Sunday, November 30, 2008

7 Tips To Help When Playing Lead Guitar

By Joss Schuyler

It takes more than a natural talent to play a lead guitar it also takes time dedicated to learning the theory and techniques of playing the instrument. Many people have learnt how to play a lead guitar and are now looking to improve their skills, but some find it easier than others. In this article we provide some tips which you make find useful in the future to help improve your playing lead guitar.

Tip 1 - For you to learn how to become a great lead guitarist you have to learn the basics of playing it first. Although the basics of guitar playing may seem boring and not worth bothering about, then you need to rethink what you consider is important. If you don't learn the basics then when it comes to playing lead guitar well you find it is very difficult indeed.

Tip 2 - Although you would like to start playing the lead guitar stood up or jumping around, this really isn't the best way to learn. You will find it a lot easier if you practice your playing when sat in a comfortable chair. This way you will find that you are more and so can retain things much more easily and also you won't become so tired so quickly when you are practicing.

Tip 3 - It is important that you discipline yourself to keep up with your practice. So if you make the decision that each day you will spend 45 minutes practicing playing lead guitar you should and not slope off early just because you feel like it.

Tip 4 - Although economy picking is easier it is far better if you also learn alternate picking. If you do not learn this technique then you are going to find it more difficult to learn more complex techniques or faster pieces of music. With alternate picking you are learning how to alternate between the down and up strokes as you pick the guitar strings. It takes time but you will soon be playing these picks in an automatic way and the speed at which you pick the strings will increase.

Tip 5 - You have to dedicate time to learning the various different techniques for playing lead guitar. So you need to spend time learning how to play bends, slides, vibratos, pull offs, hammer ons as well as the kinds of tricks that other lead guitarists use. Through learning these techniques you can make your lead guitar playing more colorful and so make it more expressive.

Tip 6 - To play guitar solos of any kind you need to learn the scales and learn how to play them repeatedly. The scales that are most commonly used by guitarists these days are the E Blues and Pentatonic scales. If you can learn these you can then use them as a framework for your playing and also can help you to create your own music.

Tip 7 - This last tip when it comes to playing lead guitar is the most important of them all. It is the one where you get told that practice makes perfect. The more time you dedicate to practicing a piece the more you will find that you remember it and so it then becomes easier to play. When you first start off learning a new piece for the lead guitar do so very slowly and then gradually build up the tempo at which it should be played using a metronome. - 16003

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