3 Tips For Improving Your Lead Guitar Playing
Most guitarists have dreams of playing flashy solos, but becoming a skilled lead guitarist takes a lot of practice. Here are some simple tips for developing your lead guitar playing skills.
1. Practice Scales Daily
You probably already know how important scale practices if you want to progress as a guitarist. But if you’re like many people, and have avoided practising scales because you think it’s boring, it’s time to change that habit. Being able to play scales fluently is vital for a lead guitarist, and they will help you memorize the guitar fretboard properly and improve your finger dexterity, as well as imparting more theoretical knowledge.
When practising scales, make sure you include all types of scales in your practice routine, and for best results, practice with a metronome to be sure that you’re playing in time.
2. Improve Your Picking Ability
To play rapid guitar solos, you need to develop your picking skills, so you can pick the individual notes very accurately and quickly. To develop this level of accuracy and speed, it actually helps to practice very slowly. This can be challenging to do if you’re impatient, but if you try to go too fast too soon, you’ll never develop the level of accuracy you need to be a really good lead player.
You should also use a metronome to practice your solos, and increase the tempo gradually as your skills improve. Again, it’s vital to have patience with this process, and don’t try to play too quickly too soon, or you’ll not only never develop a high level of skill, but you’ll be increasing your risk of injury as well.
3. Practice Improvisation With Backing Tracks
All great lead guitarists can improvise freely, so this is another skill you should focus on developing. To be a good improviser, you will need to have good aural skills, know your scales and chords thoroughly, and have a great sense of rhythm and melody. Like all other skills, these can be developed with practice, and practising with backing tracks is a great way to grow as an improviser. Of course, if you have access to a live band, that’s great as well, but it isn’t always practical.
You can find a huge choice of guitar backing tracks online, in a wide variety of musical styles. You can also get software that will generate them for you in a variety of styles, tempos etc.
If you bear these three points in mind, you’ll become a better lead guitarist. However, they’re just the tip of the iceberg really, and for best results you should get professional instruction (see my Jamorama review for more info about my own experience with one course of online guitar lessons).