How To Play Lead Guitar Fast Without Sacrificing Musical Creativity
One of the most frustrating things about playing guitar fast is it sometimes feels like you aren’t playing very musically… like you’re just repeating a bunch of robotic patterns rather than soloing and bringing your guitar playing to life!
Don’t worry, tons of people have this problem.
Good news:
You’re about to learn how to solve it.
Here are 4 ways to play lead guitar fast in a way that is creative and expressive:
Integrate Vibrato Into Your Scale & Arpeggio Practice
Is your practice method for guitar scales or arpeggios something like… play through the pattern over and over as fast as you can while trying to play every note cleanly?
This approach certainly has a time and a place… but don’t let it be the only way you practice!
One of the most powerful ways to add emotion and expression
into your guitar playing is by using vibrato.
Here is how to practice vibrato together with scales and arpeggios to massively improve your ability to play them with emotional expression:
Practice guitar scales both by simply playing the notes (like normal) and by using vibrato to make each note sound great while playing at a slower speed.
This helps you practice two things at once, improving more skills in less time.
Focus on using variety with your vibrato. For example: Play wide (whole step) and fast vibrato, narrow (half step or less) and slow vibrato and everywhere in between.
Massively Improve Your Guitar Solo Melodies By Improvising During Practice
Mindlessly playing patterns up and down the fretboard during practice trains you to NOT be musically creative with them if you’re not careful.
This is why you need to not only master the basic movements of these patterns, but work on phrasing them too.
Phrasing refers to playing the notes in a musical manner.
A great way to do this is to set aside time to improvise
musical phrases with the patterns you practice.
Doing this in small segments of notes keeps you from becoming overwhelmed and massively improves your ability to play both with speed and expression.
For example: Practice just the first 5 notes of a scale while trying to think of as many different guitar phrases using those notes as you can within 5 minutes.
Then add one more note and repeat.
Make Any Note In Your Solos Stand Out By Using Speed To Build Tension
Speed isn’t just a tool to show off your skills – it’s a way to build musical tension.
Using it to create musical tension helps make longer-held notes feel more important and emotionally powerful.
Try this exercise:
1.
Play through it a few times to get used to the
pattern.
2.
Now, try this. Play the first 9 notes slowly and
melodically (you determine the rhythm).
3.
Then play the next 6 notes FAST.
4.
Finally, play the last two notes slowly, using
vibrato on the final note.
This type of slow+fast+slow approach demonstrates how speed can be used to create tension and interest towards the resolution of a phrase.
Keep this in mind while soloing and try to think of your own phrasing approaches as well!
Change Your Soloing Mindset To Focus On Great Melody First
Focus on creating melodic ideas first before simply looking to show off your technical skills.
Think of speed as a method for amplifying these melodies.
This simple switch in mindset works wonders to transform fast guitar solos from mindless notes to full-fledged stories that take the listener on an intense ride!
Here are some ways to practice this:
·
Create a short phrase using any scale or
arpeggio of your choice. Make it slow and melodic. Then try to think of 25
variations of the melody that use faster notes to connect together the basic
phrase you came up with.
·
Use tremolo picking to add speed to a slower
guitar phrase without playing any new notes.
· Practice making just one single note sound amazing using vibrato, bends or any other technique. Then use quick, 2-3 note runs that connect to it. Gradually expand the number of fast notes you use, then add more “amazing” notes until you eventually create a cool phrase.
Of course, the ideas in this article are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to play fast and melodic guitar solos.