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How to Improve Your Speed & Accuracy As a Lead Guitarist

As a lead guitarist, your playing is an essential component of your band's music. Because the lead guitar is often heard above the rest of the instruments, mistakes are hard to hide. Improving your speed and accuracy allow you to play technical passages and difficult riffs cleanly and with confidence.

Instructions

    • 1

      Play the chromatic scale, which incorporates all adjacent notes played in order, both ascending and descending. Starting from C, an ascending chromatic scale is: C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C. Play the entire range of the guitar and use all four fingers, one per fret. Repeat this exercise daily, making sure that your hands remain relaxed and your fingering is accurate.

    • 2

      Learn the scales. Start with basic major/minor diatonic scales and move to blues, pentatonic, whole-tone and diminished scales. They will be harder than the chromatic scale and may at first seem overwhelming. Start slow, relax your hands and pace yourself. Be conscious of timing and try to play scales as evenly as possible. If you're unable to play a scale flawlessly, slow down.

    • 3

      Play easy patterns. Take short phrases out of parts you are working on or create your own sequences and play them until your fingers are perfectly coordinated from note to note without hesitation. Start slow and loop the phrase. Concentrate on each note and pay attention to your tone, slowly increasing the speed.

    • 4

      Break down your solos into shorter musical phrases and practice each phrase separately. Starting out slow is very important. If you stumble on any notes or progressions, do not go forward. Go back and play the place where you stumbled until your fingers change positions evenly and without mistakes. Connect the phrases gradually and increase the speed, but not before you're able to play them perfectly at a steady, slow pace.

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