Is there any specific reason you want to learn to play lead guitar? Do you want to start a band and write and record your own music? Do you want to impress this girl you are thinking of asking out? Or maybe you want to see the expression on friends’ faces when you pull a fancy lick on the guitar. Regardless of the reasons you may have, if you want to learn to play guitar you have to learn to do it right, and the tips you will learn here are going to point you in the right direction. But before that, let us take a look at what playing lead guitar is all about, and what a lead guitarist does.
Lead Guitar: An Introduction
Playing lead guitar, otherwise known as playing a guitar solo is the act of playing notes on a guitar, either one at a time or simultaneously, to produce a melodic guitar line that runs above the rhythm section of a song and the lead guitarist is the guitar player that plays this part. Playing lead guitar is not limited to just electric guitar playing, since a guitar solo can also be performed on acoustic guitar.
There are so many things to do and learn when it comes to playing lead guitar, but let me break it down to 3 things that you have to keep doing.
Keep On Learning
When it comes to learning lead guitar, there are two general areas you have to master but they go hand in hand. They are, your instrument and your ability to play it. First of all you have to understand how a guitar works, how it sounds, and what you need to do to get a variety of interesting sounds from this instrument. Then you have to be able to do just that, play it and get all those different sounds out of it.
You have to be able to look down at the guitar neck and see every possible scale, every possible pattern for every chord progression possible. while some scales can be a little tricky, one of the easiest to play are pentatonic scales which are common among blues and most rock songs because there are just 5 notes to play, hence “penta”-tonic.
So how do you master scales? If you do not know how they look, the best way would probably be to buy a book that contains the major and minor scales and learn the notes in the scales, learn how the scale would look at every part of the guitar neck.
Keep on Rehearsing
The only way for your to get better at playing, and to master guitar technique is through constant practice. Once you know how the scales look, you need to know how they actually sound. You need to learn how to play scales over the entire fret board, and in various keys and chords. One of the best ways to start is to learn guitar tablature.
While practicing, it is important for you to learn the correct hand positions since this will allow you to move through cords with ease, and less strain.
Getting an instructional video that comes with a book helps you learn the scales faster, with the book allowing you to learn the scale and see how it looks, and the video with a guitar instructor on it showing you how to do it. If you do not have time to go to a music store to buy a guitar lesson on DVD, there are many sites online that offer video guitar lessons.
Another way of mastering scales and how they can be put to use is to listen to other guitar players’ solos. How are they using the scales? Learning their guitar solos gives you different ideas that will also greatly improve your playing. You should note what scales they use and how they play them.
Keep On Playing
No matter how good you get practicing at home, in your bedroom or basement; things are very different when you are playing for a crowd, and with people actually watching you. This makes a lot of newbie guitarists very uncomfortable, in fact so uncomfortable that they either freeze, forget guitar parts or simply just mess up.
The only way to develop your confidence and skill in playing lead guitar in front of an audience is to actually just keep on playing, keep on gigging. You will overcome your anxiety and will be able to play more relaxed and confident, allowing you to even play better.
Just remember, to really get good at playing lead guitar, keep learning and practicing so you develop your mastery of scales and technique, and keep playing and looking for gig opportunities that will help you overcome stage fright and develop your confidence a lead guitarist must have.