What do I need to know to play lead?

[Rammstein2452]

Me and some friends are starting a band, and we have two guitarists, me and another friend. We're both semi-begginers and are debating who should play lead so I need to know whats involved in that, I can play rythem (sorry about the spelling) easy.
anything would be appretiated http://www.guitarforums.com/gtubb/smile.gif

[James]

Well I think it depends partly on what style and what sound you're going for. But if you're a complete beginner, I can give you a few tips on how to start off which are universal.
1) Familiarize yourself with the scales you will be utilizing (be it pentatonic, minor, blues, etc.)
2) Practice that scale to death until you can play it backwards and forwards in your sleep. Practice with a metronome and with no distortion.
4) Get good at switching between solo boxes seamlessly.
3) Work on your "arsenal" of licks and riffs. Master the hammer-on, pull-off, and slide.
4) And lastly, develop a sense of "musical good taste", that is, being able to improvise in a creative and hopefully melodic way. It's not that long a road to reach that point, and the journey is fun as hell.

[Rammstein2452]

Hey thanx, great info. Would the scales that came on THIS websight (guitar tricks) work or should i learn more, i forgot to tell that we're playing mettalica/iron maiden type stuff. thanx!

[Rammstein2452]

Good god I cant even spell metallica right, sorry http://www.guitarforums.com/gtubb/smile.gif

[AtomicMassUnit]

I'd recommend learning minor pentatonic and the aeolian mode (aka the minor scale) for that style music. Lead guitar is playing a melody over rhythm basically, only it's usually very complex compared to something like a vocal melody. The most important thing about it is phrasing, how you say what you say. A good guitarist knows which notes to use to get a point across, and uses no more and no less than what he/she needs. Then again, you can impress a lot of people just by playing notes that are in key really really fast, but just know what notes fit over the rhythm, and use them however you feel. Thats pretty good advice i think. Just do whatever you feel.

Atomic

[James]

Yes minor pentatonic and straight minor should work for you. If you can, learn the minor scale using the three notes per string approach. Atomic is right, phrasing is very important. If you're like me when I started off, you'll try and play as fast as you can with no regard for melody or phrasing. Imop, that's fine, because what's important is that you have fun (there will be time enough later to tone down the chops to something more concise and melodic). So just remember the advice I gave you before, and your style and form will evolve with lots of practice and devotion.

[josh_underwood]

I Agree I Think You Need To Get To Know The Major Scale. I Play Lead And I Know It By Heart. Also Be Very Open minded About The Music you Listen to You Can Pickup Alot Of Difrent Things Listning to Difrent Styles Of Music and Become A great Lead Player In Notime! http://www.guitarforums.com/gtubb/smile.gif Well Keep Pratcing and you'll Get Better. But Learn Those Scales and how to Use Them!

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[Rammstein2452]

Hey, thanx to everyone for the advice, im well on my way to playing lead. Aboud my band though, eesh, the kid i thought was good, was good only on a few "show off songs" and good god it was horrible playing with him, would'nt listen and would just go off playing nada

[LuigiCabrini]

I think some professional bands still subscribe to that belief system (play fast as you can withhout regard for melody/phrasing.) I used to think that progress on the guitar was being able to play scales to a metronome faster than last month. It's really not. Ever since I got into jazz, I realized that playing single notes fast is a very, very small part of what you can do on the guitar. I still practice scales, but I also practice chord voicings (even if you're lead, being able to throw chordal stuff in is always good) arpeggios, sight reading (if you ever want to play in college/high school with a school band, you'll have to) having good timing, all these thigns are just as improtant.