Basic Guide to Lead Guitar and Soloing.
Lead guitar is the glue that holds a great song above the mediocrity of the talentless musician's song writing attempts. It is therefore important to know how to start playing lead guitar and constructing solos.
The first step is getting the rig. This is the guitar, amp, and effects.
Guitar;
You need to consider the type of guitar and pickups you have, the sound you get will vary with these. Go into a guitar store and spend a few days annoying the clerk finding the one you like.
Whammy bar, the ultimate lead guitar wank tool. Some guitars have them, some don't, consider whether you want to do some guitar wank.
Volume and tone pots and pickup selectors easily accessible during playing. Changing the guitar sound mid solo can change the dynamics of your playing.
You need the right guitar for what you are playing!
James Hetfield just doesn't rock as hard on banjo!
Amp;
The bigger and meaner the better. Marshall are renowned for their mean sound, so are Mesa Boogie. But once again you need to go into the guitar store and spend days bugging the clerks until you find the right one.
Settings for tone, etc, should go to at least 10.
Effects in an amp is a gimmick, all you need is distortion in an amp, and several channels for different tones.
Settings for the amp:
- Heavy Rock/Metal; Crank your big mean black box all the way up to 10 (or further if you can) and then roll off the middle tone pot until it rocks just right.
- Middle Road Rock; Keep the neighbours happy by keeping the volume down a bit and roll off a bit of the distortion, keep the rest cranked.
- Pop Rock; Your amp won't be big and black. You need more jangle (i.e. more mids) to complement you singers voice.
- Indie Rock; Your amp is really just a vehicle to amplify your effects pedals, so whatever.
- Pop; You won't be soloing
- 70's revival; Who the fuck cares..... Ok, buy the cheapest piece of crap you can find. Alternatively buy a really expensive amp and play with the settings until it sounds like crap.
Effects;
You can either get a multi effects pedal or get individual pedals. Individual pedals are great if you only need one or two, or you are going to run them through a switching system. Otherwise you will be tap dancing while playing.
Delay, reverb, flanger, compression, chorus, tremolo, wah/volume, are the common effects aside from distortion/over drive.
This is your chance to spend weeks playing around in a guitar store driving the staff absolutely spare as you find the pedal that can offer the best tone and support to your playing. Remember to play the same riff over and over as you investigate slight changes in the tone with each pedal and its various settings.
Know Your Music.
Now that you have your rig set up I will assume that you have a song that you want to solo over or add lead work to. The first thing to understand is what key you will be playing in. Sheet music has clefs that indicate the key signature through the number of sharps (#) or flats (b).
C
G 1 sharp F
D 2 sharps F,C
A 3 Sharps F,C,G
E 4 sharps F,C,G,D
B 5 sharps F,C,G,D,A
F 6 sharps F,C,G,D,A,E
C# 7 sharps F,C,G,D,A,E,B
F 1 flat B
Bb 2 flats B,E
Eb 3 flats B,E,A
Ab 4 flats B,E,A,D
Db 5 flats B,E,A,D,G
Gb 6 flats B,E,A,D,G,C
Cb 7 flats B,E,A,D,G,C,F
Now within this frame work there are 7 modes;
Ionian (Major)
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian (Minor)
Locrian
So playing from A with no sharps is Cmajor's 6th mode Aeolian or Aminor. Of course this assumes that you are tuning your guitar chromatically!
But what if you read tablature instead? There are no clefs with the key signatures. Tablature or Tab was first developed by skinny pimply teens to allow them to play guitar without having to learn any music. This would allow them to strike back, through song, at the sporty guys who beat them up, without the dedication to musical theory required.
So if you read Tab don't worry about what key it is. Just find the first chord and play scales from there.
I've got the scales, what now?
Now obviously it is hard to squeeze 12 keys (14 with enharmonics, which are key signatures that sound the same), with 7 modes (that can be made more exotic by raising and lowering pitches to create new scales or simply allude to briefly), into a 5 minute long solo. So how do you create a lead break or solo?
Well you need to use your scales to create a phrased piece of music. Phrasing is the way you play a note or series of notes. This can include bends, tapping, sliding, hammering notes, and harmonics.
Creation then bubbles out of your finger tips and becomes;
Classic:
-------------15----14---- -------------15----14----
----15------------------- ----15-------------------
-------14-12----14----14- -------14-12----14----14-
-12---------------------- -12----------------------
------------------------- -------------------------
------------------------- -------------------------
-------------15----14---- -------------15----14----
----15------------------- ----15-------------------
-------14-12----14----14- -------14-12----14----14-
-14---------------------- -14----------------------
------------------------- -------------------------
------------------------- -------------------------
-------------15----14---- -------------15----14----
----15------------------- ----15-------------------
-12----14-12----14----14- -12----14-12----14----14-
------------------------- -------------------------
------------------------- -------------------------
------------------------- -------------------------
Intro to "Sweet Child 'O' Mine" - Guns 'n' Roses
Cornerstone:
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:-15b(17)--15b(17)--15--12--12--15--12-----b(17)15------------------
:----------------------------------------------------12-------14b(16)
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:13-----------------------------------------------------------------
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:---14---------------------------------------------------------------
:-b(16)--14b(16)-14---14b(16)14--12--14--14b(16)14b(16)---b(16)14-
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:----------------------------------------------10/12-----------------
:12---12-14b(16)-12-14-----12-14-12/14--12/14--------10/12--14b(16)--
:--14---------------------14-----------------------------------------
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
:--------------------------------------------------------------------
Solo "Little Wing" - Jimi Hendrix
Epic:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------5----------5-------------Repeat----------------------
-------5-3/23---5--3/23---5--3/23--------------------------------
3-3-3--------------------------------5------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Classic movie theme
Or just plain crazy:
(+ Point your trem bar backwards and hit it with your right hand on every + to
'play' the fretted note or simply depress the trem bar to sound the notes.
Each + means to depress the note by approx. 2 frets.)
H P P H P H P ~~~~~~ H
+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
E ---------------------------------------- ----------------------
B 18 (18) 17 (17) 15 (15) 17 15 18 17 17 18
B ---------------------------------------- X 15 --
D ---------------------------------------- ----------------------
A ---------------------------------------- ----------------------
E ---------------------------------------- ----------------------
P P H P H P ~~~~~~ H
+ + + + + + + + + + + +
E
B (18) 17 (17) 15 (15) 17 15 18 17 17 18
G X 15
D
A
E
P P H P H P ~~~~~~
+ + + + + + + + + + + +
E
B (18) 17 (17) 15 (15) 17 15 18 17 17 18
G X 15
D
A
E
P
+ + H + +
E 18 (18)
B (18) 17 15 (15) 18>(20)t>(25) (25)<0 17 (17)
G
D 17
A
E
A small section from "Surfing with the Alien" - Joe Satriani
The sum of it all.
The ultimate aim of lead guitar work, including solos, is to add harmony and drive to a piece of music. Find a melody to add to the music, use subtle changes to emphasise certain parts of the song, use progressions to lead to the next part of the song.
Gratuitous girl-with-guitar picture for absolutely no reason what so ever.
Of course if you are a died in the wool lead guitarist you also want to impress other guitar players. This is especially true if you;
- Work in a guitar store
- Are under the age of 20
- Are considered underweight for any height, let alone yours
- All three.
So how do you impress other players? Well you won't impress real guitar players, because they don't fit into the previous three categories.
But for arguments sake; You need to make things needlessly complicated, and over-done.
- Play really fast.
- Play complicated fast changing runs all over the fret board.
- Get that effects pedal and have some fun (or agrevate the listener, it's the same thing).
- Grab that whammy bar and wank away.
- Beat sounds out of the guitar (similar to the whammy bar).
- Aimlessly play notes until they sound right while playing extremely fast.
You are now destined for guitar greatness!
Unless of course you have a life.
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