Some of the greatest guitar compositions have made it to the hall of fame thanks to their lead guitarists. Lead guitar refers to a the use of a guitar to perform melody lines, instrumental fill passages, and guitar solos within a song structure. Guitarists like Van Halen, Steve Vai, David Gilmour, John Petrucci, Dave Mustaine, Tom Morello, Kirk Hammett, Jimmy Page, Dave Murray, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse and many more have popularized the art of playing the Lead guitar.
Mastering the lead guitar takes time and effort. To master it you will need to use different and advanced scales, arpeggios, modes, riffs and licks. If you are thinking of becoming a lead guitarist then you will have to master various techniques of playing solo starting with hammer ons, pull offs and tapping.
Hammer Ons
Hammer-ons are normally played with pull-offs and are also known as slurs. A hammer if used on a lead guitar can create a smooth sound between different notes and is considered to be a great way of rendering a solo performance. It can be seen as playing multiple notes in one strike. Something like playing multiple notes on a saxophone in one breath. It is the slur effect that makes the hammer a must for playing lead guitar. Just as the name sounds, a hammer-on means striking an open string. Hammer on is extremely useful for strumming patterns in which you would be required to hold on to a particular chord for a few seconds.
Pull-Off
For lead guitar playing, to accentuate the rhythm, you use a hammer on first and then play it backward, which is a pull off. To play this better, you should ideally start with two fingers on your fretboard. Let's take an example: if the index finger is at the 5th fret on your guitar's D string and if your ring finger is on the 7th fret then try picking the note at the 7th fret. At the point when the note rings, pull-off the ring finger, which will leave your index finger on the 5th fret. The sound that you get will be similar to a slurring effect and is a pull off.
Tapping
Tapping is a popular lead guitar technique that has been used by many great guitarists. Associated mainly with an electric guitar, you can use the tapping technique on almost all kinds of string instruments. There are two types of tapping technique: The one-handed tapping also known as ordinary tapping, and the two-handed tapping. Some of the lead guitar experts consider it to be an extended technique. The technique will require you to tap the strings of your lead guitar using the use the fingers of one hand and this will sound like legato notes. But remember successful tapping requires the use of both the hands. Van Halen used the tap?pull?hammer method in his highly successful number called "Eruption" to create a long cascade consisting of several tapped notes.
The most important part of playing the lead guitar is playing it well and using the various techniques to your advantage without going out of tune. Guitar techniques come into picture only in the advanced stages.
The tremolo or the whammy bar as many call it is a useful tool when it comes to lead guitar techniques and can bring out a distorted sound that is common in hard rock or heavy metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth and Dreamtheater. Some of the other lead guitar techniques include doing the slide and string bending.
Slides
When doing the slide on a lead guitar, you need to take care of an aspect, which is raising the strings of your guitar a little higher of the neck. You can always use an extension nut for this purpose. For sliding you can use your hand or another instrument called the slide. When you press the slide against your guitar strings, the pitch of the strings change and you can even vary the pitch to an extent by moving your slide upwards or downwards on the guitar neck. Slide is a lead guitar technique that is also known as the bottleneck guitar. It is an effective technique because it helps you to create pitch transitions continuously on your lead guitar.
String Bending
String bending also known as radial pitch-shifting is an important technique of playing the lead guitar. To create string bending, you have to move the string that has been held down in a particular direction, which is normally perpendicular to the axis and is always parallel to your fingerboard. This is a type of pitch-shifting that is most often used by in a rock or heavy metal band. String bending is most commonly used with other distortion techniques for making the lead guitar playing sound smoothly and melodic. It is limited to not more than 1 or 2 semi-tones but you will get to use even 3 semitones once you are highly skilled. Instances of 5-semitones can also be seen especially when you hear the guitar solo played by David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) in Another Brick In the Wall Pt.2 from the album "The Wall." This solo has become an anthem in Rock music history.
Tremolo Picking
When you need to play some fast phrases on your lead guitar, you can use tremolo picking. With the help of tremolo picking, you will be able to play a particular note multiple times in quick succession. It is also known as double picking and you can do it with your finger or with your pick. The main reason for using tremolo picking in lead guitar is because it adds more sustenance to melodic lines.
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