The 5-Note Lead Guitar Method

The Instant Lead Guitar Method

by Dennis Wolfe

Includes Instructional MIDIs in all Styles

Styles - Slow Blues, Fast Blues, Fast Rock, Slow Rock Ballads, Country/Rock, and Country

6 Jamming Tracks for each style of music, in the keys of C, D, E, F, G and A, for hours of real-time jamming.

Tune Up

Let’s make sure we are all playing the same notes here. Click on the following MIDI link to make sure that your guitar is in standard tuning. If it is not, you can use this MIDI to tune your guitar:

Now that you are in tune, you have fifteen minutes to learn how to play lead guitar. Lets get to it!

The following illustration is a picture of your guitar as you look down at it. Use the index finger of your left hand to play all of the notes in fret #3 which is the first fret in the box. Use your third finger to play the notes in fret #5. Try to use your little finger to play the notes in fret #6 but if you have to cheat for right now and use the third finger, that's O.K.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 5-Note Scale and How to Use It

1st Position Blues Scale in G

This is the first position of the Minor Blues Scale. It is a five-note scale (pentatonic) used to play lead guitar, mostly for blues and rock, but it is used for other styles of music, too. Don't let the idea of scales scare you. If you must play guitar, and surely you must or you wouldn't be reading this, you have to learn at least one scale. If you know how to play this scale and play it well, you can play lead guitar along with anyone, on any kind of song and play it in any key. This sounds like a wild claim but it is true.

Here is what it sounds like going up from the black note on the top E string (the fattest one). Click on the following link to play the MIDI:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is what it sounds like going down from the yellow note on the top string (the skinniest string). Click on the following link to play the MIDI:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is what the scale sounds like ascending (going up) and descending (going down).

Play it from top to bottom, bottom to top and play it from any beginning note in any direction. Do it slowly. After a few tries, your fingers will become accustomed to the pattern and it will get easier.

Illustration 1 is written in the key of G. We know that because it starts in the 3rd fret. All of the black notes in the illustration are G's. Within five minutes of following the ascending and descending MIDI you should be able to play all of the notes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using the Scale to Improvise Lead Guitar For Blues

When you are able to play this scale, you can play along with any blues song in the key of G simply by playing these notes one at a time or in combination with each other. The key of G contains the chords G, C and D7. All of the notes in the scale will sound good with any of the chords of the key of G.

Try it. Play it along with the Slow Blues in G sample in the link below, while you are looking at the illustration.

This is a slow blues song in the key of G. It is patterned after the style of Steamroller Blues by James Taylor or The Sky is Crying by Elmore James (as performed by Stevie Ray Vaughn). Play the notes of the scale you have just learned along with this song. Start playing at any point you want and at any speed, slow or fast and the notes will sound great. Go up the scale; go down the scale. Pick individual notes or play any of the notes in combination with each other. This is exactly what a lead guitarist is doing when you watch and listen to a band. Click on the MIDI link for your backup band:

This is pure guitar magic. You don't have to play the notes fast for them to sound good. Play them slowly and pick up speed later on the fast blues samples.

YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES ARE UP

Here is the basic idea of what your improvised lead might sound like. The notes I am playing are chosen pretty much at random as I work up the scale and then back down, but as you practice this you will get a certain style that you feel comfortable with. Some players feel that certain notes just sound better at certain points in a song.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Importance of Improvising Lead Guitar

By now, you should know how to play the scale along with the song, even if you have to look at the illustration as you do so. You should feel like a lead guitarist because that’s exactly what you are doing; playing lead guitar. Even better, you are improvising lead guitar instead of memorizing certain notes that another guitarist played and parroting them. Because it is something that you created, you can change the lead line and play it differently each time or you can find one that you like and stick with it.

By the way, if you do want to imitate another guitarist's lead break, you are now better equipped to do so. For instance; if you hear a blues song in the key of G and you want to know what notes the guitarist is playing, you now know that he is using the notes of this scale.

The lead guitar player rarely plays the melody of the song. He works around the melody by playing harmonic notes that might or might not include the melody. He plays fills, which are harmonic notes played in the spaces of the song where the vocalist is not singing. B.B. King is a master of this style of guitar playing.

A studio guitarist often reads the notes from sheet music but it is not a requirement for a club musician or even a concert musician. Some of the world's greatest lead guitar players do not read a single note of music but you can safely bet that they know their scales. They improvise the lead line by playing notes of the scale just as you have learned to do.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sharpen Your Skills

In order to give your playing some flavor, try cutting down on the length of some notes and doubling or tripling up on others. In this sample, I have used the exact notes as in Slow Blues in G with Improvisation 1 (above). The only difference is that I have cut some of the notes in half and some into thirds.

Another important thing to remember is to leave space. Don't try to fill up every measure with notes. The notes you do not play are just as important as the ones that you do play.

Do not play over the vocalist. This is a simple rule and one that should be followed closely. Let the vocalist do his part and then play the lead guitar part. Instead of trying to play while the vocalist is singing, play in the spaces between his phrases. You can echo his singing to make simple fills. For example: if the singer says, "I woke up early this morning ...," repeat the phrase by playing it on the guitar after he finishes singing the line.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving the Scale to Play In Other Keys

Click on the following link for the next part of the book.

Top Of Page