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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Lead Guitar Lesson : Starting Out With Guitar Solos

By Nick Dillon


So you want to learn to play lead guitar but are not sure where to start? This lead guitar lesson will explain the easiest way to get started with lead guitar. Lead guitar relies upon playing the right sounding notes over the musical backing piece. But how do you know what notes will sound right? Well, it's actually quite easy, but to most people the thought of learning scales is a little scary, difficult or just boring. There is no way around it, if you want to play lead guitar, the easiest way is to understand a few basic scales and how to implement them.

If you want to play lead guitar and improvise, you'll have to learn the minor pentatonic scale. This is the single most important tip from this lead guitar lesson. This one scale alone seems to be the most popular for rock and blues as well as many other genres of music. If you had to pick one scale to learn for guitar soloing, this would be the best choice.

The minor pentatonic scale is one of the most commonly used scales for guitar solos. When you hear a guitar solo, chances are it most likely contains the notes of the minor pentatonic scale. This scale is used extensively in rock and blues as well as many other genres of music.

By adding a note or two to the minor pentatonic scale you can create many other scales and modes. It is the scale that forms the backbone of many other scales. These include the natural minor scale as well as the Dorian mode and blues scale. These scales and modes are very useful in lead guitar and will be discussed in more detail in later lead guitar lessons.

By learning the minor pentatonic scale, it is extremely easy to also learn the major pentatonic scale at the same time. The scale shapes on the fretboard are the same for both scales, the shapes simply sit in a different position as too do the root notes. The major pentatonic scale is also a very useful scale for lead guitarists.

The minor pentatonic scale is very versatile. In fact, it is one of the few scales that can be played over minor and major chord progressions. When applied properly it can be played over most chord progressions and sound good.

It is important to mention in this lead guitar lesson that the minor pentatonic scale is very easy to learn. It only contains five notes which form simple box shapes when mapped out on the fretboard. Start by learning these shapes, and once you know them, simply add additional notes to create other scales and modes. Learning this scale will establish a solid foundation for all future lead guitar playing and improvising.




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