Please help me with Playing LEAD GUITAR!

Hey everyone, well I have been playing guitar "off" and "on" for 4-5 years. I usually take 4 months brake between picking up a guitar for a while. And that is no good if you want to get better.

Now I posted this thread to ask you for your help on getting good at playing lead guitar. By that I mean to be able to play solos good. Now I like music such as Van Halen, Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Joe Satriani, AC/DC, and more. So you get the idea, that I am talking about some tough solos: For example, Fade to Black, Surfing with the Aliens, Sweet Child O' Mine, Free Bird, and maybe even Arpeggios from Hell :eek:

Now how can I really improve my Lead skills, I need a guide, some type of idea and tips. Kind of like adding 2+2 and then moving a step up to multiplying 2 X 2, and then moving a level higher to dividing 2/2.

How can I get to a good stage of Lead playing? I know PRACTICE is one thing, but other than that what can I do? Such as learning scales, or theory. Where do I start with theory?

Please give me any information you can, especially if you are very good at lead, could you tell me how you got to the level you are today. And I want to learn this without taking guitar lessons from a teacher. Kind of like teaching myself with others help.

I would really appreciate if you could help me. Please! :)

Originally Posted by: shobeHey everyone, well I have been playing guitar "off" and "on" for 4-5 years. I usually take 4 months brake between picking up a guitar for a while. And that is no good if you want to get better.

Now I posted this thread to ask you for your help on getting good at playing lead guitar. By that I mean to be able to play solos good. Now I like music such as Van Halen, Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Joe Satriani, AC/DC, and more. So you get the idea, that I am talking about some tough solos: For example, Fade to Black, Surfing with the Aliens, Sweet Child O' Mine, Free Bird, and maybe even Arpeggios from Hell :eek:

Now how can I really improve my Lead skills, I need a guide, some type of idea and tips. Kind of like adding 2+2 and then moving a step up to multiplying 2 X 2, and then moving a level higher to dividing 2/2.

How can I get to a good stage of Lead playing? I know PRACTICE is one thing, but other than that what can I do? Such as learning scales, or theory. Where do I start with theory?

Please give me any information you can, especially if you are very good at lead, could you tell me how you got to the level you are today. And I want to learn this without taking guitar lessons from a teacher. Kind of like teaching myself with others help.

I would really appreciate if you could help me. Please! :)

I'd say start with learning your intervals and major scales.

Please help me with Playing LEAD GUITAR!

Hey everyone, well I have been playing guitar "off" and "on" for 4-5 years. I usually take 4 months brake between picking up a guitar for a while. And that is no good if you want to get better.

Now I posted this thread to ask you for your help on getting good at playing lead guitar. By that I mean to be able to play solos good. Now I like music such as Van Halen, Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Joe Satriani, AC/DC, and more. So you get the idea, that I am talking about some tough solos: For example, Fade to Black, Surfing with the Aliens, Sweet Child O' Mine, Free Bird, and maybe even Arpeggios from Hell

Now how can I really improve my Lead skills, I need a guide, some type of idea and tips. Kind of like adding 2+2 and then moving a step up to multiplying 2 X 2, and then moving a level higher to dividing 2/2.

How can I get to a good stage of Lead playing? I know PRACTICE is one thing, but other than that what can I do? Such as learning scales, or theory. Where do I start with theory?

Please give me any information you can, especially if you are very good at lead, could you tell me how you got to the level you are today. And I want to learn this without taking guitar lessons from a teacher. Kind of like teaching myself with others help.

I would really appreciate if you could help me. Please!

I never got a teacher. Something that helped me alot were Lyle Ronglien's lessons which can be found here:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Riff

He is currently doing lessons on rock and solos so it's worth checking them out before they dissapear. (you have to pay for older lessons)

Right, first of all, this is the wrong place to post this. Second of all, practice loads. Sitting for 4 months is definately no good. Practice for at least 30 minutes every day. Learn other bands songs fisrt to get an idea at what you have to do. Learn scales and play them over chords or something to help build solos.

First Things First,

keep your sound pure and clear. Most of the songs you mentioned have high-gain setting and that helps you to strenth your pull-offs.
Get a good reverb or delay. it makes the diffirents and gives the idea you are playing faster.
your action of your guitar is important aswell. and finally the playing.

chose a good Key to play in (Em or D these are my favorites) and warm up with scale-picking. ones that is done, you'll get a good sound of what it's like to play in that key. and then just play with a backingtrack file.

For playing with a song like Fade To Black, first search for the right key an scales, warm up and play along mate!

Once you're familiar with some scales, try this.
1:Turn on the drum machine or metronome - keep the tempo fairly slow to start with.
2: Pick a key and scale.
3:In time with the beat, play six random notes from the scale, then another seven random notes, and finally another six, all in immediate succession. Try to start and finish on the root note, without ever playing more than the limit of nineteen notes!
4:Keep practicing this exercise. As you become more fluent, try to concentrate on creating a structured melody as you play. If you like, you can pick up speed and/or experiment with other beats and time signiatures.

This exercise is a good first step to playing improvisational lead guitar. That said, it's probably best for jazz and blues guitarists, but there's nothing stopping you improvising in a fashion appropriate to rock, pop, funk, metal - whatever.

Originally Posted by: Julian VickersI never got a teacher. Something that helped me alot were Lyle Ronglien's lessons which can be found here:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Riff

He is currently doing lessons on rock and solos so it's worth checking them out before they dissapear. (you have to pay for older lessons)

NO BLOODY WAY!!!! YOu are way too good not to have gotten a teacher or something, ive heard some of your stuff on the listening forum and i am impressed. Cuz of you i was mulling over how expensive guitar teachers are and how i can get a good one :(

howz come this same thread is posted in both open and this one? :confused: talk about not knowing the system.

Originally Posted by: bunmiadefisayoNO BLOODY WAY!!!! YOu are way too good not to have gotten a teacher or something, ive heard some of your stuff on the listening forum and i am impressed. Cuz of you i was mulling over how expensive guitar teachers are and how i can get a good one :(

wow thanks :) Yeah, I never got a real teacher, although I had friends who were much better musicians than me who played in a church band. I got involved with the church band after I'd been playing 8 months or so. Playing with the other musicians who were better than me really made me learn a lot, and fast.

Well I've only been playing for 2 months but i've noticed a few things.
These things have helped me improove to the point where i can literally see the improvements.

1)Practice everyday
2)Start with a good warm up that covers, stretches, scales, hammer ons and pull offs, tremelo picking, and if you want some harmonics.
3)Dont learn licks or riffs, learn the whole song.
4)If you find a hard riff or chorus, break it down. Music class thought me this ****. cut it up into small parts and learn them individually it really honestly works.

Thats about it. I can honestly say that by doing this everyday, and trying to learn a new song every few days I've really started to improove alot in the past 4 weeks.

Now since you've been playing for 4 years...you should do much better than I did.

Thanks guys, I'll get to it.

Originally Posted by: heknowsnothinghowz come this same thread is posted in both open and this one? :confused: talk about not knowing the system.

I knew what I was doing. I just wanted a few more ideas from different sections.

And thanks everyone

Originally Posted by: shobeI knew what I was doing. I just wanted a few more ideas from different sections.

Actually, posting the same question in more than one forum area is a forum no-no. They'll just get merged into one thread by the moderators so it makes more work for everybody.
If you post a question in one area, don't worry, people will see it.