Sunday, November 30, 2008

7 Tips To Help Improve Playing Lead Guitar

By Joss Schuyler

For you to learn how to play lead guitar you need to know that it not only takes natural talent but you also need to understand the theory and technique with regard to playing the instrument. There are many people who already play the lead guitar and would like to play it even better. For some people this is easier said than done. Below we provide a few tips which can help improve your playing lead guitar in the future.

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 - 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 - 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 - 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 certain lead guitar solos you will need to learn how to repeatedly play scales. The types of scales that are most commonly used by guitarists today to help them with their playing and which they learn are the Pentatonic and E Blues scales. If you can master these scales then you will find that they make a good framework for your playing and can help you to then start creating 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. - 16738

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