Novice
guitarists are usually pretty frustrated in
their early attempts to play lead guitar. After
they've learned a scale pattern or two, they're
often left saying, "OK, I learned the pattern,
now what do I do with it?"
In
my new course, Logical
Lead Guitar, I demonstrate on DVD (and in
sheet music/tablature) exactly how to improvise
with each and every one of the five pentatonic
scale patterns, the seven diatonic (major and
minor) scale patterns, and the five major and
minor C-A-G-E-D chord arpeggios. Then I put
it all together in a collection of sample solos.
I know you'll find this course to be invaluable
in your quest for guitar playing excellence.
You
Can Do This!
Here
is one quick sample lesson from the course –
in the form of a six-minute video entitled "Following
The Chords."
In
this lesson, I demonstrate an easy way to add
some sophistication to your early soloing adventures.
This lesson is not the be-all, end-all key to
mastering lead guitar – but it provides
a very useful technique for playing more realistic
sounding solos with only a minimum of effort.
You've probably heard at least a couple of rock
legends use this technique. You'll pick this
skill up quick, and best of all, it's fun!
Here
is the video:
And
here is the tablature and sheet music for the
examples:
Following
The Chords
Following
the chords is a simple (and simplified) way of
looking at lead guitar. It's a pretty easy way
to add some sophistication to your sound, even
if you're practically a beginner.
The
concept in this section of the course and demonstrated
on the DVD does not work 100 percent of the time,
but it works a lot of the time. Even rock legends
such as Jimmy Page and Stevie Ray Vaughan used
this technique on some of their most memorable
recordings.
We'll
use the main pentatonic pattern as our demonstration
tool, but this oncept can eventually be applied
using any scale pattern or arpeggio.
For
ease of demonstration however, we'll stick with
the key of A, a simple I-IV-V chord progression
(A-D-E) and use the main pentatonic shape.
Note:
It's very important that the phrase and concept
"Follow The Chords" stick in your head.
The idea is that, wherever your barre chord goes,
your main pentatonic pattern goes. In this case,
I'm talking about what would be considered an
E shape or E form or "root 6" barre
chord – not the A shape, root 5 barre chord.
In
other words if you play a G barre chord at the
3rd fret, you would solo using your main pentatonic
pattern at the 3rd fret. If the barre chord moves
to the 5th fret, your main pentatonic pattern
should move to the 5th fret. If your barre chord
slides way up to the 10th fret, your main pentatonic
pattern slides way up to the 10th fret. You get
the idea.
Exercise
81
With
Exercise 81, we'll play a riff in A, using the
main pentatonic shape at the 5th fret.
When
the 10th fret D barre chord comes up, we'll simply
slide the main pentatonic shape up to the 10th
fret and play the exact same riff.
Then
we'll do the same for the 12th fret E barre chord
by sliding the main pentatonic pattern up to the
12th fret.
We'll
end the "song" by hitting the D riff
on our way back down to the final riff in A again.
Here
is the notation and tablature for Exercise 81:
Exercise
82
Now
we'll use the same three chords (A, D, and E),
and the same three main pentatonic patterns at
the same frets (5th fret, 10th fret, and 12th
fret), but we'll play something a little more
like lead guitar.
Here
is the notation and tablature for Exercise 82:
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Exercise
83
Exercise
83 demonstrates a similar use of this technique
of following the chords, but with something other
than a I-IV-V chord progression.
In
this case we'll take the common progression
I-(flat)VII-(flat)VI. In the key of A that means
the chords A-G-F.
You
might recognize this as the same three chords
during the solo at the end of "Stairway To
Heaven."
The
same chord progression, though in the key of E
(chords: E-D-C) makes up the majority of the Neil
Young song "Keep On Rockin' (In The Free
World), as well as thousands of other songs.
Here
is the notation and tablature for Exercise 83:
