I found it so hard to make any connection between all the theory and scales I was learning and actually playing lead guitar.

I searched everywhere but nobody could tell me what I needed to know:

• Is there any method at all to learning lead guitar or do great guitarists just play “what sounds good”?
• Does one note just randomly follow another when you learn lead guitar or is there a method to the madness?
• How do lead guitar players comes up with solos on the fly that seem to flow along with the song?

Here are 3 key points that will save you a whole lot of time, energy and frustration…and make you a better lead guitarist…

Learning Lead Guitar Timing

If you’re a guitarist your sense of timing is non existent.

That’s what other instrumentalists think about guitarists and it’s an opinion not without some justification. Lead guitarists especially are famously poor time keepers.

We could just laugh this off but timing is really important for musicians – even improvisers like lead guitarists.

In fact when you learn lead guitar you will need to develop a BETTER sense of timing than everybody else.

Lead guitar solos are full of strange intervals, odd time signatures, odd intervals and a whole manner of other strange and wonderful things.

Learning Lead Guitar Volume

So you want to learn lead guitar. That doesn’t mean you don’t ever play rhythm.

Depending on what part of the song you’re playing you are going to have to change the volume of your playing.

Let’s face it, the volume of the guitar is dependant on the number of strings you hit and, all things being equal, six strings will, be louder than one.

So you can run into a volume problem when you want to change from lead guitar to rhythm guitar.

There are lots of different ways to solve this like volume pedals, separate volume presets for lead and rhythm playing, amplifier presets and multiple pick ups.

Learning Lead Guitar Perfection

Lead guitarists need to be near perfect. Many of the techniques that we use offer no forgiveness for error.
When you play a string bend it must reach the right pitch, otherwise you are playing the wrong note.

Vibrato sounds terrible when played badly and tapping wrongly just makes you sound amateur.

When you first start off this can be frustrating but with a little practice can set you ahead of the crowd.

There is huge difference between the guy that took the time to learn lead guitar techniques and the guy who just picks a bunch of notes he sees on a tab.