Guitar advice: Rhythm vs Lead.

Would you say that some people are naturaly better at playing rhythm and some people are naturaly better at playing lead?

I play guitar all day and I think I have gained controll of my rhythm capabilities, because I can impovise power chord 'riffs' and rhythm sections easily, no sweat.

However I just cant seem to play solos.
Its not that im not fast enough of whatever because I have learned to play other peoples solos like Hendrix's "all along the watch tower" and Metallica's "Fade to black", But I cant seem to make up my own. My friend who also plays the guitar feels the same way, but then another one of my friends can pull solos out his ass.

What can I do to improve my soloing?

 

Learn scales in an out. Improve your single note capabilities, like hammers and pulls, slides. Also, put on a rhythm based song, find out what key its in and play the scale, try to solo to it.

Just last night i played my own solo to shine on you crazy diamond, played in G passed the 12th, sounded so nice.

 

Stop thinking so much about it, and just let it flow.

I know it sounds old and tired, but its a fact. Speed is over-rated for solos, just stay in key and let your fingers do what feels natural. Give yourself some time with that, and you will develop your own style with your lead riffs.

Plus, even guys who have played their whole lives wonder what they can do to improve their solos, so dont feel alone!

Good luck!

 

i teach guitar and i spose i do it rather oddly - i advise to do it free jazz way and it applies to any style your after . here's the basic : play every note you got on the neck until the tones are in your head . exercize your fingers to do every contortion possible . pick with clarity . you just stumble into mastery , thinking with your fingers .

yaya , the flow ...

 

learn your scales and all of the notes on the fretboard - it takes a while, but its worth it. play with other people as much as you can. also, try to learn songs by just listening to it, forget tabs unless you really cant figure out the song. after a while, it will become more and more natural to you.

 

I can understand about not thinking about it too much and trusting my fingers, this works if I play to the music long enough.
The problem with being technical about it and learning scales is often by the time I can actualy play it to the rhythm, the rhythm changes to a different scale.
I guess in the end practice makes perfect.

I would like to ask another question.
I know most guitarists make the rhythm first and the solo after, but would it be wrong to make the solo first?

 

If you're talking about song writing there is no wrong way to write a song, whatever works for you. It might be harder to come up with the rhythm second, but not necessarily.

As for soloing, just play along with the radio and tool around till it doesn't sound like shit anymore. You'll figure it out sooner or later. Worked for me!

 

I agree with tikoo...You gotta get the notes in your head first. If you get your ears to know what every single note sounds like over whatever chord it is you're playing on, then you can pick and choose. Rhythm is still key when playing lead. To me, if you play with good time and phrasing you can literally just play chromatic scales and it will sound hip. But yea man, practice singing melodies and things youd like to hear, and then try to play those. Sooner or later you'll develop a vocabulary that you can call on whenever you take a solo

 

This may seem silly, but a really simple exercise is to try to practice a solo using just one note. You can change the timing, length, tonal quality, and volume of the note, but use only one note. It can help develop skill at changing all of these things without having to worry yet about what notes to play.

It tends to work well for horn instruments such as trumpet. After tinkering with one note, others notes near the original note can be used. You can then wander farther and farther from the original note that you started with. After a while, it turns into a solo with many notes.

.

 

yea thats a great response shaggie. Not silly at all. All the pros (im a jazz guy) agree on this as something you should definitely practice doing. Obviously it doesnt help you find melodies to play, but it can be great for your attack, time and phrasing. When I play funk, and the keyboard is taking care of the chords, I often just play a single note, so it is applicable to real musical situations as well. And I think playing funk this way helped my time improve all around. Nice post

 

"wanking at pentatonic" is a pennance all players must go through

excellent advice above... the only thing i'd add is going slow really does pay off.....find a nice gentle-ish backing track (a simple 12 bar blues if you are a rock fan for example) and twiddle along with that till your ears kick into synch with yer fingers

 

I would suggest learning a Lead with a single string melody/ and improving your speed
some leads are no more than two notes with bending and sustaine, Try playing your favorite songs with single notes on one string. Not at all a silly notion when I use it in live situations as well as studio almost daily.

 

i have something that might help you improvise. go to worldguitar.com

click on jam, they have different jam machines in different keys with different types of backing. they also provide any type of scale you want.