Learning lead...

[Tremmer]

Maybe someone can help me. I am an intermediate guitartist. I know some music theory and I can play just about anything I hear. My problem is that I come short when trying to play leads. Can anyone offer me some advice on where to start learning?

Tremmer

[ghodaddyyo]

For starters, learn some scales, especially the scales you know will fit what you plan to play. Practice these scales along with a metronome, concentrating on your rhythm, such as 1/2 notes, 1/4 notes, etc... After you have your scales memorized, start piecing together notes from the scale to form melodies. From there you can work on expressing certain feelings through those notes, by bending, using hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and any other combination you can think of.

Stone can probably fill you in on the theory aspects, (and anything else for that matter) of lead playing if it is not already in his lessons pages.

Most people start out learning leads with the Pentatonic scale. It has a very familiar sound to it, so it is fairly easy to learn.

[This message has been edited by ghodaddyyo (edited August 02, 2000).]

[StoneDragon]

I would definitely say that the major and minor pentatonic scales are the way to go for getting started at the point where you know some songs already.

As ghodaddyyo mentioned, those sounds are so common that they are very easy to recognize. Not only that but if you can determine the main chord that a progression is based around, then all you have to do is try one of the pentatonic scales from the same root as that main chord. If it doesn't work, the other one will.

You can check out my pentatonic lesson (http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/pentatonic.html) for the theory and patterns behind both major and minor pentatonic.

When it comes to playing lead with these scales, you just have to go for it. Start playing the notes of the scale and see how it sounds over the chord progression. You won't sound like the greatest guitar player in the world... but everybody starts at the same place. When you start racking up some mileage, you will start to see little patterns and licks within the scale that you know will sound good. These start to become your safe ground while you explore other ways of mixing things up.

The only real advice I can give you at this point is that the root note of the scale acts as "home base" for everything you play. Lead lines can be seen as a game of how far you go and how long you stay out there before returning to the root note. Start off by playing the root and the next couple of notes above and below the root. See if you can make those few notes sound like they mean something and lead you back to the root.

Then it's just a matter of expanding what you play to include more notes and travel around the guitar.

Good Luck!!

[Tremmer]

Thanks much guys. That sounds like a perfect place to start. I really appreciate the guidance. I looked over some of the other lessons in that section and some of those will help out as well. I have a pretty good grasp of theory, but I certainly don't know everything.

Trem