Playing lead

[ShyStrings]

I recently started practicing the scales given us by our fab lesson guru, Tyson. But one thing I'm wondering...

I am most definitely a rythym player, but I can play a few lead licks from Jars or Shaded Red or Caedmon's Call, and they dont seem to follow those scales. The keyboardist in our band said that when you play lead, you only play notes in the key that the song is in all the way through. So in Unforgetful You (Jars), all the lead parts would be in E. Is this right?

Also, most songs follow common chord progressions (1-4-5-1, etc...), but are there similar patterns for playing lead? Are there popular patterns to use within the scales?

I know this was a long post, but maybe we will get some stuff started on these new boards.

Best of wishes to everyone...

shy

[738]

Shy this is a great thread you started. I am trying to learn to play some lead too, but haven't gotten real far, so I'm hoping there are a lot of replies on this subject.

[Mr Niceguy]

My advice is just to be creative. Right your own stuff! You can NEVER have too much practice. If you like to play praise and worship music but can't find tabs here is what you do:
1. Find the chords
2. Be creative (example: wah effect, distortion, chorus...)
3. Use powerchords
4. Try picking powerchords( just top three strings)
Don't know too much about scales but I gave you some good advice for playing lead.(I don't even have a band!)

[frangjo]

Hi,
Im also trying to learn lead guitar.
In the past few days I have downloaded a lot
of material from the net. If u r interested
please mail me at frangjo@frangjo.com

I will mail it to you.
MAy God bless you all.
Frang.

[ugabugabear]

This might be a late reply, but hey, I just registered on the boards today while I was trying to find my personal webpage!

You'll learn as you get deeper into lead work that it's really boring (for both you & the listener) to simply play scales. A scale is simply a tool for getting around the fretboard...it's how you arrange the notes that makes it interesting, & that's where the creativity comes in. You'll notice that the more you familiarize yourself with the different scales, the easier you'll start coming up with lead licks and the less you'll sound like a machine.

Nonetheless, a good place to start is to learn your major scales. Pretty much all my lead work in worship is based on major patterns as the majority of the songs are in a major key. My .02? Learn the actual intervals versus a specific fingering pattern...trust me, it'll make progressing as a lead player much easier.

To put it together, say you're playing Lord I Lift Your Name, so you have a G-C-D progression. Key of G = G major scale (G-A-B-C-D-E-F#). Throw in some G major licks (I like to throw little licks in after each line of the verse and then go nuts over the chorus, but that's me!) and voila! You're on your way.

And there you have it, my much abbreviated initial lead guitar lesson.

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[frangjo]

Hi,
Once you know the scales or modes,
You can try by playing with a background.

I mean, If you have a keyboard, play some rythm along with
some minor or major background.
Then playing the scale for that background, try using different
combination's in the same scale. Soon you will pickup some
good licks.

May God bless you,
Frang.

[Unregistered]

Major scales and a crucial element is, Penatonic scales, learn them up and down the guitar and you'll be amazed w yourself. Then find ways to blend chords, major scales, and pent. scales together and that is the key to lead guitar

[Unregistered]

Isn't it true that if you played a song and let's say it is in G but you get to a note that is let's say, Am, then you don't play the G major scale anymore? I mean, it would sound bad, I have tried it and my guitar teacher showed me it would sound bad. So don't you have to change the scale you are doing from G to Am and if it is C then you change the to the C scale? Of course, you can play the G major scale on both G and C, it sounds great with both, but that is a side note.
If you want to practice playing scales and modes, here is what I did. First I spent two or three minutes just strumming the same chord while I recorded myself. It is also helpful to keep the same beat or you will have to really work at keeping your solo right. Any ways, you record yourself playing the same chord over and over and then when you are done, play the tape back to yourself and while it is playing, play the G major scale. It works really good and you sound like Van Halen or Steve Vai! Just keep it up and don't quit.

[nate95366]

What I'm hearing here is this:
If a song is in the key of G, the lead player should play around with the G scale (G, A, B, C, D, E, F# G)
except when the song hits a minor chord (say, Am).

I'm here to say that the same old G Major scale works very well with (especially, but not just...) A minor. If you look at the "meat" of the scale (A, B, C, D, E) it matches the beginning of the A minor scale. I will agree that the F# note could be really piercing if played continuously over an Am chord, but hey...I've heard it done before by some accomplished fingers just for effect.

This is not to say that G Major is the only thing you should play around with during a song in the key of G, but it IS a great place to start.

[trhoke]

Well isn't Am one of the chords in the G Major scale anyways? I thought it went something like this:

G Am Bm C D Em f#msus

And if you look at the notes that make up the Am chord they are A C E which are all part of the G Maj scale. Bm is B D F#, etc. The chords that you use in the G maj scale have the notes that are used in that scale.
I don't know if that helps any, I'm still learning this stuff aswell :)

In Christ,
Tim

[EJGam]

;) Hey check this out, I've found this to be a very useful website. Has all the info you need on scales and stuff

www.activeguitar.com

[santosh_b]

I have loads of sites with such stuff bookmarked .. just email me if u want some ,...
check out especially WHOLE NOTE (http://www.wholenote.com)
its a really classy site ...

[ugabugabear]

YES!!! Wholenote is my home away from home. On there more often than I should be.

Thousands of lessons can be had there, all styles, all levels.
Sometimes discussions get a bit out of hand in Fretbuzz, but many members police it so as not to turn it into your typical argumentative message board (not including here!). All in all, though, there's a lot of knowledge to be gained there.

Check it out...