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Post subject: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 11:34 am
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Downloaded some backing tracks and recorded myself playing lead along with it.

While I was playing I thought it was OK - it felt good. When I listened to it I was very dissappointed at how monotonous it was. The tone was also very bland - used several tones and they got progressively worse.

I made several attempts with various backing tracks in different styles and they were all bad. And I'm not being a harsh critic of myself - it was bad.

What really bugs me is that I did recordings - for fun, never professionally - years ago and my playing was never so tedious and boring. I don't know when it turned to crap but it's definitely happened.

Is it OK if I blame the equipment. :(

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 11:35 am
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Blame the audience.


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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:01 pm
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Blame old age? It works for me!


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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:18 pm
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Maybe I should go back to drinking and drugs.

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:26 pm
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Quote:
I'm a terrible lead guitarist


Practice makes perfect. Practice, record, listen, correct, get new ideas, practice, practice, practice. Do all of that, and you won't be terrible....... There is no secret to it, practice, practice, practice, that gets results.

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Last edited by desertbluesman on Fri Mar 27, 2015 9:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:31 pm
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I got an RC-3 looping Station by Boss. This allowed me to be creative on the spot. My leads were different because I was playing back to stuff I never heard before.


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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 7:04 pm
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Do you make your living playing lead guitar? If not, then it is all about having fun! 8)

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 4:09 am
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20 years ago , I wasn't that good on lead guitar myself. I could do chords but as far as doing solos , I could barely get by. What I did was to dedicate myself to getting better by practicing every day as much as I could and when I got a computer , that was a blessing because I could go to sites like You Tube and Ultimate-Guitar and learn from there, tricks of the trade. If you ever feel complacent , change the style of music you're playing and learn another form. It's not only fun but also will make you a better player in the long run as well. Good luck.


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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2015 11:58 am
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mhowell wrote:
Maybe I should go back to drinking and drugs.

It didn't work for Eric Clapton. Try a different approach. Marry a woman from Ohio! :idea: :lol:

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 8:08 am
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Hhmmm...this is kind of an interesting topic...

Personally I've never really considered myself to be a great...or even good lead guitar player...even though I play lead guitar in a Southern/Classic Rock band. In all truthfulness, I only know 2 scales...a minor pentatonic and a major pentatonic, which are essentially the same exact scale just played in a different position. Yea, I know some variations, but 80% of the time I'm usually somewhere in the middle of the minor pentatonic thing, one way or another...it really is my "meat and potatoes" when it comes to my own playing. When I listen to recordings of myself...playing live at least...yea, I do tend to get a bit redundant and tend to use many of the same riffs and licks and such over and over again. I'd even go so far as to say there there's a couple of tunes where I basically do the exact same lead...when I do "Tush" on stage, I really do nearly the same lead as I do on "Get a Haircut", LOL! On the other hand, I've also found that many of "the greats" tend to do the same thing. Listen to folks like Stevie Ray Vaughn or B.B. King for example and yea...there's a few signature licks there that you hear these people play A LOT. I guess in some way, I've simply come to except this as part of a given individual's style and as such, to some degree at least, I can rationalize my own faults here as part of my own playing style.

Now I would add that particularly when it comes to playing live, I find I tend to be a bit more reserved...less adventurous...than I am at practice or recording. Particularly when it comes to recording, I tend to find I'm more willing to explore new/different sounds and styles...and if something doesn't work, I just record over it, LOL!!! I dunno...I guess that's part of the beauty of recording, but yea...I've got a couple of tunes where my lead work is quite literally spliced together...I may lay down as many as 5 or 6 lead tracks (or more) and the "final" lead often contains pieces/portions of all those takes. As my bass player says, "anyone can be great in the studio" :lol: .

I will say that I've always been a big believer in that it's not really about how much you know, as much as how well you use what you do know. In a very real way, even after all the years I've been playing, it's still amazing to me just how much some folks can do with only 5 notes. I don't really know A LOT on a fretboard...not nearly as much as I feel I should after all the years I've been playing, but knowing that I don't know a lot, I do try to make every last note count.

I'm a big believer in that "well placed note"....trying to make every note count. In this case, I've listened to guys like Malmsteen who play a 1000 notes a minute and as a music and guitar lover, I've just never been impressed...speed isn't everything (nor should it be). Then you have guys like Carlos Santana or Stevie Vai who can play fast, but then they can also just hit that one, singular note, at the right time and in just the right way, that sends shivers down my spine (a certain live version of Santana's "Europa" comes to mind). So much of music really comes down to "feel" and there's a lot of folks who can be truly impressive with a more minimalist approach.

With all of this in mind, if I were to offer any advice to the OP here, it would be simply this; learn from your own mistakes. If you're hearing something in your playing that you're not happy with - work at it. Perhaps it's simply a matter of getting outside of your comfort zone. I can't speak to others, but personally when I sit down to practice (or just jamming for my own amusement), while I typically play a lot of oldies and classic rock in both bands I'm in, I find it helpful to mess around with "other stuff". For example, if I'm doing a lot of stuff like CCR (which I am at the moment), while I'm practicing, I'll throw in some Ozzie (ala Randy Rhodes) or some old Deep Purple (Ritchie Blackmore) which really pushes my playing a bit. I'll even indulge in some AC/DC (the mighty Angus Young)...stuff that I would NEVER be doing on stage with either of the bands I'm in. It's great to perfect a technique or a given "sound" but at the same time, things can get a bit stale after a while as well.....maybe you just need to work on something other than your usual stuff. If you're a metal player, trying doing some country or blue grass instead...if you're a jazz player, try doing some rock-a-billy...you get the idea.

Just my own $.02...


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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 8:30 am
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lomitus wrote:
On the other hand, I've also found that many of "the greats" tend to do the same thing. Listen to folks like Stevie Ray Vaughn...............and yea...there's a few signature licks there that you hear these people play A LOT......... So much of music really comes down to "feel" and there's a lot of folks who can be truly impressive with a more minimalist approach...

Albert King for Stevie Ray, and the minimalist Jimmy Vaughn :wink:

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:25 pm
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lomitus, thanks for the commentary - yes, I read the whole thing.

Others mentioned practicing, changing things around, etc. Good advice but I think ya'll missed one of my key points which is that my playing has regressed. I used to enjoy my lead playing and thought it was decent - I never thought my playing was great. I have some recordings I did just two or three years ago that sounded OK to me.

But recently everything I play comes out sounding bad - really bad. And I don't know why. The licks are there, the style is still pretty much my style but it just sounds aweful.

I can't find my mp3s from a few years ago but if I do I'll post something for comparison. I might post some of the crap anyway. It's embarrassingly bad but it might help to get feedback.

Cheers,

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 3:10 pm
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This is going to sound weird, really weird, so you're going to have to trust me. But there's one (or two) things that have really helped me sound less boring playing lead and I think that they would probably help you too!

The first thing is this, don't worry about your equipment or tone or anything related. Just focus on you, because I've seen great players pick up crap gear and make it sound beautiful.

Now for actually practicing, try playing a one note guitar solo with your backing tracks. That's right, limit yourself to only one note (maybe the root or fifth so it sounds good over all the changes). As tempting as it is to play something else, sit down and play a solo and do not play anything but that one note! What you're doing is focusing on rhythmic variations and phrasing. If you can make a one note solo sound good, it will sound fantastic when you add the rest! The number one problem with boring improv that I see with my students (and myself) is boring rhythm. Usually we're thinking about the scale we're using, or our tone, and we completely forget about rhythm and phrasing.

After you've practiced the one note solo, then do the same thing but allow yourself another note. Then play a two note solo! Keep slowly adding notes that you allow yourself to play until the whole scale is there again. Hopefully you'll notice that your playing is more interesting after that!

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 3:29 pm
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texasguitarslinger wrote:
This is going to sound weird, really weird, so you're going to have to trust me.

Bro, you just had yourself one helluva free consultation and, thanks to you both, so did we :!: 8) Rock on!!

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Post subject: Re: I'm a terrible lead guitarist
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:42 pm
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I am a child of the 80s guitar scene. When it came to practicing lead guitar, I would practice three different ways:
1) Speed - No bends, just going for broke ... but making sure I played clear well articulated notes. I don't solo this way; we are just talking practice.
2) Very slow - No speed runs allowed whatsoever, and focus on bends. This is much harder than #1. Try to channel David Gilmour, who never plays fast ... that type of slow and bend-heavy playing.
3) Pull-ons and pull-offs - I never incorporated this in my lead playing because it was sooooo overdone. Anyone not having the names "Ed" and "Halen" in their names looked stupid doing it. But it is AWESOME to build strength, and can be fun to do.

I was a Jimmy Page guy, so I tried to focus on slow meaningful solos with some speed tastefully added so as to really have dynamics. Being able to play slow keeps people on the edge of their seat. Good luck.

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