Lead Guitar Lessons
Develop your lead guitar technique

Anything can be learned in time with practise, and with these clear and focussed lead guitar lessons, you'll develop naturally, in your own time.

Lead guitar isn't about playing as fast as possible so the notes become a senseless blur. It's about personal expression as though you're speaking through the guitar.

The lead guitar techniques below can be seen as the physical application of scales. So the two go hand in hand (see the scales section on the left). The idea is to arm yourself with a number of ways of getting from one note to the next in your solo - bend, tap, string skip, hammer etc.

Make sure you also arm yourself with the right tools!

Neal shows us some effective ways to use double stops - a lead technique involving two strings at a time...

Alternate Picking

Alternate picking simply involves using up and down picking strokes alternately. Not as easy as it sounds at first, so this lesson should help you gain accuracy, speed and confidence in these initial stages.

See also: Alternate Picking Exercises
See also: Fast Guitar Picking in Metal

String Skipping

String skipping is pretty self explanatory. The idea is to "skip" over strings in your soloing phrases to create less linear patterns with wider intervals. This lesson provides the basics and some exercises to get your fingers physically used to these movements.

Scale Runs

Scale runs are about using alternate picking to negotiate linear and staggered scale patterns at moderate to quick tempos. This series will take you right from the basics to more complex run patterns. Great exercises to improve your picking technique.

String Bending

String bending really does liven up boring, flat solos, and every lead guitarist should be confident with using bends. Learn to bend with ease and precision with this two part series with video. Part 1 introduces the physical basics, before we move on to some staple bending techniques in part 2.

Part 1: Bending Basics
Part 2: Bending Techniques

Hammer ons and pull offs

Hammer ons and pull offs are legato (non-pick) techniques. It's basically just another interesting texture to add to your soloing, just like string bending, vibratos etc. In these lessons I'll introduce the basic hammer on and pull off techniques, provide exercises to get all those fingers involved and finally look at how they work together.

Part 1: Hammer Ons
Part 2: Pull Offs
Part 3: Working them together effectively

Finger Slides

Not to be confused with "bottle-neck" sliding used in country music, this is a finger technique which makes more use of single string lead guitar phrases. Using slides allows you to glide over more of the fretboard and bridge the gaps between the fixed scale shapes you learn over time. An important guitar technique to learn - come inside!

Finger Tapping

Get to grips with the physical side of this technique and your knowledge of scales will integrate naturally. If you follow both lessons below and take your time mastering various tapping rhythms and the physical side of it, it's actually not as difficult as it sounds!

Part 1: The Basics
Part 2: More complex patterns

	Free Metronome Metronomes help you keep time during your practise drills, allowing you to speed up gradually as your confidence improves. I strongly recommend using a metronome for every lead technique you learn. Get into the habit now! Free Online Metronome >
	Finger Trainer A great program that provides you with over 300 exercises and drills covering warming up, bending, alternate picking, string skipping, tapping and more. Includes backing tracks, tuner and metronome. All the tools you need for lead guitar practise in one place. Get Your Finger Trainer Here >