The Secrets Of Playing Lead Guitar

Playing Lead Guitar

2009-07-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

Playing lead guitar is the next logical step to getting some skills in rhythm playing. To start playing lead guitar you will need to be familiar with the notes on the guitar fretboard. This might seem like a big job but it only takes a few minutes a day of finding the notes and playing them in all positions.

You will need to add sessions of alternate picking using scales to your daily guitar practice. Your picking technique is the basis of your lead guitar playing but there are other techniques like string bending and skipping as well as hammer-ons, pull-offs and string tapping.

If you are a rock or blues guitarist you will need to know the minor pentatonic and the blues scale. The blues scale is only the minor pentatonic scale with an added flattened fifth. You can also add a flattened third or seventh.

If you can make or download a twelve bar blues backing track to play in front of, just play the notes of the scale in any order, experimenting with your blue notes. You will gradually get the feel of playing solos as you start to break free from the scale structure and use licks to make your guitar speak.

Another way of practicing playing lead guitar is to focus on the notes you find in the chords. Start by making sure you have the notes firmly in your head, and play them in any order with your backing track playing.

You could devote some time each day to discovering playing lead guitar using arpeggios. This simply involves fingering chord shapes and playing them as single notes. You simply hold the chord shape and play the strings up from the sixth and down from the first, then in random order.

If you have not already learnt to read guitar tabs, you should start now. It only takes half an hour to get the basic idea, and learning tab will allow you to tap into all the lead guitar solos that other guitarists have written in tab and shared on the internet. You can find tabs on tablature archive sites, and you could also check out forums to see if the members post tabs of their work. And don't forget that guitar magazines are still alive and well, so take a look at any regular tab features they might be running.

Do You Want To Be A Lead Guitarist?

2009-03-09T03:12:00.000-07:00

You could learn to play and apply all seven modes of the major scale. This will open-up a world of new solos possibilities for any guitarist: colors, tones, major-minor harmonies and much more. Would you like to get your hands on 14 guitar solos written to teach specific skills including connecting scale patterns, using the entire fretboard, common rhythmic patterns, bends, attack, hammer-ons/pull-offs, with all the bells and whistles? Lead Guitar Secrets will give you the ability to look at nearly any song and quickly determine the scale possibilities for your solo! Please do NOT get this course if you just want to learn a few songs. That's not what it's about. What it DOES give you is a strong musical foundation: chords, scales, modes, intervals, theory, CAGED system, finger strength, etc. And then you can learn nearly any song or play any style you want. Even though Dan does explain everything step-by-step, it will still take real effort to improve your playing.

First Lessons Beginning Guitar

2008-03-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

First Lessons Beginning Guitar
DVD format: Region 1 for use in the USA and Canada. This very easy to understand, step by step introduction to note reading and guitar solo performance presents basic notes in first position. It features a companion play-along CD and DVD with special sections on types of guitars, frequently asked questions, how to string a guitar, musical and guitar terms. !easy to understand, step by step introduction to note reading and guitar solo performance !presents basic notes in first position !companion play-along CD and DVD !special sections on types of guitars, frequently asked questions, how to string a guitar, musical and guitar terms. DVD 46:00 minutes.
First Lessons Beginning Guitar

Rhythm And Lead Guitar

2008-02-19T05:27:00.000-08:00

So much terminology, so many things to learn - rhythm guitar, lead guitar, drums, bass, the phone number of the drunk chick in the front row. Let's start with lead guitar. The lead guitarist is the dude who plays the tunes. When the singer stops singing, and one of the guys with guitars starts playing a bunch of notes, he's the lead guitarist. Sometimes the notes he is playing are what we call an "improvised solo". This means the guitar dude is making up the music as he goes along. He learns some sets of notes called scales, and he gets to know where on the guitar neck he needs to play his scales to fit in with the key of the song the band is playing. Sometimes he will be basing his solo, one way or another, on a riff or melody he learned from listening to, and trying to play, other people's music.
The guitar player who just strums chords is the rhythm guitarist. He learns the basic chords to the songs, sometimes adding chords of his own, and uses the srumming patterns of the song as the basis for his own interpretation of the song. So there's a little room there for the rhythm guitar player to do some creative stuff.
The lead guitarist needs to learn judicious use of the whammy bar and the effects pedals as well as lead guitar playing techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs and using up and'or down strokes of the plectrum. But if you want to learn to play lead guitar, it's best to start with rhythm guitar techniques. The rhythm guitarist knows how the band works, he knows how to fit in with the drums and bass. If you know that stuff, then you can start thinking about putting yourself out front.
The lead guitarist will eventually need to get into some specialised areas of study: How to build finger strength, eliminating "dead notes", fretting tricky chords, how to maximize your picking speed, mastering chord symbols: how to read and play any chord symbol you encounter (like G7#5), how to solo with all seven positions of the major and minor scales, the modes, the pentatonic and blues scales, and how to write your own songs, riffs, licks and solos.
As for the rest of the band, the drummer plays the drums, and the bass player usually goes home with the drunk chick.
More info on learning to play lead guitar!

The beginning of your career playing lead guitar

2007-12-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

Accept invitations to play. Many beginner guitarists freeze when some friend or relative asks them to play something. First of all when your are just starting out, you might not have much to show for all the time you spend in your room practicing. So this is your first step - finding some simple material that you can use to satisfy people's need to hear you play. The song, instrumental or riff you trot out should be something you are comfortable with, and this should be a golden rule whenever you pick material to play. Some guitarists learn songs because they are standards or they present certain technical challenges, or they are "good for practice". These reasons may be okay to a certain point, but the bottom line is you are learning guitar to please youself. Right, so you have a simple piece or two to show people, your job now is to take every opportunity to play. No matter whether you are feeling up to it or not. This is your first small step to being a professional lead guitarist.
Make sure you run through your small repertoire every day or so just to keep it familiar. Do not overpractice - if you have learnt a piece effectively it stays learnt, it just needs a little revision every now and then.
Once your friends and family know you play guitar, you need to be aware that you could be asked to play at any time. You are a performer now.
If you sit down to play your guitar, and you're having a bad day, you make a few mistakes and you think, "Boy, I'm glad nobody saw THAT!", remember your audience doesn't listen to your playing with the same critical ear as you do! So relax and let any mistakes, big or small roll off the duck's back.
So where does a course like Lead Guitar Secrets fit into all this? You need to know what material is necessary to learn and HOW to learn it. To get an idea of what I mean, Click here.
Click here for a free video on finger strengthening exercises which is another important aspect of practicing lead guitar.

Practicing With a Metronome

2007-12-11T01:55:00.000-08:00

The metronome is a nifty gadget that moves and makes a sound at a regular rate. This provides a musician with a visual and aural aid to enhance their own sense of rhythm. Beethoven was the first major composer to embrace the metronome.

All lead guitarists need to practice using a metronome. No matter how good you think you sound or how great your sense of rhythm, the metronome and the cassette recorder or cellphone or whatever recording device you use will show up the flaws in your natural abilities.

Once you have established that your playing is not entirely perfect, how do you begin to work on it? By setting the metronome way below your comfortable level of playing. You need to practice really, really slooooow! You need to teach your muscles to execute your guitar playing in a calm, relaxed manner without unnecessary tension. If you force youself to practice like this it will be uncomfortable at first but it will become second nature.

More info on muscle memory for guitar players is here.

What's in the Lead Guitar Secrets Course?

2007-12-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

The course comes with 4 DVDs, including 7 hours of video, an audio CD with 50 solo licks, 35 head-banging jam tracks(full-band, not midi), and an in-depth CD-ROM that has an additional hour's worth of video. And there's a 200 page book (with tab) hosting 188 musical examples.
Here's just a few of the skills you'll
learn:
* How to master the pentatonic scale in
all it's forms
* How to play and apply all seven modes
of the major scale
* How to build massive finger strength
and agility
* How to play 50 lead guitar licks that
every solo guitarist needs to know
* Understanding scale-chord
relationships
* 14 hands-on, step-by-step guitar solos
Take a look at the free video lesson samples!

Lead Guitar Skills

2007-11-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

To be really at the top of your game as a guitar player, skills in the areas of lead AND rhythm guitar are what you need. In practical terms, learning the secrets of both styles of guitar is not all that hard. With lead guitar you need trills, arpeggios, string bending, and so on and with rhythm guitar(you need to be able to strum and change chords smoothly without losing your timing. If you make it your purpose in life to be a good allround guitarist, you'll find after a little time, you will actually be a great technician who can fit into any group.
And, by the way, don't be worried about being "only" a rhythm guitarist. If you have your chord changes and strumming patterns down, you'll be loved and admired by the other members of the group. The rhythm guitar player is, after all, responsible for the flow of the music. So you may not be in the spotlight like the lead guitarist, but amongst your peers you will be person of influence.
Where do you begin to learn the skills needed for lead guitar? The finger strength, the understanding of modes and scales, the secrets of
being the melodic master of the guitar? Lead Guitar Secrets

Jazz Lead Guitar Solos

2007-11-20T01:46:00.000-08:00

Jazz Lead Guitar Solos
By Chris Buono. For Guitar. Guitar Method or Supplement. 0. Jazz. Book & CD. 96 pages.
You know your scales, understand how to play over a chord progression, and learned enough music theory to fill an encyclopedia, but you still aren't satisfied with your solos. This book teaches jazz guitarists how to apply their knowledge of scales, chord progressions, and music theory towards creating great guitar solos. Eight full-length solos in a variety of styles are studied in detail, including analysis of chord progressions and the material used to improvise over them, techniques, and structural characteristics. Styles range from classic standards and Gypsy jazz to Latin, modal and smooth jazz. All eight solos are performed on the accompanying CD.
Jazz Lead Guitar Solos

DOUBLE the number of chords you know in five minutes

2007-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

Most people know how to play a few major chords. But, did you know that every major chord has a minor counterpart? Once you discover the secret to make any major chord minor, you can instantly double the number of chords you know how to play.
Understanding chord progressions is the key to figuring out other people's music by ear and writing your own.
Knowing how to play a bunch of chords is useless UNLESS you know which order to put them in, and WHY. Once you understand which chords go well together, you'll not only be able to recognize these patterns in the music you hear, you'll also be able to write your own.
Click Here For More Amazing Guitar Secrets

The Simplicity Of Lead Guitar

2007-11-06T02:45:00.000-08:00

What you are aiming at when you commence learning lead guitari s to become one with your instrument. Playing guitar will eventually become as easy as whistling. It is possible. Really.
Ever wondered why when you watch somebody doing a guitar solo, you are NOT blown away by their dazzling fingerwork? It just looks so easy. The reason for that is that there are quite simple methods to begin playing lead guitar without doing a whole lot of work on modes, scales, muscle memory and other guitaristic tomfoolery.
A major element of lead guitar playing is utilising the pentatonic scales. They are called pentatonic because they only have five notes.

Here's a pentatonic scale in the first position, the notes being E A D G B:
E-----------------------0-3-0------------------------------
B-------------------0-3-------3-0--------------------------
G--------------0-2-----------------2-0---------------------
D----------0-2-------------------------2-0-----------------
A------0-2---------------------------------2-0-------------
E--0-3------------------------------------------3-0--------

Here is the pentatonic scale in A. You can use this pattern all along the fretboard to play in different keys:
E-----------------------5-8-5------------------------------
B-------------------5-8-------8-5--------------------------
G--------------5-7-----------------7-5---------------------
D----------5-7-------------------------7-5-----------------
A------5-7---------------------------------7-5-------------
E--5-8------------------------------------------8-5--------
Once you've practiced the pentatonic scales till they make you puke, all you need to solo over the chords of any song is the name of the key the song is in.
For more info for the lead guitarist visit Lead Guitar Secrets

Getting Your Lead Guitarist In The Mode

2007-10-30T03:37:00.000-07:00

Most lead guitar players started out by hearing some great guitar playing somewhere and saying, "Wow, I wanna do that!!" The trouble is the inspiration of wanting to emulate a guitar hero may not provide you with enough energy to carry you through the boring bits of your guitar journey. Learning modes for instance.
Modes are basically just scales, i.e. a string of notes. The good news is there's only seven of them. The other good news is they're no big deal.
Here is a basic rundown of the modes with thanks to Wikipedia:
The Ionian mode. The term "major" refers to the Ionian mode. Most common songs, including such simple classics as "Happy Birthday to You" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," are in the Ionian mode.

The Dorian mode. "What shall we do with the drunken sailor", "Greensleeves", and "Scarborough Fair" are in the Dorian mode.

The Phrygian mode. This mode is quite common in flamenco music and is often referred to as the "Spanish" mode. The Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit" is in Phrygian mode.

The Lydian mode. The theme song from the TV show The Simpsons is an example of the Lydian mode.

The Mixolydian mode. The Beatles song "Norwegian Wood" and the ABBA Song "The Visitors" are in Mixolydian mode. Jazz and boogie woogie are often written in the mode as well.

The Aeolian mode. The Aeolian mode is more commonly known as the Natural minor scale. In cases where the Aeolian mode has the same key signature as a particular major key but with a different tonic, it is referred to as the Relative minor scale. For example, A Aeolian is the Relative minor of the C major scale. The guitar solo in "Achilles Last Stand" by Led Zeppelin is in Aeolian mode. Many popular children's songs such as "The Ants Go Marching" are in the Aeolian mode.

The Locrian mode. B to B on the white keys of a piano. While this mode theoretically existed in medieval times, it was never used.

There are more detailed musical explanations of the various modes but if you are not big on theory, they'll just bore you witless. It's best to find some examples of the modes and get a feel of them for yourself. Here you'll find interactive fretboard and tab diagrams of the modes. A little experimentation will give you a better understanding than a bunch of theory. If you feel you need more info you can make Google your mentor.
For alot more free info on modes for the lead guitarist visit Lead Guitar Secrets and go to the "Sample Videos" page.

String Bending For The Lead Guitarist

2007-10-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

Why do I want to bend strings? It gives my guitar playing a more resonant flavor, plus it helps to make the music "mine". The art of string bending is used by guitar players of all disciplines, and you need to remember it is a tool to help you get some variety into your playing. It need not necessarily become your trademark so watch out for overuse.
OK, here's a way to make those pesky guitar strings bend to your will. We are going to use three fingers to do the bending with the objective of bending a note up one whole tone and back again. First, to get your ear aquainted with what you are doing, use your third finger on the third string at the seventh fret. Play that note. Put your third finger on the ninth fret. Play the note. Now your body has some memory of these two notes as a guide while you try to repeat those notes by bending the guitar string. So put your third finger back on the seventh fret, and put your second and first fingers on the sixth and fifth frets.
You are now ready to bend your note, so play the note at the seventh fret and see if you can bend it up till it sounds like the note at the ninth fret. Keep repeating the process with the aim in mind of reaching your ninth fret note with the bend, but also don't forget to have fun with it. Experiment, find some new sounds, and keep some practice time for it every day till the technique becomes second nature.
For sample video guitar lessons on Fretboard Movement, Connecting Scale Patterns and an Intro To Modes plus Finger Exercises, a Delta Blues Solo, Heavy Solo and Solo Guitar Licks in addition to five free guitar lessons, visit Lead Guitar Secrets

How Does The Lead Guitarist Lead?

2007-10-16T02:59:00.000-07:00

The lead guitarist is the man. He's put in the hard work. He's paid his dues. He knows his scales, he's learned the riffs of great guitar players of the last fifty years. He knows how many new solos he can make using the note values of "Hey Joe" and the rhythm of "Everybody's Talkin' ". He knows his modes. He can tell with a quick glance at the audience which girls have their own pad and an ugly friend for the bass player.
All this is material the lead guitarist has absorbed from outside himself, from his musical environment.
But what about your own contribution? If you want to be a lead guitarist, you need to think outside the box. Have you tried making up your own scales, and using them as the basis for guitar solos?
Do you make full use of the arsenal of lead guitar "tricks" like hammer-ons, pull-offs, power chords and harmonics? Taking a fresh look at yourself and the tools available to you should be part of the lead guitarist's routine to stop him from getting stale.
Lead Guitar Secrets

Becoming A Lead Guitarist

2007-10-09T02:58:00.000-07:00

The guy at the front of the band - the one doing the fancy solos and searing riffs is called the lead guitarist.
The lead guitar player's part in the band is still the guy who plays the riffs, solos and melodies but his role underwent some changes when rock and roll transformed popular music.

The diversity of guitars, the sounds available through different effects pedals, together with the guitarist's taste in music all blend to make the final product of the band's music. Talent and hard work will be evident in the music you find yourself listening to. A talent not often mentioned in any list of requirements for a great lead guitar player is the ability to LISTEN!

In any band, be it rock, pop or blues the role of the lead guitarist is the same. Even in jazz the guitar player is essentially a soloist or lead guitarist.

The lead guitar player in a blues band utilises reaction style riffs. The soloist makes use of one musical phrase and when repeating it changes the final note or chordrepeating it and changing the odd note or note value, adding bits from his repertoire of phrases as they come to mind.

Get more info and free video lessons at Lead Guitar Secrets

An ideal online guitar course

2007-10-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Whether your ambitions stretch that far or not, the aim of an online guitar lesson course should be to teach you how to play all scales in all positions, in all keys, and how to play chords (major, minor, barre, open-position) plus create progressions.
There are tricks you can learn so that you can develop the ability to learn any song you hear - you should be taught those.
You need to learn how to solo with the major, minor and blues pentatonic scales, and you should also be getting the opportunity to learn how to make up your own guitar solos.

You can break all this down into some basic skills:
How to string and tune your guitar.
How to read tablature and chord charts.
Chords: major, minor, open-position, barre, 7ths (dominant, major, minor), extended (9ths, 11th, 13ths).
Scales: major, minor (natural, harmonic, melodic), 7 modes, pentatonic (major, minor, blues). Scales should be taught in all positions and all keys over the entire fretboard and you should learn how to identify notes on the fretboard.
Finger strength exercises to increase speed, stamina and ability to fret difficult chords.
Elementary music theory.
Solo skills like bends, vibrato, hammer-ons/pull-offs, tapping, sliding, tremolo playing, speed picking and trills.

Okay, that list's what you need to learn, another question is how you are taught. A good online guitar course should make use of CDs, DVDs, MP3s and online customer support to answer any questions you might have. There's also what's known as jamtracks - music you can play along to so you can get some idea of your progress.

Lead Guitar Secrets

Lead Guitar Tips

2007-09-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Which guitar to buy.
An acoustic is best to start learning on because it will be easier in your fingers. Any cheap acoustic guitar is more or less okay to start on, but it would be best if you had an experienced guitar player with you who could play a few chords, especially barre chords and make sure the guitar doesn't have too much buzzing in the top notes, and that it's generally not too hard to play.

Never rush.
Never. Not ever. Not at any time.
Allow speed to build up as a byproduct of many hours of practice. There are exercises that are supposed to help build up speed, but thay too should be played slowly.

The value of constant practice.
Let's say you want to learn the Cmajor chord in the first position. You check where you're supposed to put your fingers, then yopu strum or pluck the chord to check that your holding the strings down correctly so the notes sound clearly. Then you do that a couple more times. Take your hand off the guitar and give it a shake, and try the chord again. Now learn the fingering for another chord or two, say Fmajor an G7, and without rushing, change chords once or twice. Be as slow and clumsy as you like. You're just beginning. After you have repeated all this a couple of times, go onto some other kind of practice, say pentatonic scale shapes. Once you've been through everything you want to practice, go ahve some coffee or something, and come back and do it all again a few times, always remembering not to give into the urge to go faster than your muscles allow.

Pick your plectrum.
Get a collection of picks and experiment with all shapes, sizes and thicknesses. Find out what suits you and the kind of playing you're doing.

Barre chords.
Learn a barre chord early in your guitar learning. Before you need them. Whenever you think of it try the barre chord a few times, up and down the neck.

Remember that guitar strings break.
If ever anything was subject to Murphy's Law it's guitar strings, and of course they break most often while they are being played. It's best to carry a spare new set at all times, even though some guitar players change their strings regularly and keep the old ones as spares.

Keep your guitar in tune.
The AP Guitar Tuner is a great tuner for beginner guitarists because it has a clear visual indicator so you don't need to rely on your ear to get the tuning right. The guitar tuner on the front page of Learn To Play A Guitar For Free, like many online tuners, gives you the notes only. It's best to give this tuner a try occasionally to train your ear so that you are not permanently relying on a visual tuner.

Musical Expression On The Guitar

2007-09-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

Eric Clapton is a blues guitar player who took up the guitar in his teens and learnt guitar from listening to and playing with blues guitarists. John Williams is a classical guitarist who learnt musical theory, guitar playing and reading music in childhood. Paco De Lucia is a flamenco guitarist who never learnt to read music till he reached adulthood, but acquired his v technical virtuosity as a child by practicing for many hours a day and absorbing flamenco muisc from the people around him.
Each of these guitarists has the ability to express himself through the guitar, even though they each have a very different approach to the guitar, each guitarist's understanding of music is different, each has a different knowledge of musical theory, and each uses different muscle groups to play their music.
Yet they are all "lead guitarists".

So what do they have in common? What do all solo musicians have in common?
Their different musical backgrounds have given each of them a technical ability to squeeze some kind of "music" from their instrument, a knowledge of the notes which can be found on the neck of the guitar, and they also have the ability to see musical opportunities and put them into practice according to the requirements of the music they are playing.

So I guess it can be said that, given the opportunity to learn music and where to find it on the fretboard, any of us can be a lead guitarist. The difference is in degree.

If we give a certain amount of time to the guitar each day we will naturally begin to get some technical ability. We do not necessarily need to play fast but we need to put our ideas into action. And these musical ideas we have will be quite simple right at the start of our careers.
Knowledge of the fretboard needn't be the nightmare it may seem at first.

There are lots of approaches to learning the notes on the fretboard, but basically you need to take it slowly, and learn only what you can put into practice. You can learn the fretboard by memory in the same way that you learn the Times Table, but it's better if you just learn to play a pentatonic scale in one or two positions at first.

The ability to translate your ideas into music comes with doing it. And a little hint here - try to forget your theory or whatever "head knowledge" you have for a while just try to play, and let your "successes" and "failures" stand together.

What is "Lead Guitar Secrets"?

2007-09-11T15:56:00.000-07:00

Lead Guitar Secrets is a new course by Dan Denley. Dan's course actually lives up to
the hype. Let's look at the differences between this course and all the others.
NOTATION.
The majority of online guitar "courses" provide all the music in tab. Now, there's nothing wrong with tab. But it definitely has its limits.
Music notation gives you a LOT more info about the music. But most so-called "guitar experts" out there don't even read music. They only read tab.
Dan Denley's musical education is a little deeper than alot of guitarists'. He can work in tab AND conventional musical notation.

On DVD 1 he covers finger strength and pentatonic scales.

On DVD 2 he explains (in detail) all seven modes, and then he teaches 50 solo guitar licks in a blues-rock style.

But the 3rd DVD is where things get interesting...This is where he combines all the theory into real-world playing. He wrote 14 solos that each teach specific
skills like string bending and connecting scale patterns.

And the 4th DVD really sets this course apart from anything else.

Dan explains his 4-step process for analyzing a song and quickly determining which scales to use for your solo.

This is called, "Scale-Chord Relationships" and most guitarists don't understand how it *really* works. But, Dan DOES.

And the amazing part is, he explains it in a way that an 8-yr-old can understand. (And that's a gift).

Dan holds a Bachelors degree in music from the Scheidt School of Music (he graduated 1st in his class).

And he's a classically trained pianist, too! Yeah, he sits down and plays Beethoven sonatas when he's bored. So, if you are serious about truly learning
how to play lead, you should grab a copy of this course straight away.

Here's the link: Lead Guitar Secrets

Arpeggios - Weapons Of The Lead Guitarist

2007-09-03T17:26:00.000-07:00

To make arpeggios your friends, you need to know what they are and how they can help you, and you must also have the physical dexterity to put your knowledge of arpeggios into practice.
When you pick out the single notes contained in any chord, and play them separately, you are playing an arpeggio. You can put the notes in any order, use up or down strokes, hammer-ons or pull-offs, string bending, whatever.
So wherever you have the possibility of making a sound by playing a chord, you have the possibility of playing different combinations of sounds using the notes of the chord.
And these notes you are using are found all over the fretboard. They can be grouped in a certain way when they are played as a chord, and grouped in another way when they are played as a scale. But look for more possibilities of using notes from different positions on the neck. Get into it for a few hours. Experiment.

Seven Lead Guitar Secrets

2007-08-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

You hear lots of great guitar playing, and you have a desire to emulate some of the famous guitarists you have heard and seen. You know you have to be able to read tabs and/or musical notes, and you know you need to develop your ear for picking up a melody and playing it, and then changing it and making it your creation. How do you begin?

The Secret Of Technique
In your musical career you will watch guitarists trying to play musical passages faster than their muscles are able to smoothly execute the many small movements involved. To fight this problem some guitar teachers will encourage you to closely analyze the music and the way you play it. This can lead to your practice becoming a chore if you are not careful. Cultivating the ability to listen is time and effort well spent. Basically your aim is to be able to hear your playing AS IT IS rather than how you wish it to be, and to make the effort to relax and play smoothly even if the noise coming out of your guitar sounds awful. Work on trying to practice in this way for a short time each day until you can prove to yourself whether it works or not.

The Secret Of How To Hold The Guitar
You need to pay attention to how you hold the guitar for one simple reason: if you let your various muscle groups run free to fight with each other, you are going to seriously mistreat your body. Do some Googling on muscular tension, read some books, talk to a doctor or a chiropractor - get a handle on how you should be treating your body while you train it to make music on the guitar.

The Secret To Using The Left Hand
Anybody who wants to learn how to play lead guitar needs to be clear about the fact that his hands are connected to his shoulders via his arms. This connection allows his intention to make music to be put into practice. The message is that from the inside you should be always checking that you're not inflicting pain on your arms and shoulders. These muscles are more or less under your control. The small muscles of the hand aren't, and when you start getting searing pain in your hands and wrists, you're going to need to look for outside help.

The Secret Of Presentation
Or bearing. If you hunch over your guitar when you practice, making little gestures and grunts every time you make a mistake, you are not laying a great foundation for a favorable - let alone exciting - stage presence. If you behave as if your mistakes don't matter, or even as if they're not mistakes, you will find that you start to have a new attitude to your playing: you make fewer mistakes, and take the ones you DO make in your stride.

The Secret Of Regular Practice
Begin your musical study with a timetable. You may feel excited at the beginning, and be more than willing to put in alot of hours on the guitar. Whether all these hours you practice are effective or not is another question, but a timetable helps to keep up a regular, consistent practice regime.

The Secret To Being A Lead Guitarist
As lead guitarist you are not only responsible for creating the guitar solos, but you will acquire the musical know-how to be able to support the other members of your band. If the drummer drops his sticks, if the rhythm guitarist or bass player forget where they are, the lead guitarist needs to have the presence to be able to ride out the consequences of other's mistakes. If the lead guitar player keeps playing, the others can pick up the music again.

The Secret Of Relaxation
Take a break five minutes AFTER you decide you really need one. Your resting periods during practice sessions should have the effect of recharging your batteries. Taking a break every time you feel frustrated or tired is not the way to go. Even relaxation needs some discipline.

How To Play Guitar Solos

2007-08-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

In any musical group someone has to play the tunes. Even with a singer fronting the band, the bass player, drummer and rhythm guitarist aren't enough to carry the music: a soloist is necessary to give the sound some variety and interest for the audience.

One area of guitar playing the aspiring lead guitarist must master is use of the plectrum. Playing scale, riffs or melodies, try different combinations of up and down strokes or playing all upstrokes or all downstrokes. As with all aspects of learning to play a guitar - remember to have fun with it!

Maybe this is a good place to remind you to get a sound recording device of some kind, no matter how primitive. Use your recorder to hear what you really sound like. You will hear fluffed notes and little moments of hesitation you don't notice as you are playing. Also you need to double check your ability to keep good time. A metronome is necessary, but the cassette recorder lets you really hear your playing.

The question of how fast to play should also be touched upon. Speed shouldn't be tried for by rushing. If you choose to use special exercises designed for cultivating speed, the physical ability to play fast is aquired in time, depending on how long you practice every day and how hard you work on relaxation during practice.

Your guitar solos are mashups of other people's riffs you have learned, your efforts with pentatonic scales, and your experiments with making up music on the spot. The process of learning to play improvised solos begins with using riffs and breaks you know you can use, and as you get some experience playing in public your guitar playing will become more spontaneous. Sometimes you'll even surprise yourself with what you can do!

The time you spend playing should not always be with musicians at the same stage of playing as yourself. There's nothing wrong with feeling lost and floundering around. But a band should really be made up of guys with varying degrees of talent and ability so that there's a process in motion of musicians helping and being helped by each other.

If you feel that you need help with learning how to play guitar solos Lead Guitar Secrets is the only worthwhile course designed for lead guitar. They have free sample video lessons so you can check out the course before you buy.

Learn To Play Lead Guitar - scale shapes

2007-08-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

OK, you've learnt a few songs, a few chords, you have some familiarity with the concept of scales, where do you go from here? Do you want to be out front leading he band? Are you attracted by the glory? Does the idea of picking up a guitar and playing a riff or a melody that's never been heard before appeal to you?
If you want to create the music start with the a basic five note scale shape called the pentatonic scale. The major pentatonic scale is a good one to start with. It contains only whole notes (no semitones): C D E G A. Not only does this scale have notes, it also has the material you need to practice with to develop your physical relationship with your instrument. That's right - practice a simple scale on a regular basis, get to know it, get to know yourself, the way your fingers work.
Working with this pentatonic scale shape in different positions on the fretboard will open up the possibility of playing improvised guitar solos in many keys over any song. Experiment a little with your favorite songs. Find out what key a song is in and fool around with your scale shape in that key.
Another thing you need to work on to be a lead guitar player is getting a collection of well-known licks and breaks together to use as a basis for writing your own material. It's your choice - use Smoke On The Water or Twinkle, Twinkle - either one will start you off on a career as a lead guitarist.
One tool which will help you to train your ear to recognise what key a song you want to learn is in is the AP Guitar Tuner. It's free to download to your computer, and if you have it open while a song is playing on your computer, it will show you what notes are being played.
These video guitar lessons will explain more about scale shapes.

Rhythm And Lead Guitar

2007-08-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

The secret of mastering lead guitar

2007-08-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

If you are the lead guitarist in a band, you take your place as a part of a group. You support and are supported by the rhythm gutiarist, keyboards player, bassist and drummer. Until the solo. Then it's your moment of glory! Wind back in time to . . . er, now, I guess. What kind of lead guitar player are you going to be? Sure you have your favorite players who inspired you to begin studying the guitar, but how do you make the solo you are playing "your own"? Stamping your guitar playing with your own character starts with the WAY you play. Whether or not you just learn riffs and/or scales without any real repetitive practice to get your finger strength up is going to show in the way you present your guitar solos. It boils down to your physical control of the instrument. The degree to which you are master of this particular domain!
If you are interested mainly in blues music, then your choice of which scales and modes to learn is going to be governed by your relationship to the blues. If you need a little more versatility to play different kinds of music, you will need to look at expanding your repertoire of scales and chords.
Also knowing the fretboard up and down and inside out is a must. One way is simply to let your familiarity with the guitar neck build up with time, as you learn more songs and scales. Another way is to take advantage of a guitarist's tools like the ones at TabGuitarLessons They have a method of learning the fretboard in sixty minutes so you will immediately know where to find chords anywhere on the neck as well as enabling you to develop improvisation skills and be able to "jam" with other musicians. Their fretboard method works, and it's a free download!
Also don't forget to check out Lead Guitar Secrets

A lead guitar hero?

2007-08-19T03:46:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to be a guitar hero? With the rise of air guitar competitions and the increase in the number of aspiring musicians following the philosophy of "It's not what you are but what you wear", lead guitar players aren't as thick on the ground as they once were. But that doesnt't mean you need to be ashamed of your ambitions to be the front man in a band. There are still wise guitar gurus out there willing to share the secret rituals which will transform you into a lead guitarist.
How would you like to build massive finger-strength and agility to assist you to fret difficult chords, make long-stretches across many frets, lessen instances of "sore" fingers, not to mention increase your playing speed.
Do you want to play 50 lead guitar licks that every solo guitarist needs to know to build your "arsenal" of lead guitar licks that you can "copy-paste" into your solos at will.
Do you want to master the pentatonic scale in all its forms? It's the most commonly used scale in guitar solos in most styles of music especially blues, rock and country.
You could learn to play and apply all seven modes of the major scale. This will open-up a world of new solos possibilities for any guitarist: colors, tones, major-minor harmonies and much more.
Would you like to get your hands on 14 guitar solos written to teach specific skills including connecting scale patterns, using the entire fretboard, common rhythmic patterns, bends, attack, hammer-ons/pull-offs, with all the bells and whistles?
Lead Guitar Secrets will give you the ability to look at nearly any song and quickly determine the scale possibilities for your solo!
Please do NOT get this course if you just want to learn a few songs. That's
not what it's about. What it DOES give you is a strong musical foundation: chords, scales, modes, intervals, theory, CAGED system, finger strength, etc. And then you can learn nearly any song or play any style you want.
Even though Dan does explain everything step-by-step, it will still take real effort to improve your playing.
Find out more about Lead Guitar Secrets here!

Three free video lead guitar lessons

2007-08-17T02:23:00.000-07:00

The video guitar lessons are on lead guitar
techniques: connecting scale patterns, using the entire fretboard for your solo and 3-string box positions.
Here's a short synopsis of the sample lessons from the new lead guitar course which will be released on July 20.
Horizontal fretboard movement
Horizontal movement basically means moving up and down the fretboard. You do this by understanding how scale patterns are related.
Three-string box positions
Box positions are used extensively by blues & rock guitarists. They are simply the 3-string versions of the pentatonic minor patterns.
Connecting scale patterns
The ability to connect scale patterns is the key to being able to achieve total freedom in your solo.
You can check the videos out here.
All 3 videos come from "Lead Guitar Secrets."
Hope you enjoy these videos. Be sure to post
your comments/questions on Dan's blog. Dan is
pretty good about trying to answer as many
questions as he can.

Lead guitar videos

2007-08-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

This link will take you to a video lesson (with tab) for you from the Lead Guitar Secrets course. You can also check out a "spy-photo" of Lead Guitar Secrets and watch the new video lesson here!

. . . and here's a couple more great video lessons...
The first one shows you three finger-strength
exercises that will help you fret difficult chords
more easily and increase your picking speed &
accuracy. They'll also help you eliminate "dead
notes."
The second video teaches the first three modes of
the major scale: Ionian, Dorian & Phrygian.
Modes are essential for the solo guitarist because
once you understand *what* they are and *how* to
apply them the tone possibilities for your solos
will be endless.
Watch the videos here.
.....
This video teaches you three finger
strength exercises that will help you fret
difficult chords more easily and increase your
picking speed accuracy. They'll also help you
eliminate "dead notes."
Anyway, the video is 100% free so, grab your guitar and turn up your
speakers...

"Does Lead Guitar Secrets REALLY work?"

2007-08-10T04:26:00.000-07:00

Answer: Yes.
There well over 5,700 actual students who've had "amazing" results with this method. In fact, 95% of guitarists who got the course
said they'd recommend it to a friend. (You can see the actual survey results on the site).

"What will I learn?"

Here's a short list:

How to build massive finger strength, eliminate "dead notes" and fret nearly any chord...

How to maximize your picking speed...

Master chord symbols: how to read and play any chord symbol you encounter (like G7#5)...

How to solo with all 7 positions of the major and minor scales, the modes, the pentatonic and blues scales...

How to write your own songs, riffs, licks and solos...

Complete chord mastery: power chords, open-position chords, major/minor barre chords and seventh chords (dominant, major, minor, and minor-major)...

Click here for more lead guitar secrets

Approaching tricky guitar chords

2007-08-09T03:30:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about ways to make learning new guitar music a little bit easier. Some people get through their whole career as a guitarist without ever using exercises to gain finger strength. Of those guitar students who do use finger exercises, none is sorry they learnt them. A little bit of extra work will definitely pay off in this area of playing.
Also if you find yourself pressed for time or you've reached the end of the day without doing any guitar practice, and you're low on energy and motivation, finger strength exercises are the thing to do. All you need to do is pick up the guitar and do a few boring, mechanical exercises, and you find that getting into the habit of doing finger exercises will build up your ability to finger unfamiliar chords and scales as well as keeping your hands in "playing condition". The other thing that can happen is that sitting down to do some routine-type practice like finger-strengthening exercises will awaken your feeling for the guitar, and you will suddenly find you have some extra energy to go on and play through some of your regular practice pieces or work on learning some new material.

At Lead Guitar Secrets there's a great free video guitar lesson which teaches you three finger strength exercises that will help you fret difficult chords more easily and increase your picking speed & accuracy.They'll also help you eliminate "dead notes."

Click here to see the video

What are the lead guitar secrets?

2007-08-08T22:52:00.000-07:00

Lead Guitar Secrets is the brainchild of Dan Denley who began playing guitar in 1989 at the age of 14. Mr. Denley is a self-taught guitarist and classically trained musician.

After graduating with honors from the Scheidt School of Music (University of Memphis) with a bachelors degree in Music History, he created the Amazing Guitar Secrets course for learning guitar, which is considered by many to be most complete and authoritative.

In December, 2006 he released Blues Guitar Secrets which sold out in six days. His newest work, Lead Guitar Secrets, a multi-DVD home-study course, focuses on the art of creating and playing lead guitar solos.