how can I use this in my own playing and style?”. If you ever need guidance with your guitar-playing journey, the Guitar Club has you covered every step of the way! Don’t just take my word for it, sign-up for free for 7-days and explore everything we have to offer! If you enjoyed this lesson though, you might love our courses on how to learn licks and improvisation. I very much look forward to seeing some of you there soon – happy practicing! 😃🤘