Learn How To Play Fast Guitar Solos With Melody & Musical Expression
Love playing fast guitar solos but don't know how to make them sound musically expressive with great melody?
Playing fast guitar solos with melody isn't as hard as you might think.
Many times it's as simple as identifying just a couple of notes you want to play slowly, then using what you already know to play fast runs in between in order to build and release musical tension.
Sound simple?
It is...
...and it's a lot of fun too!
Watch this video to learn how to easily play fast guitar solos with melody that sounds great:
Click on the video to begin watching it.
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Now that you have watched the video, you are ready to start adding melody to your fast guitar solos like never before!
Use these additional tips to refine your skills and play better guitar solos:
When you play guitar solos you want your phrases to flow smoothly from one to the next.
This is really difficult when you simply shred through tons of notes and hope it sounds good eventually.
Instead use this approach to train your musical ear so you can think ahead to what you are going to play next:
Play the first half of a 3-5 note guitar lick, then sing the next half of the phrase using only your voice.
Don't worry, you don't have to be a great singer, just do your best.
Next, try play the notes you sang using your guitar.
This helps you start to play guitar solos that are more melodic and expressive because you begin to know what you are going to play before you even play it (since you can hear it in your head).
Question: “What is another way to play guitar solos that sound interesting and melodic without tons of advanced technique?”
Answer: Whenever you repeat a musical idea, try to make it is expressive as possible using different techniques to create a sense of variety (rather than simply repeating the exact same lick over again).
For example, use techniques such as bends, sliding into some of the notes from above or below, trills/legato embellishment or vibrato to add variety. Doing this on a consistent basis helps you gradually become more and more expressive whenever you play guitar solos and keeps you from repeating the same ideas all the time.
Mastering these techniques is critical for making any guitar solo sound more melodic and emotionally expressive.
The key is keeping your playing in tune with these techniques.
Practice just a few minutes each day by working on nothing but bending the strings from the original note up to the precise pitch you want to target.
This helps you become more consistent and expressive with little effort.
Here is one way to effectively practice bending strings (for string bends or vibrato):
Play the pitch that you will be targeting by picking it. Then pick the string and bend up to that pitch from below.
Try to achieve the exact pitch so that you always reach the target whenever you bend without even thinking about it.
Over time, this becomes effortless and your string bending sounds expressive and perfectly in tune.
Do you spend a lot of time practicing to play better guitar solos but can't seem to play them how you want?
You're not the only one.
Tons of guitar players end up in this same frustrating situation...
... sometimes ending up stuck there for years at a time.
Good news is, working with a guitar teacher helps you finally start playing guitar solos in the way you always wanted to.
Your lead guitar playing develops very quickly when you take lessons with an experienced guitar teacher who has already given the results you want to others and will help you do the same.
It's a fact.
Guitarists who take lessons with a teacher simply strengthen their weaknesses much faster than they would on their own.
Great guitar teachers are masters at helping you resolve issues in your playing that you never knew about while helping you achieve your guitar playing goals quickly and effectively.
Make the decision to improve your musical skills and begin taking guitar lessons today - Here is what my students have to say about taking lessons:
“I found Tom Hess on the net through articles, and I read quite a few of those before I went to Tom’s website. Even though I’m not a metal player at all, and Tom is obviously a metal player, I could still see that his ideas and way of teaching could really benefit me. So I pretty much signed up for online guitar lessons with Tom straight away once I’d gone through the website, and it’s just been a real eye opener with the way he teaches…”
... the integration of concepts that he’ll give you and having a really structured strategy… not just week to week lessons, but things that - you can see from one lesson to the next - really develop and continue to work on your technique and your theory and aural skills and those types of things. So I’d played a long time… 20 years before I really caught onto Tom, and I’d had a lot of lessons, and I’d taught and played but I can really see improvements in my technique, sweeping, and picking which weren’t strong parts of my playing.
I feel like Tom has a good gauge of where you’re at as a guitar player and what you need, and there just seemed to be so much more stuff in the lessons week to week than what you’d ever get in an hour or so in a one on one lesson… way more. So yeah I think that and the forum. I think, I’d pay the money just for the forum. That alone would be fine… I wouldn’t have a problem with that at all. So that alone is massive!
The price for the lessons, that’s nothing... nothing. You know, I think it’s, pretty cheap to be honest. I don’t mean that in a bad way, cheap. Cheap is not a good word, but I just think it’s great value… awesome value. I mean, you know, you could pay that for one-to-one lessons and you just don’t get the same results and support of the forum and the content and the strategies.
Other teachers I’ve had have been good players, and some have become good friends too. But when I’ve started lessons with Tom I’ve got something to compare that to and a lot of it is just sort of teaching songs from week to week… a lot of the lesson will be left up to you… you’ll go to your lesson and they’ll be like what do you want to do today? At the time I said, oh do this song or that song, but with Tom you start to realize that you know, there’s more to it… the goals and you know he’s sort of more in contact with what you want to be able to do as a player, because he’s asking you the questions and then setting up the strategies, so I find that really good.
Yeah I can see more results in 18 months in a lot of areas in my playing than you know 20 years. So it’s sort of, you know, would’ve been great 20 years ago to have met Tom.
Simon Candy, Melbourne, Australia
When I started learning from Tom, the main thing that made him different from other teachers was that he was showing me how to excel in all aspects of my guitar playing by applying the skills that I already knew together with the new material that I was learning from him.
He made me aware of both strengths and weaknesses in my playing that I did not even know I had. From there he gave me the knowledge, tools and guidance to literally transform my guitar playing by enabling me to overcome things that were preventing me from becoming a truly creative and self-expressive guitar player. These were the kinds of things that none of my previous guitar teachers and books I studied were able to do for me.
After Tom made me aware of all the things I was missing in my guitar playing and provided me with the strategy and tools for solving them, I began to make very fast progress in all areas of my guitar playing.
I can now write my own music and can create lead guitar solos that I am happy and fulfilled with. I also have the technical skills to confidently and easily play anything that I want to express. I have overcome all of the lead guitar challenges that I struggled with before, and increased my guitar speed to virtuoso levels. More importantly, I have the knowledge and understanding of how to continually improve my guitar playing and musical skills to higher and higher levels to continue expressing myself with my music. Overall, I have definitely transformed in a huge way as a musician and as a person through my lessons with Tom Hess. I am grateful to him for guiding me towards becoming the guitarist I always wanted to be!"
Mike Philippov, Indiana, USA
“When I first heard about Tom Hess, I saw that he was a teacher that was very dedicated and serious about it, and that drew me in immediately. That this is a guy that has a plan, has a goal and really if you’re serious about learning guitar, this guy is equally as serious in a way. So it resonated with me straight away.”
I started out just learning by myself and as many others I got stuck. I had a few issues I wanted to get by, but when I met Tom and talked with him and started lessons with him, he opened up a whole new world of possibilities of what guitar playing can be.
I feel very grateful that I found lessons from Tom since I then did what worked from the very beginning. Many guitarists I see that played way longer than I did, they have build up many bad habits. That from the very start, there was clear instruction of how to practice correctly. You build the ability for high speed and whatever you want from the very beginning and you don’t waste time doing inefficient things. So I’m very grateful that I did that, and now I really feel I am able to reach whatever level I want.
The reasons why I think I feel so motivated all the time is because I know that the thing I’m working on is relevant for me and it’s exactly the direct thing I need to get.
The forum just kicks ass. The people in the forum - it’s just like unconditional help all the time. They love to help out, and you also get very inspired by seeing someone just really getting speed really quick and then you say if he can do it, I can do it. It works on the mental side of being a guitarist and that of course that’s the most important thing. Just being around other musicians like that, is just you learn so much faster, is so much less frustration when you can see that all the people are having the same issues that you do, not anything special or anything. It’s just part of learning process, so it kicks ass.
Magnus Gautestad, Norway
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