Guitar How-To

Archive for the ‘Lead Guitar’ Category

If you have thought about how to write guitar solos your brain is probably filled with questions about how to learn how to solo on the guitar and compose songs. You might have progressed to the stage where you can play your favorite songs note for note but are still getting a blank thought balloon when it comes to writing original material.

Here are some suggestions to get your creative juices playing. It will take some work but the rewards are worth it. If you are getting a brain freeze trying to write guitar solos you probably need to brush up on your theory. Start with learning your pentatonic scales. Do you know all the open chords? Do you know the basic chord shapes that can be moved up and down the fretboard? Learn the notes in any major scale and harmonize it using triads. If you do not know how to do this just do a web search.

Another thing you can try when you want to write guitar solos is changing chord fingering. Start with the pinky – move it around. Put it on any fret you can reach without discomfort and see what kind of sounds you get. Another simple thing to try is playing scales using a metronome. If you play scales as a disjointed bunch of notes without any rhythm, that is not music. If you play along with your metronome, even if you fluff notes, you are feeding your musical feelings. You are more likely to be inspired when you practice with some rhythm. Also as you practice your notes do not forget to also practice your slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs. You need to be using these techniques as second nature.

Many guitar solos are based on a “hook”. This is riff or phrase you can come back to and create variations on. Fool around with chord progressions. Think of a melody you already know and use that as a basis for a new solo. Use the note values of the melody with the notes in the chords you are using. You could think of your guitar solo as a new tune for the song you are working with. Try playing your song’s chords on your guitar and singing notes over your playing. Once you have come up with something useful, write the notes down.

Another way of thinking of guitar solos is as collections of licks. Learn licks from CDs and change them around and string them together to suit your music. Apart from intentionally learning riffs and getting ideas from other guitar players you need to get used to the fact that musical ideas are going to come at you when you are not expecting them and you need to be ready. Carry a notebook and write down anything that occurs to you when it happens. And do not be afraid to use simple ideas. You do not have to be a virtuoso to be a solo guitarist. So, get started and practice every day.

If you have seen guitar groups and have often wondered what roles the guitars play, the answer is one plays the bass lines of the songs, another carries the rhythm and the other is the lead guitarist who plays the lead guitar lines. Lead guitar solos were an integral part of jazz and blues but we generally think of rock and roll as being the breeding ground of virtuoso electric guitar players. Your average lead guitar solo is made up of groups of notes called “licks” and “riffs”. Licks are patterns of notes that can be the basis for a solo in any key, and a riff is a short melody which is repeated throughout a song.

In the early days of rock and roll there were guitar instrumentals played by groups who did little or no singing. The Ventures and The Del-Tones, led by Dick Dale in the USA and The Shadows in England had many hit records and inspired many teenage boys to become guitar players. Unfortunately the music industry preferred to sell records that featured vocalists so now instrumentals rarely find their way into the charts.

The guitar instrumental groups of the nineteen sixties were pioneers of electric guitar music. Dick Dale was largely responsible for the use of reverb in rock and roll music and Hank Marvin of The Shadows was constantly experimenting with guitars and effects. Other guitarists who have made the guitar a feature of their music are Eric Clapton, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Mark Knopfler.

If you know a little bit about playing lead guitar it is possible that you will want to show off all your knowledge every time you take a solo. It is just the way some people are. If you have the urge to show off listen to and watch some solos by Mark Knopfler. With all those Dire Straits numbers, less is more. Even Sultans Of Swing with its two solos, there is no pyrotechnics, just simple elegance.

Take a look at the way you structure your lead guitar solos. Do they have a beginning, a middle and an end or are they all climax? Loudness and intensity have their places but if you are still learning how to play the guitar, you need to expand your skills and interests. If you love to grab the guitar and improvise try to improvise a quiet solo. Kill your inner Angus Young, you do not need him for this experiment. Listen to Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, the climax comes at the end. The rest of the piece gets your attention then the fireworks hammer you.

Speaking of hammer-ons, have you thoroughly grounded yourself in the basic lead guitar techniques? Most people have their favorite ways of playing and tend to neglect the techniques they do not enjoy practicing. Go through in your head the techniques you have learnt: scales, hammer-ons, pull-offs, tapping the fretboard, string skipping, upstrokes, downstrokes, using the index finger to augment your picking. You cannot be excellent at ALL of them.