How To Play Cool Backslides To Make Your Lead Guitar Technique More Creative
Want to play with creative lead guitar technique that makes your solos sound impressive?
Using what I call "backslides" is a great way to do it!
So, what are backslides?
Simple.
It means sliding aggressively in a certain way to create intensity and drama in your licks.
Playing unbelievably memorable lead guitar solos using backlsides to add flair using your guitar technique is very easy.
Learn how play with killer lead guitar technique for yourself now by checking out this backslides demonstration video now:
Click on the video to begin watching it.
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Now you know how to use backslides to make your lead guitar technique become more expressive and melodic. This technique is very cool and mostly unknown among guitarists.
Show someone you know how to play backslides and watch as they look on in amazement!
No doubt, this "backslides" technique is a great way to add life into your guitar soloing. Even just adding backslides to the end of a small phrases has the power to make it sound very compelling!
Ready to learn more ways to develop killer soloing skills so every phrase sounds totally pro?
Let's keep going!
Here is some additional advice to use right now to improve your lead guitar technique using other approaches besides backslides:
Practice These 3 Guitar Skills To Become A More Creative On Lead Guitar
Your natural-born talent with lead guitar technique does not determine your potential for playing creatively - even though many guitarists believe this myth.
Improving your creativity is just a matter of developing skills using the same processes you would to get better at anything else in your guitar playing.
Here are three lead guitar technique tips to help you improve your creativity in no-time:
Lead Guitar Technique Tip #1: Master Fretboard Visualization
Without having excellent fretboard visualization, it’s very difficult to quickly improvise an amazing guitar solo or lick (without stringing together memorized licks you know).
However, fretboard visualization is about much more than just finding notes in scales during guitar solos and quickly playing with fast guitar technique...
Improving at this skill also means you get better at visualize all chords, scales, arpeggios and intervals in any key all over the fretboard. This is how you integrate all your musical skills at once to play smooth, flowing lead guitar solos.
Bonus tip: Use this concept with the technique you learned in the backslides video to quickly integrate it into your guitar playing. Master playing backslides in within just an octave of a scale to improve your memorization of it before adding more notes.
Lead Guitar Technique Tip #2: Focus On Lead Guitar Phrasing
As you saw by watching the backslides video, you become much more expressive in your guitar solos when you understand how to use phrasing that inspires emotion.
A lot of guitar players neglect this area of their skills in order to play as fast and technical as they can.
Eventually they come to find they are unable to play guitar solos that sound expressive and scratch their heads wondering why. Sometimes they even give up on this part of being creative - blaming everything on not being born a great guitarist.
Don't give up there!
Practicing guitar phrasing gives you the ability to play guitar solos with emotion whenever you want no matter what tempo you are at, or advanced lead guitar technique you are using.
Bonus tip: Use this concept with the technique you learned in the backslides video to quickly integrate it into your guitar playing. Use backslides as a great expressive tool to mix into your licks at any time.
Lead Guitar Technique Tip #3. Practice To Improve Your Musical Ear
Without developing aural skills, it’s difficult to think in very creative way while playing lead guitar solos.
Why?
You aren't able to hear the music in your head before you play it with your fingers.
When you improve your ear, you notice that you are able to hear notes in your mind first, before playing them.
When you develop skills in this area and better understand music theory, you play any chord, lick, riff or solo in a smooth and creative way without really even needing to think about it.
You already understand the unique note names and locations on the fretboard for the times that you need them.
All of these skills can be practiced and mastered just like any other guitar skill. Practice them just a little bit each day for big results.
Bonus tip: Use this concept with the technique you learned in the backslides video to quickly integrate it into your guitar playing. Use backslides to develop your ear for hearing interval distances with specific slides from one note to another.
Note: You don't have to practice lead guitar technique & soloing for 5 hours a day to make fast progress. Here's why:
Practicing Consistently & Frequently Gets Fast Results
No matter how much time you have available for lead guitar technique practice, you get higher quality results when you practice consistently and frequently.
To do this, put together a lead guitar technique practice schedule that keeps you working on the correct things to reach your goals, helps you remain organized and guarantees you get better a little bit each day.
Raise the quality of your lead guitar technique practice by taking lessons with an experienced teacher who has already been able to get big results for others. This kind of teacher knows how to keep you from getting off track and motivates you to get better every time they see you.
You Probably Have More A Lot More Available Practice Time Than You Might Think
People often think they can only practice lead guitar technique in big chunks of 1-3 at a time. This makes it feel a lot harder to find available time to work on your lead guitar playing and can feel very overwhelming.
When you practice lead guitar technique in short blocks of 20 minutes at a time, you eliminate these issues and achieve a lot more than you’d ever think you could. Practicing guitar in short bursts helps you stay focused, which raises the overall quality of your practice.
Even with little time to practice guitar technique every day, you become a great guitarist when you focus on getting the most out of your efforts. You also learn about cool new things like backslides, as you saw in the backslides video above.
(For example, most of my guitar students never knew about this lead guitar technique until I showed it to them.)
Working with a guitar teacher amplifies the results you get from your time.
Here is just some of the proof based on what my guitar students have said about how taking lessons helped them:
“I just love guitar lessons with Tom, he literally takes the time to make a specific lesson plan and sends you lessons as you need it.”
My last lesson I took with a local guitar teacher before joining Tom, I was struggling with a sweep picking pattern, which was the 5 string root major, I was really struggling to get the rolling technique down. I took it to my guitar teacher and I was like “Help me with this, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” This is his exact phrase: “At high speeds, it doesn’t really matter if you can play it clean or not, no one can hear it anyway.” At that point, I was just like, “Ah man.” But thankfully, in that same message, he mentioned Tom’s name. Then the doors opened. That very night, I went home and looked at every single lesson Tom had, had my guitar in hand, every YouTube lesson on you know “correct motions”, “play this over chords”... just applied it instantly, and it was instant results within an hour... just from his free stuff. I was like, oh man, I’ve got to do lessons with this guy.
I remember when I first started out with lessons, I instantly jumped on the forum to greet myself, and it’s amazing how there’s like 30 responses. Just like, “Hi welcome.” and stuff... “Hi Dan, great musical tastes”. That made me feel really at home and welcomed into Tom’s forum and community. Every time I’ve had an issue when I was first starting out be it like theory or guitar technique, there’s always been someone there who’s helped. Otherwise it could’ve been this potentially awkward process where I’d have to wait a whole week to get an answer from my teacher, who even then may not have answered it correctly and may have never solved it. Whereas there are guys on there who have been with Tom and have been through exactly what I’ve been through. They know exactly how to help, in what order, what information you need... it’s just a friendly atmosphere really.
Dan Mayhew, Stowmarket, UK
“July of 2012, I had been managing in a retail store and was kind of reaching this point where I was really getting frustrated because I had been struggling to progress in my guitar playing. I had this mindset that I had to teach myself everything... you know and the best players are all self taught and stuff like that...”
...and I remembered Tom Hess from that book, and I said “You know, it’s time to look this guy up and see what he’s all about.” And it didn’t take me very long to figure out that this is the kind of person that I needed to get on board with.
My playing has definitely improved guitar technique-wise, but probably the most important change I have experienced is just in my overall mindset as a player and as a practicing musician. I just feel like I have a much better frame of mind and a much better idea of where I am going and where my guitar practicing is taking me. Whereas before I just felt like I had to practice everything and I had a whole bunch of stuff going on. It’s a lot more focused now.
Being in the environment that Tom has created with his other students is incredibly motivating. I had always been in my own little shell, kind of just stayed on my own. Coming out here... like when I came out here last year was a big step out of my comfort zone. Getting around all these other musicians... it’s unbelievable how great some of these guys are, not just as players, but as people.
Andrew Tintle, Richmond, California USA
“Before the online guitar lessons, I had a lot of trouble with phrasing. I couldn’t make good note choices, I was always fishing for the next note. I was trying to think of ways that I could play, but it didn’t sound good. I didn’t know how to write songs, it was absolutely terrible, everything sounded the same. I couldn’t really… I didn’t feel confident with my playing. I definitely couldn’t build speed for anything, I was really sloppy and I was dissonant… and it was really painful to play.”
I chose Tom Hess because when I read his articles they blew my mind away. I got so much out of that, that I didn’t get anywhere else.
The main reason I like taking lessons with Tom online is because, number one: yes it was the personalized lessons strategy… I read everything about it, and it was so compelling, just like that he really takes everything that I can or can’t do into account, and then he’ll take what I want to be able to do and then basically map out every step of the way until I get there. And that was just really powerful, and that I’d be able to get feedback every 6 weeks, and the fact that we’ve got the forum. We’ve got instant help and they all really know what they’re talking about… they’re not just like anybody… they… I mean some of them are virtuoso guitar players... I mean, they know their stuff and then of course the mindset of this whole environment. The friends I’ve made here just… I can’t really put into words.
I didn’t have a budget when I started. I had a good enough job that I could take lessons for however long I wanted, so that wasn’t a problem, but I feel like I’ve gotten 100 times what I paid you know.
Matteo Miller, San Diego, California, USA
Use backslides as a concept to supplment your guitar phrasing progress.
Remember, backslides are just one of many cool phrasing techniques you can work on to improve your lead guitar technique and sound more creative overall.
Good news is, practicing these kinds of techniques is a lot of fun, and there is much more to lead guitar playing than discussed on this page. Learning about backslides is just the beginning...
Now you know how to play backslides using cool lead guitar technique tips to improve your soloing. Now it's time to super-charge your guitar skills.
How?
Find out what else is out there besides backslides to help you play with better lead guitar technique than anyone you know - take internet guitar lessons.