Tag Archives: how to play lead guitar

Finger Stretches – The Forgotten Art

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Hand StrengthAre you one of those people that likes to just pick up a guitar and get straight into it? Do you wonder why you can’t always play everything you normally play until a few minutes into it? The reason is simple and it’s all because of something that the majority of guitarists don’t do (I’ve been guilty of it myself) – finger stretches and warm ups.

Think about it like this, if you go to the gym and get straight into the heavy weights without a proper warm up you run the risk of injury, so why is guitar any different? When you look at the amount of stress that is being placed on your fingers and hands it’s not surprising that things like R.S.I. (repetitive strain injury) are so common amongst guitarists. It doesn’t need to be this way, and you can confront this head by learning how to play guitar solos with the least amount of pain and stress…let’s take a look at 3 ways we can do this:

Stretching/ Workouts/ Exercises

Stretching

What stretching does in its basic form is elongate the muscle and keep elasticity, with the result of more control, flexibility and range of motion, which is great for guitarists to remember. Focus on both the hands and the fingers as they both work in guitar playing, and you can do a variety of exercises. The aim is to loosen and warm up both the hands and fingers before playing to prevent injury, and to give you more control over what you do on the fret board. For a few examples check out these Hand Stretching Exercises.

Workouts

It may sound funny to some to do hand workouts, but you know how important finger strength is for holding barre chords, bending notes, and the list goes on and on, you’ll know what I’m on about…so why do so few people work on strengthening their hands and fingers? Whether or not you do any form of exercise for the rest of your body is a topic for another site, but here the importance of strengthening your hands is all we’re concerned about. Have I mentioned that hand strength is important yet? J Well…it is. If you work out already then you’ll know that just doing weights for the rest of your body strengthens your hands as well, but if you don’t then try this little tip – Gripmaster. This is a great tool for guitarists and can work on individual finger strength, but you can also use an alternative that I used when starting out and that is standard Hand Grips from a sports/ gym store. Keep it in your car, bag, locker at work and use it when you get a free moment, it’ll really pay off in a short space of time!

Exercises

I’m not talking about hand strength now, but a series of patterns on the guitar that challenge right from the start. There a lot of different ways to do this from odd shaped chords to massive stretches all over the neck, but my favourite even though it sounds a bit dull (but this is all about finger warm up here and not sound) is chromatics. Practice playing them up and down like scales, try alternating the fingering and challenging yourself as you go and then get into you’re playing. A great way to do it is to start with all fingers together in the natural chromatic progression, and then gradually increase the spacing. If you play on frets 12,13,14,15 with fingers 1,2,3,4 then simply play frets 12,13,14,16 with the same fingers to get a stretch. The next time around you might play 12,13,15,16 and move the 3rd finger up one and continue in this pattern and then back down until you’re back at the starting position. This is just one example but a good starting place. If you want an extreme warm up tab exercise click here. Also, here is a video with a great demonstration warm up to stretch you out…enjoy!

If you take the time to do this for even a few minutes a day, it will make your practice time more efficient and as a result your playing will improve at a faster rate than it would have before – well worth it if you ask me!

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Solo Acoustic Guitar Inspiration

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If all you ever do with your guitar is practice day in, day out then you’ll run out of inspiration faster than you can imagine. So, with there being mostly lessons and a lot of heavy stuff on this site, I thought it was time to sit back and get some real inspiration – this time with the acoustic guitar. I just stumbled across this guy on Youtube while looking for inspiration myself, and was blown away by how full his sound was with just one acoustic guitar. His name is Adam Rafferty, and what you’re about to see is an instrumental of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’.

As far as I know the tab will be available for it soon but for any info on this and Adam himself, you can find it here.

Keep an eye on the fingering and watch how he plays multiple parts at once (part of the secret to acoustic guitar mastery), and just sit back and enjoy the song. Also, there is a facial warning with this video – Do NOT try these expressions at home :)

Enjoy…

If you find anything that you find ‘inspirational’ share it with us!

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The Art of String Skipping

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String SkippingString Skipping is one of those techniques that seem so easy when you see it done but when you try it yourself you realize it’s not that easy, especially when you try to skip two or more strings at a time! Before we get into it, let’s clarify what string skipping is so we’re all on the same page. The technique is really a non technique in the way that its whole purpose is to ‘miss’ playing the notes, and is simply where you play one string then jump over the next one or more and land on another string. In essence, ‘skipping’ over from one to another and leaving an unplayed string in the middle. This technique is used more in electric guitar so if you want a challenging electric guitar lesson, this is it!

There are some things to point out when practicing this that may seem obvious at first, but it’s essential to make sure you play them this way so when you speed it all up you’re not picking up bad habits. Check out these tips and add them into your next scale practice runs:

Economy picking – We’ll cover this technique in detail at a later stage but it is simply picking in the most economical way and only moving your picking hand as much as you need to, to get the job done. When using this in string skipping it refers to how you pick the first string and then land on the next after the skip, and it all depends what you’re trying to achieve. Go for what feels the most natural to play in order to let you make a clean jump and land dead on the note.

Hammer ons – This is a great way to play a few notes before the skip and give yourself enough time to make the jump. If your left hand (or fretting hand for left handers) is tied up with a few notes while your other hand is clearing the strings preparing for the land then it can make it so much easier, so try it slow and see what gives you the best chance of making it smooth.

String Noise – This is one to eliminate at all costs (unless that’s what you’re after of course). Because there is movement in the strings on either side, it’s easy to transfer that noise to the unplayed string(s). You can and should practice playing clean notes slowly to get the feel of what works and what doesn’t before you speed it up, but there is another way as well…

Palm Muting – Another technique for another post, but the basics of this are resting the palm of your picking hand on the strings slightly to ‘mute’ the sound. This doesn’t cut all the sound out, just deadens it and cuts out the noise – you hear it a lot in heavier music and it’s very useful for any technique where you’re trying to cut out string noise. Try it here especially at the immediate point of the jump.

A good to practice these is in scale runs, and definitely with a metronome. Start out with going up and down the scale once. The next time skip one string both on the way up and back down, then two strings etc…until you have a few strings and then work back down until you’re playing the scale again. It’s hard at first, but well worth it!

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Acoustic Guitar Solo Ideas

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Acoustic Guitar Solos Rock! Acoustic Guitar is not too often thought of as an instrument for flashy solos, but if played right can be an incredible sound in any genre of music. Think about it, the majority of acoustic songs are one guitar on its own anyway, so there needs to be a full sound to carry it through – why not spice it up a little with some lead work?

The question is how to play lead guitar on an acoustic? Pretty much the same as you would with basic electric solo playing. The main differences are the extremes of the electric guitar such as the tremolo tricks and the big bends that you won’t generally find on acoustic, and you may want to think about playing a mix of rhythm with your solos to give a full natural sound.

You can use fast scale runs, hammer ons or pull offs and a lot of the usual techniques, but there is one advantage – the acoustic sound. There are natural wood tones that give the acoustic sound that can’t be recreated on the electric, and you may as well make the most of them.

Try these the next time you’re wondering how to play lead guitar – unplugged:

Harmonics – You may want to steer clear of the pinch harmonics for now, but try adding some of the natural ones to spice up the sound as there’s just something so captivating about mixing in the high ‘chime like’ sounds with some other deep notes. Adding a few harmonics into a scale section in the solo can make one guitar sound more like two, which brings us to the next step.

Dual Sound – In essence, this is making a solo guitar sound like two guitars by adding a fullness of rhythm with everything you play. If you’re playing a solo section then think about throwing a few chord shapes intermittently with it to constantly bring the piece back to the progression (Nuno Bettencourt is a great example of this).

Percussive Noises – There are so many places on acoustic guitars that you can tap to get a drum like sound, even smacking the strings over the body or picking the strings over the headstock, there are some great sounds that can be produced so play around with it. If you’re playing semi acoustic try these with delay, you won’t regret it! (Tommy Emmanuel is a great example of this).

Picking Hand Placement – because of the range of tones, try picking from different areas over the body. If you pick more towards the neck you’ll get a soft tone, but picking next to the bridge gives a much more raspy tone and can sound great for accents.

With electric guitars there is a wide variety of movements and effects to produce great sounds in the solos, but with acoustic the difference is in the natural range of tones produced all over the instrument, and not just in the strings. Play around with some of these and see what you can come up with!

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How to Play Guitar Solos for Newbies!

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We've all been there...So you’re only new to the guitar, maybe haven’t even played before but you’re thinking about it…where do you start? Most people will tell you that starting with a few chords and a series of scales is all you need and I will agree with that in part, but without the passion behind it and having fun while you’re playing you won’t stick with it. What I’m going to suggest is learning in 3 parts at the same time, and by using parts that all fit together to make a strong guitar foundation, and yes – you will be playing guitar solos from the start so buckle up! …and get ready for the groundwork.

What are the 3 parts? The first two you have probably guessed already but the third is usually reserved for the more experienced players, but why wait?

Chords / Scales / Improvisation & Solo practice.

This may sound scary to someone new because when you think of solos you think of insane speed and massive technical skill, but it all starts somewhere and you’re not going to jump straight in the deep end but just test the water at the edge first. This will also be planned and not just a handful of chords that you just pick out of a book and strum; this will set you up for a lifetime of ease and when learning how to play guitar solos in the future, you’ll find it so much easier.

We’ll start from the C major scale which consists of 7 notes and then the final C. The notes are: C D E F G A B and then C. Think of this scale as being the pivot point from where you go next either up or down, and just know that a lot of your learning later on will also start from this scale and these notes.

Step 1 – ChordsMajor Chords

Learn How to play each chord in this scale in its original major form. Work on playing them smoothly and concentrate on finger strength so you can hold each note in the chord cleanly. When you can play each chord practice them together and get used to playing from one to another with a smooth change.

Step 2 – Scales
You guessed it, now it’s time to learn the scales that derive from the notes in the C major scale. Start with the C scale and work your way through until you’re back at C again. Practice playing each note with control and focus on playing evenly between them – they should all flow effortlessly from one to the other and have the same consistency, and I know that’s hard at the start but you need something to aim for. Take it slow and work with a metronome to get your timing right.

To check out the Major scales Click Here

Step 3 – Improvisation & Solo Practice
Here’s where the fun begins and you will actually start to make music, not just play a series of notes. This step is quite often left out when people are teaching, but if you learn how to play guitar solos from the start then all your guitar practice will improve together as a whole, and you won’t find yourself being great at one thing but need to go back to the start to learn another.
The way to start in this area is to form a chord progression, just a series of chords played together to form a rhythm section to play over. Choose chords from the ones you just learned, and there you’ll have some starting notes to go from. A little tip, when playing a major chord the name of it is the note it starts from or the ‘root’ note, so playing a C major chord will give you a C note to start off, and that is a note you can use to either start a solo over that chord or use somewhere over it and it will fit. When playing around with improvisation, keep it very simple at these early stages. The main thing is to have fun with it and get in the habit of creating your own music.

Here’s an example to get you started. I chose the Chords G C and D, in this order – G C D G and just repeat it. This is the chord progression you’ll be playing over, so maybe play it a few times to get it in your head or if you can get someone else to play along with you – great! Because I’m using the Chords G C D, I can use the same scales to use over the top, and because I’m using the same scale as the chord I know that the start note of the scale is the root note, and that fits perfectly over the top of the chord. Simply play the root note of each scale that you choose at the start of that chord, followed by any of the notes in the same scale in any order you wish to play them, and you’re on your way to learning how to play guitar solos! You can see how this with a few techniques learned after can make a very effective solo.

One extra side note, playing major chords all the time can get a bit boring. When you have learned them learn the minor versions of the same chords as well as the matching scales, and you’ll find yourself being able to play a lot of things easily from that moment on…

Once you have learned a few things check out the free guitar tabs online for your favourite songs, or if you want to learn your guitar faster and easier there are resources at the side of this page to help – either way, keep learning and have fun with it!

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7 Ideas for Creating Powerful Guitar Solos

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Eddie Van Halen - This is How to Play Guitar Solos!If you wish to not only learn how to play guitar solos, but master your own compositions then you’ll need a plan. There’s an old saying that is as useful here as it is in any area of life ‘If you Fail to Plan you Plan to Fail’. If you want to create a guitar solo that is able to move everyone who hears it, then putting yourself in the right mindset and environment when in the writing stage can really pay off. Now, from playing guitar myself for 20 years I know that music just flows, and you can’t really explain where it comes from but it’s just in you – this is true. What I’m talking about is outside of that and works in conjunction with your existing talents, the technique with the inspiration if you will.

I will share 7 ideas here that will help to put you in the right frame of mind, and give you the best chance at getting
inspired and capturing the moment when it arises, and believe me the more you do this the more you will want to do…

Environment – If you’re learning how to play guitar solos it doesn’t matter too much where you are because you’re just replicating someone else’s work. When creating your own on the other hand, it matters a lot. To create you need to feel creative, so find an atmosphere that enhances that side of you.

Improvise – You need to practice techniques regularly and master the fret board by knowing the notes it consists of, but in the creation phase it’s time to be free flowing. There are a few ways to achieve this such as starting with a start & end note and let it flow, but to start I would suggest knowing the progression that you’re playing over and picking common notes and root notes in the chords and incorporating them somewhere, until you get an idea of where you want to take it.

Chunk Down – Break your ideas down into small sections that you can practice individually. This helps you to create
common themes and eliminate and change anything you don’t like at a very focused level.

Record Your Ideas – When practicing this step is not necessary but when writing you’ll find that you come up with so many ideas that you haven’t got a hope of remembering it all. Record it all and you can go back over it after.

Create Themes – I mentioned this earlier, but creating a small section that repeats and hooks the listener back into
something they recognize is a great way to sound professional while creating a memorable piece. Cover bands are popular because they play what people know, and a theme that repeats and flows through not just the solo but the song, can have the same affect.

Try Alternate scales and Modes – When you have found something that you think sounds good but could be better, try the same pattern in a different scale or mode. Sometimes just one note change from doing this can make all the difference to the mood and feel.

Stay in Touch – With the music that is. Get inspiration from wherever you can on a consistent basis whether that means going to gigs, subscribing to band websites and newsletters, videos, magazines, guitar workshops etc… The important thing is to know what is out there and take an active role in your scene.

Be yourself, play what is in you and not just want others want you to play and you’ll do well. Add these 7 steps and learn how to market yourself and you’ll be unstoppable!

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Blues Phrasing Explained

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How to Play Guitar Solos - BluesWhen it comes to playing the blues, one thing stands out before all else – feeling. There is a certain essence that’s only captured in the blues style, and when learning how to play lead guitar in the blues style it becomes even more prevalent.

There are two things to note when it comes to getting it right. You must have both the emotive guitar tones that fit the mood you want to achieve with the song, and secondly it should be contained in a memorable pattern, otherwise known as a phrase.

What exactly is phrasing? The last sentence almost gave it away…it’s basically a set of notes formed into a pattern with a start, middle and an end. This phrase can be used in the riff or solo, and can be played as a one off or part of the main theme and used in different octaves or even varying keys.

For the purpose of this article we’ll look at how to play lead guitar phrasing in the style of Blues, and just to get an idea of what it sounds like and how to first think about it when we’re structuring together our own solos. There are certain notes you may want to listen out for too, ones that are commonly played in all good blues solos and ones that are really only played in this particular style, in particular the ‘Blue note’. It’s a little mysterious by name but just means a note (commonly the third of the scale) that is bent slightly up, but not quite to the next note resulting in the in between area known as the blue note.

Check out this Video by Keith Wyatt as he shows you the basics of Blues Phrasing.

For the most comprehensive guitar lessons online, try Jamorama!

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Killer Sweeps! – How to Play Guitar Solos

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When learning how to play guitar solos there are quite a few flashy techniques that can make you stand out from the crowd, and all have varying levels of difficulty. There is however one technique that is feared by the masses, and if you can tame it, will make you stand out in any crowd as being an expert on your chosen instrument!

That of course, is Sweep Picking.

Sweep Picking is simply the technique of playing the individual notes of an arpeggio in a ‘sweeping’ motion, and is one of the quickest ways around the neck while playing individual notes. An Arpeggio literally means ‘broken chord’ and can be used with any chord shape. In essence, you sweep (technique) over the arpeggio (notes) to create a devastating assault on the listener…

Let’s take a look at some examples and then we’ll get into the nuts and bolts of it and get you on your way!

Here’s an example from one of the best solo artists around today – Jeff Loomis, and if you want to master arpeggios then this is a must see!

Here’s the Tab to play along with, good luck!

Jeff Loomis - Devil Theory Sweeps

Key points to note when learning to sweep:

  1. Keep a firm grip on the broom!
  2. play around with different picking positions – i find it much easier to turn my picking hand slightly to the right and cut through the notes rather than playing with the pick level with the strings.
  3. As with all techniques practice slowly with a metronome or drum machine, and only speed up once it’s fluid and you have clean notes (This is one technique that it pays to learn properly and take the time to get it right, the rewards are well worth the effort!).
  4. Make up your own patterns and when you feel a little more comfortable with it, throw in a slide or a hammer on here and there (see video for examples of this) and spice it up a little.
  5. Always push yourself with new patterns and don’t let yourself get too comfortable.

When learning how to play guitar solos it pays to break things down into small chunks and practice, practice, practice! Have fun with these and when you get something you like, use it as a warm up and you’ll be surprised what it does to your solo capacity.

Here’s some other Articles you may find useful on Sweep Picking:

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Sounding Pro with a Simple Practice Plan

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Brian May shows How to Play Guitar SolosHave you ever been disheartened when you see a great guitar player pulling off a massive solo and thinking ‘I could never do that’? This so often happens to less experienced players when they are practicing how to play guitar solos and a lot of the time, they end up giving up because of it which is a tragedy.

The truth is the majority of people who listen to music want something they can connect with, so if you are in the above category and feel like giving up this may put your mind at ease.

Instead of looking at what you can’t play, focus on what you can and do it well!

When learning how to play guitar solos the most important thing is playing every note well, with great technique and emotion. If you can’t play the flashiest solos yet don’t worry about it – it will happen in time with the right practice. There are certain things to concentrate on when practicing that will make you sound like a better player while playing very few notes, so try these out and forget what everyone else is doing – this is about you.

Practicing with single notes:

If every note has to be spot on it makes sense to practice notes on their own as well as in scale runs. Try practicing notes like this and see how it feels:

  • Pick a scale, let’s use the C major scale (C Ionian) as a starting position
  • Play through all the notes in the scale slowly with a metronome, and with the most important thing, total control of every note. Make sure you watch your fingering as well, and move your hand as little as possible by placing a different finger on each fret (1st finger – 3rd fret/ 2nd finger – 5th fret/ 4th finger – 7th fret etc).
  • When you can play it through with each note sounding smooth and it feels easy, put the metronome to half the time of what it is now.
  • Play each note again in half time and practice a steady vibrato on each note, and make sure the vibrato is in time with the metronome as well (it’s not enough that the note is played on the beat, the vibrato should be practiced in time as well).
  • When this feels easy, practice sliding up from the previous note in the scale, so in this case slide up from the B note before the root note of the scale. The aim is to pick the note in the same scale previous to the one you’re playing and slide from it.
  • Combine the two by sliding up to the note and then adding vibrato.
  • When this all feels comfortable, try adding a downward slide as your coming down the scale to add a new element.
  • When this is done and you feel good about it, turn the metronome back to the speed it originally was and play through the scale again normally, and you should find it a little easier and you’ll have more control over the notes. Keep speeding it up as you start feeling comfortable with it, and when you get to the stage when you start making mistakes, start over with the next scale up the neck (try playing all the scales of the notes in the C major scale, C D E F G A B C – so the next one here is the standard D scale).
  • Repeat for all scales until you get back to C further up the neck.

It sounds a little basic but you may be surprised how challenging it can be, and this way of practicing alone can give a huge control over the notes you play and at the same time, set you up for both knowing the fret board and learning modes (both will really help you with composition).

Good luck with it and remember to take it slow and get that control over the notes before you move on to other techniques or speed, and your playing will improve tenfold!

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Mastering Artificial Harmonics

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Picking PositionLearning how to play guitar solos is easy when you know how, but becoming a master at any specific technique is another level. There are a few techniques that are considered more advanced because of their level of difficulty, and Artificial Harmonics for a lot of guitarists fall into this category.

Natural Harmonics are produced by lightly tapping a string in set places along the neck, resulting in a bell like sound. These can be sounded at multiple positions, such as 5th, 7th and 12th frets, and can be played with very little effort.

Artificial Harmonics on the other hand require a specific technique, and although are a little harder to play, they can be played on any note or position on the neck. There are a few ways to play these Artificial Harmonics such as playing a note first and then lightly touching the same string at an interval equivalent to a natural harmonic i.e. if you play a note on the second fret, you can move the natural harmonics that are usually in 5th, 7th and 12th fret positions up two frets to result in the same harmonic but two semi tones higher. This is very similar to a natural harmonic and is self explanatory once you know what a natural harmonic is, only moved up by the note you choose to play beforehand.

The main way I choose to use artificial harmonics when learning how to play guitar solos is through the use of Pinch Harmonics.

Pinch Harmonics are simply ‘pinching’ the string with your playing hand as opposed to your fretting hand resulting in a harmonic squealing sound. To do this, all I do is rest my thumb and the edge of the pick on the string at the same time. When I strike the note with both the thumb and pick it results in a Pinch harmonic and you should be able to hear the difference straight away, however mastering this can take a little time so be patient and keep working on it.

The reason I prefer this in general (and this is only a personal preference) is because it frees my left hand to continue with whatever other technique I want to use with the harmonic. You can use this while simply bending a note, adding it as an accent in a fast scale run, or any other variation including with dives and other more savage techniques.

If you have trouble getting the sound smooth, try moving your picking hand position to get either more pick than thumb or vice versa, or even to cut more through the strings in a downward motion. Play around and use what feels comfortable to you.

Here’s a great video for getting a pinch harmonic sound, regardless of your level of expertise – enjoy!

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