How to Play Lead Guitar Lessons

Making your very own riffs or solos on guitar is undoubtedly a skill almost all guitar players aspire to do. If you are new to playing the guitar and looking for lead guitar lessons, I would advice you to take a step back and focus on the fundamentals of the guitar.

Very often, many guitarists that had just started to play guitar are not interested in learning the guitar neck nor the music theory behind it. This acutally hinders your progress in the long term.

I can recount my own experience of learning lead guitar and how much time I wasted by attempting an alternative route.

When I was young, I often listened to guitar gods like Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen and imagined myself playing like them. Playing fast and furiously on the guitar and enjoying all the attention from stage. This was one of my biggest inspiration that motivated me to pick up the guitar.

I still remembered the first time I walked into my guitar class as a total beginner and not even knowing what the notes of the guitar strings are. I told my guitar teacher: "Have you heard of Satriani? He's my idol and I would like to play like him".

"Sure. Once you get your fundamentals and some basic music theory, you could start to learn some simple guitar soloing. If you want to play like Satriani, you need to put in alot of effort." Of course, like any eager guitarist, I ignored the advice and turned to guitar tablatures online to learn guitar solos of my favourite artists by myself.

I would blindly memorized the guitar tabs for the solos and try to replicate it in my playing. Needless to say, I found the entire process very frustrating and my guitar solos sounded very choppy. This was due to the lack of guitar techniques as well as the understanding of guitar scales. I was effectively putting in 2-3 hours everyday trying to learn a solo with little progress.

Many months later, I got the guitar solo learnt and mastered to perfection. But, the joy was short lived. When I started to play in a band around this time, there were small sessions in which we sometimes jammed around to improvise on music. This was where the bell hit me.

When the band was playing in the background and it was my turn to take the lead, I realized that I couldn't play any decent riffs or melodies. I realized that I had been "copying" others all along and that I couldn't even improvise over a simple chord progression. I wasn't a lead guitarist but a "copy" guitarist.

I went back to my guitar teacher and told him about what I felt and asked why other guitarists could simply improvise at will. The reply I got was "Don't worry Paul, you are not the only one who felt like this. This happens to most guitarists who jumped ahead too fast.

With proper foundations in scales and music theory, learning to improvise and learning guitar songs would be easy. The analogy is: If you give a man a fish, he eats for 1 day. If you give the man a rod, he eats for life."

Fast forward a couple of years, I am now able to improvise and play some of the toughest guitar solos that you can think of. Whether I am learning somebody else's guitar solo or trying to create my own guitar riffs, I no longer struggle at it.

This is because of the strong fundamentals that I had built up in my early years as a guitarist. The message I want to bring across is that anybody can be a lead guitarist. However, to be a good one, basic fundamentals of guitar scales, theory and techniques is essential.

If you are serious about learning lead guitar and want to play like no tomorrow, check out the following lead guitar lessons to find out more...

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Lead Guitar Lessons | Learn Lead Guitar | How to Play Lead Guitar:

Jamplay (Best resource to learn guitar soloing and improvisation)

1. How to Play Lead Guitar for Beginners
   
   Most guitarists share a common goal; learning to play lead guitar. Being at the front of the band, having all of the instrumentation surrounding you guitar lead, is a great feeling.
2. Improvising With C Dorian Scale On Guitar
   
   One of the big keys to learning how to improvise on guitar effectively is to develop a solid understanding of the various scales and how they relate to the key in which you're playing.
3. Harmonizing Your Lead Guitar Licks
   
   Harmonizing leads is like being able to add every quality you want to your girlfriend to make her better. Now you may be thinking she’s already perfect, but that’s what many of us think about our leads already.
4. Rock Guitar Licks
   
   The catch is that these licks are only building blocks. Each one of these rock guitar licks has been built to be built upon.
5. Dropped D Guitar Tuning
   
   Dropped D guitar tuning also gives dissonance a whole new meaning. With the dropped D at a fifth from the A, open chords can easily be shifted and reconstructed.
6. Easy Guitar Riffs to Learn
   
   Every guitarist has to start somewhere. The worst thing you can do is to start off with songs that are beyond a beginner’s skill level. This can cause you to learn bad habits of sloppy playing, incorrect technique, and straining.
7. Lead Guitar Phrasing Tips
   
   If you want to improve your guitar playing, you’re going to need some help. Since you’re reading this article, you’ve already taken the first step and won have the battle.
8. Guitar Licks in E Minor
   
   Today we will learn some licks that will take the E minor scale from a frail, depressed structure to a powerhouse. In fact, some of these licks might even put major scales to shame.
9. Cool Arpeggiated Riffs With Triads
   
   Triads are great for creating cool-sounding arpeggiated riffs, which can be used in both rhythm and lead guitar playing.
10. Harmonizing Your Leads
    
    Harmonies can make a riff sound huge. They can do even more for your leads. Harmonizing a melody can add a different feel to it. You can make note more prominent.
11. Guitar Riffs Everyone Should Know
    
    These are the riffs that have been the building blocks of great guitarists for decades, and they continue to be some of the most popular riffs in all of rock and roll and heavy metal.
12. Beginner Guitar Solo Lessons | Creating Guitar Solos | Learn Guitar Solos
    
    Have you ever attended a live performance and had your mind mesmerised by the lead guitar player? The guitar solo is so captivating that you find it hard to turn away and can only stand in awe.
13. Guitar Improvisation Tips | Guitar Improvisation Techniques
    
    When people see great guitar players such as Joe Satriani or Paul Gilbert improvise on the guitar, most tend to think that they must be born with the talent for guitar improvising or a special skillset that they themselves do not have.

Lead Guitar Lessons | Learn Lead Guitar | How to Play Lead Guitar