Originally Posted by: kjproHey guys, how do one figure out the key of a lick?

Key means the scale a piece of music using as it's basis.

So, you write out the notes of the lick & see which scale they are part of. I cover this in these tutorials on improvisation:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=876
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=483
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=491

But those are more focused on figuring out the key from a group of chords. And a group of chords has lots of notes that usually clearly imply one distinct scale & therefore key. Still the same approach can work for a lick. The limitation might be that a lick might only have a few notes. So, it's possible a lick could imply a number of different keys.

Example:

E |-----------------------------|
B |--5-8-5----------------------|
G |--------7--------------------|
D |-----------------------------|
A |-----------------------------|
E |-----------------------------|

This lick contains the notes E, G & D. Those could be in E minor, A minor, G major, C major, etc. And any other scale that happens to contain those 3 notes.

You can't say it's only one & not another, until or unless you put it in a musical context.

Do you have a specific lick in mind?