Lead Lesson 1: Speed is much, but not all!

      Just as the idea is that you must learn to crawl before you walk, just is so with learning rhythm before lead. So if you want to get the most out of the following lead lessons, it is suggested that you know at least a fair share of basic knowledge of rhythm before you start these.

      As I mentioned before, you can divide the six strings on a common guitar into 2 sets of 3. For playing lead, you will commonly be using the bottom 3 strings. Nevertheless however, you will also be using the top three as well since full scales consist of all six strings.

      If you really want to know the trick to mastering lead guitar playing (soloing and such), then this is what you should know:

1. Make sure you've learned and practiced enough to where you can navigate throughout the fret board with little or no problem.
2. Make sure you understand basic rhythm structures so that you will understand the concept of scales.
3. If the first two are covered, this is the biggest part of it all: Scales. Learn scales, scales, and more scales.
4. Dedicate whole hours of practice sessions to running through the scale you are currently learning. You don't want to work on more than one or two scales at a time or it can turn out frustrating in more than one way. Make sure you take it one scale at a time.
5. After you've gotten good enough to travel through scales that you've learned, you will know how to apply lead scales to rhythms and you can come up with your own combinations of scales and patterns to put with the rhythms too.

      If you really want to become a great soloist, one of the most wisest concepts in lead guitar playing is this: Speed is much, but not all! This means that speed is not what makes a soloist good, its the wise balance of scale usage, speed, and variety of technique that one uses to make a mere rhythm riff stunning to the ear! If you like Godsmack, then you know that their guitarist doesn't have to play like Yngwie Malmsteen to really get you into his soloing! Its all in how you wield the great power of lead guitar playing as to how you draw somebody to it.

      This section is here only to summarize what you will be doing in order to learn scales and use them to your advantage whether it be to put them fittingly to any rhythm you want, or to use them as "lead-as-rhythm" a technique that guitarists such as Dave Mustaine uses in many of his riffs. The important thing to remember however is that when using the lead-as-rhythm technique, it is usually wisest not to implement too many parts into any one riff, for all those extra parts can be used on other songs and riffs. Use something to record yourself playing and go through the scales and lead patterns however you may and dissect them later to put them to other riffs and songs.

Now that you know all this, you will be ready to learn the steps of lead guitar playing and its advantages to a wide variety of styles of play.


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