How To Play Fast Lead Guitar Riffs Together With Rhythm Guitar Chords To Become A Well-Rounded, Kickass Guitarist

Common problem for guitarists: Only being able to play lead guitar or rhythm guitar, but not both. Learning to combine rhythm and lead guitar makes your guitar playing sound musical rather than sounding like a collection of random licks, scales or patterns.

 

The best guitar players are able to combine lead guitar with rhythm guitar riffs to become well-rounded, kickass musicians. When you develop this skill, it gives you confidence that you can play in any musical situation and impress others with your skills.

 

Use the ideas below to start playing fast lead guitar riffs while becoming a better, more creative guitarist:

Become A Better, Faster Guitarist Now By Integrating Rhythm And Lead Together

 

Knowing how to integrate rhythm and lead together makes fast guitar riffs sound amazing. Bringing both aspects of your guitar playing together is easy when you break down the process and take it a step at a time.


Step One: Connect Together Two Basic Power Chords

 

Being able to connect two ideas together with a lead guitar fill is crucial for integrating lead with rhythm. One of the easiest ways to begin doing this is to create a fill between two simple power chords:

Connecting Two Power Chords On Guitar

Simply using a single note can make a fill sound great. This is a great way to begin integrating lead with rhythm.

 

For example: using the D5 and E5 power chords above, create a fill using just the G note on fret 5 or the D string. Make the note more musically interesting by adding tremolo to give speed to your guitar riff.

 

Like this:

Rhythm Guitar Fill With Tremolo

Try this using different notes for your fill and while playing the power chords with various rhythms. Improvise 10 quick ideas to quickly get used to this process.

 

Step Two: Add More Notes To Your Fill To Expand The Riff

 

Adding a few more notes to your lead guitar riff fill helps you add more interest and expression to the riff without overwhelming yourself.

The tab below adds two notes to the single note fill from above:

Fill Notes In Rhythm Guitar Riff

Practice this by improvising 10 variations of guitar riffs that use these notes. Take your time at first, so you don’t overwhelm yourself.

 

Note: This same idea can apply while connecting two phrases/licks as well (not just power chords).

 

This video illustrates this same concept by showing you how to add fills in between important notes of a guitar solo to make the entire phrase sound melodic and expressive:

Step Three: Practice A Lead Guitar Riff And A Rhythm Guitar Riff Separate, Then Together

 

Engaging yourself creatively helps you learn faster. This helps you play fast lead guitar riffs together with rhythm ideas effortlessly in no time.

Use this simple, but effective exercise to start combining great guitar riffs together with cool lead guitar fills:

 

  1. First, choose any cool guitar riff you love to play.
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Look for a place in the riff where you can break it into two parts. Usually there will be a feeling of “call and response” or at least notes that are longer where the riff can be split apart.

 

  1. Once you’ve done this, improvise for several minutes to create a variation of the first half of the riff. Try to give the riff your own unique sound.
  2. Repeat this with the second half of the riff as well.
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  4. Now you have two cool guitar riffs that are variations of the original. Combine them together and practice them until you are able to play them fluidly without mistakes.
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  6. Now, use the concepts of this article to create a fill between the first and second half of the riff. This can be a quick scale run, a tremolo-picked sequence, an arpeggio or any other idea you can think of.
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  8. Now, practice the first half of the riff and the run together.
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  10. Once this is smooth, combine both halves of the riff and the fill together to make one, kickass guitar riff.
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This process may take a bit of getting used to, but when practiced consistently, you become able to create awesome guitar riffs with lead fills almost instantly.

Step Four: Make Highly Creative Lead Guitar Riffs And Practice Them In Rapid-Fire Succession

 

The final step is to challenge your creative mind just a bit more to inspire massive progress. Thinking of your own rhythm/lead guitar riffs variations using unique variables helps you improvise killer riffs at command.

 

Choose any of the previous exercises and apply one or more of these creative limitations to challenge yourself to improve your musical expression:

 

  • *Only play fills using sixteenth notes or any other specific note rhythm
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  • *Only play fills with your index finger
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  • *Keep everything within the same fretboard position
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  • *Play fills that are an octave higher than your chords
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  • *Create guitar riffs or fills in non-4/4 time signatures
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  • *Record yourself and create a harmony/overdubbed track for your musical idea
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*Use different chord ideas such as power chords, open chords, inversions or 7th chords

Develop Guitar Speed Versatility In No Time By Practicing Rhythm/Lead Integration With A Metronome

 

Practicing the concepts in this article together using a metronome helps you play with the timing needed to make your playing sound tight. Make sure to learn how to practice effectively using one, so you improve as fast as possible.

 

Develop tight rhythmic timing for your riffs by reading this article on how to use a metronome to practice guitar.