Hi everyone.
I'm looking to improve my electric guitar playing - in particular how I improvise, and to use more scales and positions. Really, I want to improve the speed and to vary my improvisation more. I'd also like to be able to string more notes together - at the moment my playing can sound a little disjointed or the notes kind of fade away the more I add to my runs.
In terms of my current level I'd say I'm an intermediate player - I had a lot of lessons when I was younger but I've realised there are holes in my knowledge that I want to eliminate.
I've just started to learn alternate picking, which I'm hoping will help me here, but are there any books, DVDs or particular resources which you've used that helped you to play better?
My end goal here is to be really confident around the fretboard and to be able to bust a really great-sounding, fast solo. I love The Darkness and Van Halen... These guys have the kind of sound (and ability) that I want in my playing.
Any advice or recommendations would be a great help.
Thanks!
I am also not that great of an improviser for whatever reason but its still something I enjoy to do so I put quite a bit of time into it. As far as books to help you learn they are all over the place, any simple scale books will help you. The more often that you throw on some kind of rhythm track that you can solo to and just run through scales to get a feeling for the track, the better you will become. Then when you get more comfortable playing the scales up and down to the rhythm start putting in some variations, add a slide or a bend or some hammer on pull offs in to the mix until its completely your own. The nyou can start branching off away from your scale and add in other scales or you will eventually know what notes sound good with each scale. The more you do it the better you will become. http://www.topguitar.us/how-learn-guitar-fast/ has a couple of nice chord and scale books that I found. I have used a few of them before and have had great success with them. Easy to read and find scales you are looking for. So anyway, I would suggest you just start off simple and build up until you are a solo'ing beast! Best of luck :note1: :note2: !
Hey try this http://guitarsix.com/blog/lessons/guitar-chords-and-scales/195/
and some of the lessons here http://guitarsix.com/blog/lessons/guitar-scales/151/
Old cliche news is best ... learn a few of your fave solos, practice scales to a metronome, speed it up, get things sounding right, learn how to groove, etc. Speed and technique build off of one another until eventually it's natural.
There are loads of scales you can explore to stretch your guitar playing muscles but don't make the mistake of thinking that learning a load of new scales and modes is the answer your looking for. If you want to use them to their full capacity you need to be aware of the theory that goes with the territory. If you're looking to expand your knowledge of the fretboard i would make sure you have a really good knowledge of the minor pentatonic scale first. There are only five shapes to learn in total and its a scale that has so much potential in terms of learning new techniques etc but it will also get you confident playing all over the fretboard - providing you learn all the shapes.
Good luck!
Lachlan Horne. Guitar tutor for 40 AMAZING THINGS YOU CAN DO WITHT THE MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE web tutorial - Free lesson at guitarscalesthatrock.net/gf.html
