I would say i am most of all a lead guitarist.

But nevertheless it is important to be skilled in the other fields too.
I joined a band 3 years ago and i did not have a clue about playing rythm for i always concentrated on soloing. But very soon i had to discover that, in a band, u have to be a good rythm-maker too - u can´t play solos all the time.
That was the time when i became a rythm player too.

One day my guitar teacher (i took one after 2 years of autodeductive learning) had a brilliant idea and i wanna pass this on to everyone cuz i think that this is a VERY cool thing:
I told him: "gimme some of the heaviest stuff u have!"
and he (having studied in vienna Karl Scheit) took out some of his Modern-classics:

• William Walton´s "Five Bagatelles for guitar"
  


• Benjamin Britten´s "Nocturnal"
  


• Isaak Albeniz "Leyenda"
  


• Cristobal Halffter´s "Codex I"
  

and a few other VERY difficult pieces.

I looked for some audio examples on these pieces and started to practice...

This crap REALY made my playing (i´m a metal-guitarist btw) become better by aprox 500% - this stuff realy kicks ass!

Some of them songs might sound "strange" or sometimes "dissonant" (i didn´t care about that - i just wanted to be able to play the most difficult stuff avaliable *L*) but they realy helped alot!

The first 3 pieces i mentioned above have been performed by Julian Bream - just in case some of u want to give them a try! - u can also find "the five bagatelles (well - 3 of them :) ) at midiworld.com

Have fun and keep on rocking!