How You Can Play Killer Lead Guitar Licks & Solos Using Better Creativity
By Tom Hess
Do you struggle to play creatively on guitar even though you know a bunch of licks and scale patterns? One thing is for sure – you will NOT become more creative by simply “learning more new things”... this is an approach used by many guitarists, and it never works.
The issue with this way of thinking is that it creates imbalance in your guitar playing and doesn’t correct the core problems for why you cannot play creatively.
Certainly it is important to learn new things for your guitar playing, however, the true keys to musical creativity are as follows: fluency, application, integration and total mastery of the guitar skills you are already familiar with.
The following are the four things you must begin developing in order to become a highly creative lead guitarist:
1. Learn How To Really Master The Fretboard
Beginner/early intermediate guitar players think of “learning the fretboard” in terms of rote memorization of individual note names on every string. This is a key reason why they get hopelessly lost when trying to play or improvise guitar solos.
Good guitar players visualize the fretboard in scale shapes and learn to play or create guitar licks in one scale shape at a time. While this is better than being totally lost about what notes to play, this approach results in boring and very repetitive guitar solos.
Great guitar players learn to visualize any scale across the entire fretboard. When they improvise lead guitar licks and solos, they don’t divide the fretboard into isolated chunks or shapes - they see the entire fretboard as one big scale pattern - from the first fret to the last.
To get to this level of musical freedom, practice playing any scale you use in your lead guitar playing all over the fretboard. Don’t rush to learn new scales too quickly until you developed sufficient mastery and fluency with the scales you currently use in your guitar playing.
Warning:Even if you memorized all the shapes of a certain scale, it doesn't mean that your level of mastery with that scale is advanced enough to be creative. You must also practice creating guitar licks that will challenge your fretboard visualization awareness - forcing you to expose and improve upon your limitations. Watch the video below to see a demonstration that proves this point (and shows you how to truly master visualizing scales on guitar):
2. Learn How To Express Emotion In Your Guitar Playing
To play creative lead guitar solos, you MUST understand which notes to use over any chord/backing track/song, as well as how to express specific emotions in your guitar phrases.
Here are 3 methods you can utilize to develop these skills:
*Focus on HOW you play the notes, rather than on what notes you play. To get more emotion from each note, enhance it using vibrato, bends, slides or other creative phrasing techniques. To find out how well you can currently do this, complete this short lead guitar creativity assessment.
*Take lessons with a guitar instructor who knows which notes need to be used above specific chords and can explain to you how to implement this information into your guitar playing.
*Rather than playing guitar phrases that simply “go with the chord”, think more about creating strong emotions while soloing. There is a big difference between these two approaches and will drastically change the way your lead guitar phrases sound.
3. Learn To Play The Music You Hear In Your Head
When you do not have a good “ear” (aural skills), you have no way of knowing how something will sound before you actually play it. This problem in turn makes it impossible to know how a note will feel before you play it. When you lack this skill, true musical creativity becomes impossible.
Here are a few easy ways to begin developing better aural skills in your guitar playing:
*While practicing scales, play slowly and sing every other note instead of playing it with your hands.
*Create guitar phrases by playing several notes on guitar, then singing the rest of the phrase (and vice versa).
*Notice the amount of musical tension built from various note choices by playing many different guitar phrases over the same chord. For instance, record yourself playing a C minor chord for several minutes. Then, improvise various lead guitar phrases over it using the C minor scale, while holding out different notes for varying lengths over the chord. As you accent different notes of the scale over the same chord, notice the varying levels of musical tension that come from the phrases you play. The more you do this, practice using different chords.
4. Learn How To Smoothly Integrate Different Guitar Skills Together
Working on developing your guitar skills in isolation from one another may help you improve those particular skills, however, this approach will NOT help you become a better overall guitarist. Why? Becoming a creative lead guitarist requires integrating all of your skills together.
For instance, if you want to be able to create great lead guitar improvisations, there are many skills you must develop: guitar phrasing, aural skills, guitar technique, scale knowledge, arpeggios, fretboard visualization, and a lot more. If you only work on these things in isolation from each other, you will always be lacking in one or more areas and your playing as a whole will fall apart. The quickest way to achieve your lead guitar goals in this case is to practice in a way that combines multiple skills or techniques together, so you can be creative with them.
Watch this free guitar practice video demonstration and learn how to practice like this to improve your lead guitar playing fast.
When you apply the concepts of this article into your lead guitar playing, you will get on the right path towards mastering your musical creativity. To stay on the path and fully master all skills involved in mastering lead guitar playing, work with a guitar teacher who has already helped countless guitarists achieve their musical goals and knows the best way to help you reach yours.
To understand exactly what skills you must develop to make yourself into a highly creative lead guitar player, complete this short lead guitar creativity assessment. After you complete it, I will reply to you with specific comments on how to improve your lead guitar playing.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a professional recording artist, composer, and expert guitar instructor. He teaches and trains guitarists how to become great musicians in his online rock guitar lessons. Visit tomhess.net to receive additional free guitar playing resources and to read more guitar articles.
Tom Hess is a professional recording artist, composer, and expert guitar instructor. He teaches and trains guitarists how to become great musicians in his online rock guitar lessons. Visit tomhess.net to receive additional free guitar playing resources and to read more guitar articles.