So I thought to do a guitar lesson series on how to play lead guitar.
Well,To learn how to play lead you need to develop your technical skills first.
Good plan for learning to play solos would include
Learn how to read Music
Learn scales
Learn technical stuff (hammer ons,pull offs,vibrato,slides,sweeping etc.)
and regular practice sessions with exercises.
It's important to learn a notation system to read music.Learning how to read music can take some time.But it's worth the wait.Most of you might think music is difficult to read.but it's not. And once you get the basics down, the rewards will last a lifetime.Notation is an another written language. Whether it's classical, rock, reggae,country, folk, jazz etc, music is written and recognized in the same way throughout most of the world.
There are two types of notation system we have in Srilanka.
One is Standard western notation system.other one is Sinhala notation system (adapted from Hindusthani Music) using ස රි ග ම ප ධ නි.
We are mainly focusing on standard western notation because I'm planing to do some classical guitar lessons in future.If you already know how to read hindusthani notation system don't worry.It will be very helpful for learning the western notation system.
Guitar tab is another shortcut for learn how to play guitar solos.It's a well adapted notation system for guitar.However there are so many limitations in guitar tabs.So I recommend you to learn both standard notation system and guitar tabs to become a good musician.If you don't know how to read guitar tabs please read these articles.
Sinhala Guitar Tab Lessons
These lessons are not yet finished.But you can still get the idea.I will update those lessons soon.I will also cover the technical stuff along with the guitar tab lessons.
Back to our lesson.It's not impossible to learn scales without a deep knowledge on notation system and without being able to read music.So let's learn a simple scale first.The scale we are going to learn today is C major.
It's consisted of 7 natural notes.(no sharps or flats)
C D E F G A B (ස රි ග ම ප ධ නි.)
So look at this video and learn how to play those notes in open position.
Play this scale ascending and descending few times.When you get familiar with the notes use a metronome and play on a steady beat.
Now follow these two exercises with me.These are simple patterns you can use to practice any scale.
ස රි ග , රි ග ම , ග ම ප ම ප ධ , ප ධ නි , ධ නි ස
Use alternate picking (down,up) for the right hand.
Now try this one your own.
1234-2345-3456 and so on.
ස රි ග ම , රි ග ම ප, ග ම ප ධ, ම ප ධ නි, ප ධ නි ස
If you have any question don't hesitate to ask and don't forget to leave a comment.
