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 - Although you may think that learning the basics of playing a lead guitar isn't important because it is boring, then think again. Certainly if you aren't willing to spend time learning even the basics when playing lead guitar it can prove very difficult indeed.

Tip 2 - Yes the great lead guitarists will play their instrument stood up or bouncing around the stage, but when it comes to learning this is not the best position to put yourself in. Instead it is much better if you learn to play lead guitar whilst sat down on a chair that is comfortable. If you are more relaxed when learning and practicing you will find it easier to retain the things that you have been taught, plus you may also find that you don't expend as much energy so you don't become tired easily.

Tip 3 - You need to make sure that you discipline yourself to carry out practice when you should. Therefore if you decide that each day you are going to spend 45 minutes practicing then make sure that you keep to this and don't slope off 10 or 20 minutes before you should.

Tip 4 - You should also learn alternate picking rather than just economy picking. If you don't then when you are trying to learn how to play more complex techniques or faster pieces it will prove that little more difficult. Alternate picking is where you learn how to alternate your picking when playing the down and up strokes on the instrument. Over time you will learn to play these reflexively and then you will find that you can actually pick the strings a lot more quickly.

Tip 5 - You must dedicate time to learning the many different techniques associated with playing lead guitar, which means you need to learn how to play bends, slides, vibratos, hammer ons, pull offs and the other kinds of tricks that lead guitarist use. Learning these techniques will help to make your guitar playing more colorful and will help to 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 - The final tip we give you is probably one of the most important of them all, that is that you should practice as much as possible. The more time you dedicate to practicing how to play the lead guitar and a particular piece of music then the much easier it becomes as you start to remember it. It is best to start off playing the piece very slowly at first and then using a metronome you can gradually build up the tempo at which you play it. - 15478

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