A good lead guitar player must, and I’ll repeat that -- MUST -- pay attention to the rhythm.
That means knowing the rhythm part intimately yourself, even if you’re not the one playing it. Know the chord changes, because ideally, you should be working off of those changes in your solo.
As you’ll see in the video, a safe place to end each phrase is to end up on the root note for the chord that is being played… So it becomes important to know your notes, or a least a quick way of finding them.
Anyways, let’s get down to business -- go on and hit play!
Playing in the key of G means that we can use Em Diatonic OR Em Pentatonic. Both of these scales become super easy in the open position…
I really relate to the fretboard in patterns. I find them much easier to get my brain wrapped around than note names. One day soon I am going to do a full-length lesson on that. However, for the time being, have a look at the scale pattern on the page here -- that is the Em diatonic minor scale.
Now go through each of the chords in the key of G (G, C, D, Em, Am, Bm) and find where the notes from each chord fit into the scale. You’ll see that every chord is built out of notes within that scale.
Next, get that scale pattern embedded in your head and pickup your guitar. That pattern now becomes your structure for improvising. With the pentatonic scale you can truly play any of the notes you want, wherever you want. With the diatonic scale, you have to be a little bit more careful, but you can usually get away with pretty much anything there as well.
Now that you’ve got that pattern stuck in your brain, watch this video, and do your best to follow my fingers and see how everything is coming out of that diatonic pattern. When you’re able to see that, it will really open up a door in your mind in relation to the guitar.
Please note I’ve indicated the extra E and A on the 5th fret. These notes are still in the scale, but those specific spots on the fretboard aren’t in the minor diatonic pattern -- they are out of the G major diatonic pattern. It is important to know they are there though, and can of course be played. You’ll see one of the riffs in the video uses these two notes quite a bit.
One other thing -- PLEASE don’t get hung up on playing the riffs exactly like I do. This lesson is to help you improvise -- not copy. Take my ideas and make them your own, with your own rhythms or sequences.
Just have fun with it and let it all hang out!
As I already mentioned, I absolutely love improvising and playing this type of stuff. Consequently, I have no problem bringing a lot more in this vein, and yes, going into more detail about specifically what I’m playing. However, I need to know if you guys are interested in improvising, or if you prefer to learn common riffs to copy.
Leave a comment below and tell me if you love it or hate it.
When I was first learning guitar, a friend of mine wrote a song that had this cool passing note (an F#) in between the G chord and the Em chord. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and practically forced him to teach it to me.
I’ve since discovered this is about as common as sliced bread, but I still use it frequently anyways, because it sounds cool.
The cool thing is, is that for a beginner it is very easy to learn how to throw these notes into your playing, and you get the satisfaction of hearing your playing sound like something more than the usual strum-strum. =)
(It’s been 15 years, but I still remember some of the early victories learning guitar!! =)
Anyways, here is the lesson. Don’t forget to tell me if you loved it or hated it! You can leave a comment just below the video. Enjoy…
scale.
