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Guitar Lessons
Lead
Guitar Lessons
Develop your lead guitar technique
Anything
can be learned in time with practice, and with these clear and focussed
lead
guitar lessons, you'll
develop naturally, in your own time.
Remember, lead
guitar isn't about playing as fast as possible so the notes become a
senseless blur. It's about
expressing personal
emotion 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, instead
of simply picking from one note to the next, you'll have several
additional options - bend, hammer, pull, slide, tap etc.
In a
nutshell: Learn each of the essential lead
guitar techniques and then use this
as foundation knowledge to build your
ideas
upon and experiment with. It's all about expanding your creative options...
Lead
Guitar Techniques
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.
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
String
Vibratos
Vibratos make your notes sing!
Punctuate your lead guitar phrases with
this "effect" and it can inject the warmth and emotion you need to make
that perfect solo expression. This lesson introduces the technique and
then guides you through to mastering the physical aspects.
Part 1: Vibrato
basics
Part 2: Working
vibratos into solos
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
Useful Lead Guitar Lesson Supplements
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Free Metronome
Metronomes help you keep time with 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 >
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The Ultimate Metronome
For those who want to make their lead guitar practise drills more fun and
engaging.
The Ultimate Metronome is a popular piece of downloadable software that
offers optimum speed frequencies, speeding up as you play, plus customisable
parameters including time signature, beat
sample and accent sample.
Get Your Ultimate Metronome Here >
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Finger Trainer
A
great program that provides you with over one hundred exercises and
drills covering warming up, bending, alternate picking, string
skipping, tapping and more. All the tools you need for lead guitar
practise in one place.
Get Your Finger Trainer Here > |
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