Hi
Girl here. I'm 20.
Not sure if it's the right thread, but it's most certainly sometihng that's been itching me for a while.
Here's the thing- I can play rhythm guitar and sing.
I taught myself to play the chords, but I'm clueless as to where to start with lead guitar.
I want to learn it fast. I'm aware progress doesn't happen overnight but over time. I'm willing to work to my bones.
I have played onstage a few times and it's the biggest thrill ever. When I see the really good local bands play, I wish I could be right alongside them.
Not a day goes by without me wishing to play lead guitar and make some killer riffs someday.
My favorites in guitar playing are Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.
Anybody out there who can help me? I would make me really happy if you can, and it would mean a lot if you took me under your wing :)
I play a little guitar. I just look up the tabs for lead and then repeat them over and over for a few days solid. That's what I do.
I can play Ride on Shooting Star by The Pillows.
I've played guitar for...god I think going on 12 years now? And I still can't even play 'rhythm' or 'lead'. I have relatively high technical skill, I can play Canon Rock for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xjJXT0C0X4 And if I wanted to compose my own arrangement, I could sit down and do that without much trouble. But if you asked me to improvise something, ANYTHING, even just a basic chord progression, I cannot.
It's because I don't know the first thing about music. So my advice would be to study composition, because the technical skill required to play lead simply comes with practicing lead lines. However if all you do is copy licks from tabs or whatever (like I do) you'll never really learn. When people ask me if I play an instrument I always qualify it and say I don't so much play it as I do screw around on it.
P.S. if you can sing and play you've already got me beat. That's one of those things some people can just never get.
Hey there guys! Sorry for the late reply!
>>2
Even if I can read tabs (I can't really) my fingers can't move as fast on the frets.
Right now, I'm using Guitar Pro given to me by a friend and it's pretty fun. Led Zeppelin is good for learning some basic playing, it's mostly in Pentatonics, so it's relatively simple :)
And I'm pracrising my basic major scales alongside.
I don't want to shred or anything, just playing at a decent fast speed would do for me.
>>3
It's impressive you can play Canon rock. Is improv difficult?
I learnt to play Rhythm guitar, or lets just say, Chords in a little more than a month. I was able to switch them. And before I knew it I could sing whilst playing. I learnt barre chords a little later. Power chords came after that.
Well as far as lead guitar goes, I learnt two Led Zeppelin songs, Stairway to Heaven and The Ocean. But both of they were taught to me by my guitar teachers. But I can't play the solos.
I will keep studying composition in mind :)
>>5
Improv is not difficult for me. Then again, I'm generally quite gifted and have been playing guitar for ten years.
>>5
Well as I mentioned, I can't do any improvisation. I think it's primarily because I never studied composition, but being that I can't do it, it's hard to say. If you're already taking lessons I wouldn't worry too much about 'learning to play lead', technical skill is inevitable the longer you stick with it.
I'm completely self-taught which is why I lack a lot of skills you're probably going to get from your teacher in the first year. For me, it was slow and many songs were like rosetta stones. Once you're able to play a song that requires a specific technique, it really opens the door for you to be able to play other songs. For example I struggled for years with the "Sweet Child o' Mine" into, but once I was able to play it I realized so many other songs became easy to play because I had no problems skipping strings.
I think the best advice for anyone who is new to an instrument is to stick with it and grind out your skills. If you don't have natural born talent with it, there are literally no short cuts.