Help me jump start my lead playing

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by ssjk

I’m kind of in a rut. My latest (fifth?) attempt to work with alternate tunings ain’t singing to me again. So I have resolved to learn to play some rudimentary leads. Won’t be my first attempt at that either.

Background: 60 years or so playing. Use a pick when playing with others, usually finger style at home. Self taught.

Lots of suggestions on line about how to get going, and I’ve fooled around with all of them. So I’d like your opinion.

1 it’s scales, baby
2 really learn all of the notes on the fretboard
3 play the melody and move on from there
4 do the CAGE thing
5 practice patterns within boxes
6 make/get some backing tracks and play along with them

Yeah, I know I should do 2 or 3 of these things, but I’d like to focus at first on the one thing that will kick start the effort. Assume that I will spend 1/2 to 1 hour per day for the next 4 weeks doing this one thing alone. After that I’ll add other approaches.

So please just pick only one. If I left out some obvious first thing, let me know.

Thanks.

Hi ssjk
I'd start with scales and simple versions of triads (of the same single major or minor chord) on strings 1-2-3, 2-3-4, and 3-4-5 (I'll post an example of a D major chord with inversions on strings 1-2-3 and 2-3-4)

And I'd locate the triads for a single chord (Dmaj for instance) and build an exercise where I'd change from one position to the next to the next (repeating the chord at the octave) both moving up the neck and starting at the 'far end' and working back to the nut.

Then once they are solidly 'yours'…noodle around on an inversion when you land before moving to the next inversion (hammer-ons and pull-offs). This will produce mini-lead runs.

Then figure out that 'D' shaped fingering so you are playing a 'G' chord (cowboy D shape on strings 1-2-3 frets 7&8)…and figure out the other inversions shapes for the G (moving up and down the neck). They always change (up or down) in predictable fashion.

They ALWAYS 'move' the same number of frets on the same string combinations in standard tuning. You won't learn the D inversions for example and then have to learn new fingerings for other keys.

When you wake up in the morning the patterns will not have snuck around and switched themselves up while you were in bed.

Once I figured out the inversions for major, minor, seventh, minor seventh in this manner, I started applying it to the Worship Team setting I was in and moving my range out of the same space as the piano occupied. And I varied my runs, and rhythm from the keys, and we were both heard better in the mix, and the music was more interesting.

Hope this stimulates thought…maybe even some messing around on the neck.

[ssjk]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I'm not surprised that there is no consensus. But I admit I am surprised that focusing on scales first was not the common theme.

Playing a bunch of melodies appeals to me, so I think I'll start there. Your observations regarding CAGED and inversions were helpful as well. If I think about them as ways to lead me to the correct notes to hit on those melodies it probably would help.

Funny - I'm quite comfortable with all of the chords using different shapes played as barre chords anywhere on the neck. And when I am playing finger style I can play simple leads and fills using those barred shapes. It's when I try to convert that to single notes or double stops that it all breaks down. Perhaps thinking of them as inversions using only some of the strings (rather than as barre chords) will help me past that.

Thanks again for your insights.

JK

[0x00feef00]

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I'll offer a slightly different approach. It's two-fold:

1. Sing what you play and play what you sing.
2. Learn solos you love.

The first has three enormous benefits:

1. It's free ear training (and so indirectly hits a version of "learn the whole fretboard")
2. It helps you break free of the patterns your fingers are used to (many of which are really constrained in weird melodic ways by the geography of the guitar)
3. It improves your singing (which is super useful on its own, but also lets you ideate away from the guitar)

For the second part, it wasn't until recently (35+ years into playing) that I sat down and started to learn some of the solos I love. In my case, I started with Steve Vai's work off of "Eat 'em and Smile". The thing this showed me how liberating it can be when you remove the pressure to be innovative and original. I could simply focus on the notes and then just drilling it up to speed. And at the end, I was playing solos that I always admire from afar.

It was such a well-defined, concrete goal that I almost laughed out loud how blissfully mindless it was. It also means I'm assimilating that vocabulary directly and it eventually finds its way out in my own playing and singing...

... as that feeds back into point #1, and the cycle continues.