How did you learn to play lead guitar

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ido1957

ido1957

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Now there's a million types of lead so say what "style/genre" and what tools you used/studied/practised to attain it.

I hacked away on pop/rock cover tunes for many years - not bad but couldn't improv very well. Found my groove in blues/rock and studied a couple of SRV tab books. Learned enough to become "dangerous" as they say. :D:D:D:D

So what's your story?
 
I mostly suck at lead guitar, but what I can do I just learned from practicing modes and pentatonics over and over and over and over and over and over
 
If you put me in a live situation and put a gun to my head and said "play lead guitar", I'm afraid you'd have to pull the trigger !
However, recording is kind of different. I play lead kind of the way I play bass as I'm a bass player really. I've modified my bass style as the years have rolled by but I play a melodic/counter melody type of bass for the most part and I find that lead guitar is pretty much in the same vein.
The night I first bought a bass and plugged it in, I was determined to learn "Rain" by Status Quo so I did. I learned the riff and all and that set the template for my bass playing. That's why I was able to write songs on a bass. But about 8 years later, I was closely listening to "Rain" and for the first time, though I'd loved the song for years, actually listened to what Alan Lancaster does in the song on bass. He hardly does anything ! He doesn't play the riff or the melody. I think he plays 3 notes. I was damned surprized and realized all those years previously that I'd learned what I thought the bass should be, not what it was. So when I started homerecording, lead guitar lines weren't particularly difficult because I just put in what might previously have been a melodic bass part, but higher up the guitar.
Although I can improvise on bass, I can't really, on lead guitar. My mind is quick but my fingers just don't respond in time ! But if I want lead parts for songs I'll often just hum freeform to the existing music and sometimes it stays as is or I'll tinker a bit. Learning it on guitar is a pain but eventually I'll get there and I'm glad for multitracking and studio trickery ! :D
 
I learned by playing out for MANY, MANY years. Sucked badly in front of large crowds, totaly embarassed myself a few thousand times but refused to quit. Eventually the light bulb went on in my head and had that epiphany. I can't describe it, it's what I call "tuning into the cosmic radio" and syncing up. Once you have that moment, you'll understand. Now I can pull it out of my ass on demand but it's impossible for me to articulate. But it took a LONG time to get there.
 
ido-

"pop/rock cover tunes" is a fertile learning zone.

tho i started differently, after working in a fulltime top 40 gig for 5 years, i learned literally thousands of songs, and have a huge 'data base' of licks and riffs and vibe to draw from.





i started out copping jimmy page licks.

a good round start, because it gave me rock sensibility at the same time i got old blues licks.

but once i got that down, i moved up to ritchie blackmore, and THAT got me running quick.
then came Jeff Beck, Tom Scholz, Brian May, Todd Rundgren.
really big influences there...

but then i discovered al dimeola, so i had to learn the mute technique...
which i didn't use much, until i discovered John Goodsall, of Brand X, which has been probably my largest influence.

then holdsworth.
tho i gotta say, i've NEVER set down and tried to learn a holdsworth tune, i'm to ADHD for that.....!
but the sound of it, and the legato technique, definitely rubbed off.


i haven't learned a cover tune in probably 12 years now.....
 
I was 11 or 12 and jamming away at home as usual. No one was home and i had my little Fender Champ cranked all the way up (wish i still had this amp). I'm sure it was sounding like 2 cats fighting most of the time. And then it happened. Some feedback caught a note i was trying to play, and then i added some finger vibrato and really started letting this one note sing. I did this for the rest of the afternoon (until my Dad came home) and all of the next day. I had found what i didn't know i was looking for. Singing Notes and feedback! My notes were singing and i was controlling this awesome thing called feedback. It was awesome and i will never forget that day. I made a huge leap in my playing in just one day.
 
Like most people I picked at notes here and there and on occasion found something that sounded acceptable. But more than anything - learning songs from records.

Like others have mentioned, playing in working cover bands - you have to learn to reproduce riffs - after you accomulate enough riffs from other people you start to find ways to create decent riffs of your own.

I don't consider myself a "lead guitarist" - but I can lay down a reasonable guitar solo when needed.
 
I learned to play lead by practicing,taking lessons,and learning scales.When i write a lead for a song i just go with whatever sounds good to my ear and what fits the song.As far as improv goes that's where i rely on my lessons with modes and pentatonic scales.After a while though i feel it starts to sound the same and becomes more of an exercise.

The knowledge of knowing that if i want to end a solo on a "G" note on the "B" string i can do it without hardly a thought.My old guitar teacher heavily taught the impotance of knowing the notes.I've broke strings playing live and this knowledge helped me get through the song.

I've never played a lot of covers but learning them will help your chops.Even if you don't learn them note for note you still get a sense of how to phrase your licks and how to go about playing a lead.

Just listening to a song over and over can help.Those songs you heard a million times.Years ago when i was in a band my bass player's girl friend(who also was a bass player)picked up the bass and starting playing Crazy Train.Me and the drummer of course joined in.I learned the rythm years ago but had never learned the lead.

When it was lead time i improvised the best Randy Rhoads version i could muster.To my amazement i got close and got compliments from eveyone about the awesome lead i just pulled off.I laughed cause i knew i played something close but by no means the actual solo.I've heard thast song so many times i kind of knew where i had to go.
 
I had a turntable with a strobe and I could speed it up or slow it down till I was in tune with whatever I was a playing along with.Usually I played along with Johhny Winter and....live! because it had songs that were 15 minutes long.

Of course I'm not much of a lead player,but I can play a little bit.
 
My friend and I just sat around picking out whatever we could from Pete Townsend, Santana, and anyone else that we could get our grubby little 15 year old hands on.
Although I didn't know exactly why, Carlos spoke to me with his style, and I learned to play nearly all of his songs, then I joined a band doing top 40 dance songs, and that's where I picked up different styles, I LOVE playing blues, and smooth Jazz, that's what I usually write, but Steve Lukather, and Larry Carlton are my main source of inspiration these days, although they both play so much better than me, I can just watch them play all day long!
 
If you're lucky enough to be able learn leads by copying others, great! Some people,like me, can't copy a lead worth sh!t, so I just played what came into my head with a band for tons of hours of practices and gigs. Practice really makes the difference.
 
I could do it for most leads (though not much of a high-speed shredder)...but I just always hated copying leads! :D
I would maybe key in on a couple of the player's main/signature riffs...and then after that I would much rather do my own thing.

It's a lot more than just learning how to play someone's notes, you really have to get into that person's head and feel what they were feeling when they played...which isn't an easy thing to do.
That's why most decent players have an identifiable signature sound/style...because it's personal.
You can copy their playing, but most times it's not going to be quite like them anyway...so you might as well focus on developing your own identifiable style....make it personal.
 
I first started out playing with garage bands when I was about 17 or so-lots of noise for the most part. After I got into more organized bands stuff like Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Deep Purple and Montrose were on the set lists. The lead player in the band only seemed to know 2 riffs and he played them on every song-I could play the cover song solos closer to the records so I took over as lead player and had to learn a lot-very fast. Oh yeah-a lot of that stuff I had to learn from those damned 8 tracks-if you didn't catch it the first time you had to play it till it came back around. No rewind or fast forward on the 8 track!!!!:mad::mad:
Outside of the rock band I had a musician friend that taught me a lot, he had been in bands for many years and I got to play a wide variety of music. He had a great collections of Les Pauls and Fender Twin amps. I learned to do lots of melodic stuff and turned down the distortion.
A few years later I was in a band in which the singer would throw a new song at us at gigs-stuff I had never heard-and I learned to follow the singer's melody for the changes. I would just adapt the melodies for the solos as well.
So I was pretty much thrown into the deep end of the pool and had to sink or swim-but it really helped to develop my playing by ear...:cool:
 
My guitar is made of wood, not lead. Is this some kind of "heavy metal"?

I started out in a band with friends and I was the only one who could play more than three or four chords so I was given the role of lead guitarist. I embarrassed myself many times which served to inspire me to learn and practice. I hated copying other players but that is how you learn different techniques so you can form your own style. I would always try to play enough of the original so it was familiar and add a little of my own style and creativity. Open stages are great for sharing knowledge and developing new licks.
Practice, practice, practice.......
 
Cover band hell....

I remember, amongst other things, trying to play several Steely Dan songs note for note, in a "power trio" where the bass player managed to play EVERYTHING with a country feel and the drummer insisted on having a microphone but was never allowed to use it.

Reelin' in the Years never sounded sooooo good... :laughings:
 
I had a LEAD Guitar book...with a plastic rhythm plastic floppy record, one of those records that would come in magazines.

then simple Blues "lead" scales, almost bass lines really....

and then I found out I was a better rhythm player, everyone encouraged me to play rhythm....

....actually everyone in the band found out I was a better rhythm player. I liked rhythm better...

on the cover was a guy with a big afro and wide lapels...actually really really huge lapels and a multi colored striped shirt with big huge fluffy sleeves....ahaha
 
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