let's say that we are going to design a lick that uses all four fingers

First, we have do decide which finger to start with

There are 4 possible choices

after we have chosen the the first note, then we have to choose which finger we will use next

There are now 3 possible choices

after we have chosen the the second note, then we have to choose which finger we will use next

there are 2 possible choices, and after that, only one possible choice

from this we can deduce that the total number of possible 4 finger licks we could create is equal to 4 * 3 * 2 * 1

in mathematics, this is known as "4 factorial" and is written as 4!

in case you're math is a little rusty, 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 24 possible sequences

whenever I'm practicing, or creating new licks,

I like to use the "Left Hand Sequence Diagram" to help in the creative process.

I like to use a different sequence each time, so I mark down the last one that I used

The diagram can also be used for 3 finger patterns. Just use the first three or the last three

using letters to designate the various fingers ( "a" = first finger , "b" = the second , etc )

I took the trouble to list them all here for you

a b c d 
a b d c 
a c b d 
a c d b 
a d b c 
a d c b 
b a c d 
b a d c 
b c a d 
b c d a 
b d a c 
b d c a 
c a b d 
c a d b 
c b a d 
c b d a 
c d a b 
c d b a 
d a b c 
d a c b 
d b a c 
d b c a 
d c a b 
d c b a