Getting started
While working through these lessons first take the lead guitar paths that you are most
comfortable with. Throughout these materials I teach many different lead guitar avenues and
some will take a bit more practice than others to sink in and digest. Don’t put any undue
pressure on yourself and try not to overwhelm yourself.
As I have written in the lessons throughout this book, it’s vital to learn about the “why” things
work. Learning the “whys” will give you the power to blast these lead guitar avenues and
techniques across all your lead playing. It will give you the lead guitar confidence to be able to
instantly know what avenues are possible when soloing and improvising. Then you will have
the tools to blast these lead playing techniques across all your playing at any given time, in any
given jam, and in any given song.
Remember, even though you may work tirelessly on lead guitar, you want to keep practicing
and working on your rhythm skills. Rhythm and timing are critical elements to overall abilities
on the guitar. Never forget that lead playing will really only ever be as good as your rhythm
playing.
Some of the methodical lead guitar techniques will seem a bit daunting at first. However, these
will soon become second nature and be automatically ingrained in your playing style. You wont
have to think about what to play, as it will eventually become more automatic.
Soon you will be letting your ear take you to all the right notes and chords. You won’t have to
think about techniques and application but rather you will focus on the emotion and feeling in
your playing. The more you practice and apply these materials the faster you will be on
“autopilot”.
Even though you will often utilize minor pentatonic scales over blues and rock jams, I suggest
trying to learn additional lead guitar avenues. Many big name players and rock bands have no
doubt made careers using pentatonic scales. However, I urge you to try some of the other
avenues taught in this book, as you don’t want to limit yourself.
You will at least want to get comfortable with the Dorian and Aeolian modes in addition to the
Pentatonics. They sound killer over blues and rock rhythms. You will soon discover that modal
playing will open up all kinds of new lead guitar avenues.
KEY POINT: At this stage of your lead guitar journey, there is no substitute
for practicing the right things, learning scales, studying the sounds and
relationships between chords and scales, developing your ear, practicing
and honing your skills using jam tracks, and continually pushing yourself
and refining your art.Copyright Next Level Guitar Inc., 2013 - all rights reserved – unauthorized duplication or distribution of any part of this book is prohibited