Want to play lead guitar solos that build so much tension that people just have to hear how it will be resolved?
This is actually a lot easier than you might think!
Playing great guitar solos is more about how you play notes than which notes you choose to play with.
Sound too good to be true?
Let me show you just how easy it is to get started playing expressive lead guitar solos...
Find out how to play better solos than ever with the one simple adjustment in this video:
Click on the video to begin watching it.
Here are some more tips to help you become even better at lead guitar:
First, An Important Tip For All Guitarists:
Take lessons with a guitar teacher rather than learning on your own.
It's very easy to end up stuck in your playing and unaware of what to do to get better without someone to guide you. This makes playing guitar feel frustrating and discouraging rather than fun - like it should be.
This is why I recommend all guitarists take lessons with an experienced guitar teacher.
This is very important for helping you make fast progress, because a good guitar teacher is effective at getting you to see where you are making mistakes, correct any current bad habits and gain new insights about playing guitar that you would not have known if you learned entirely by yourself.
Not only does this make the learning process more fun, but infinitely less frustrating. Plus, you become a better player, faster.
When you are prepared for reaching a new level in your guitar playing, I am currently taking in new guitar students.
I have taught guitar for decades to thousands of players and am very proud of the results I have been able to get for them.
Here is what my students say about taking guitar lessons online:
“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…”
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... 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
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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.”
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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
Lead Guitar Tip: Use Speed More Musically
Feel like your fast guitar speed only goes to waste because your solos don't sound like real music?
You're not alone. Tons of players struggle with this.
Here’s some advice:
You want to start thinking of distinct phrases when you solo. Start with just a handful of notes and play them over a backing track while making them as unique and expressive as possible using different techniques.
Also, consider this:
Ear training helps you to translate the melodies/phrases you hear in your head into the actual notes on the guitar to play.
Fretboard visualization help you to find those notes on guitar faster.
If it feels like you are fishing around for notes a little and aren’t totally confident in where to find them – work more on fretboard visualization.
Lead Guitar Tip: Move Around The Fretboard More With Your Phrases
Ever been playing a guitar solo and you feel like you are repeating yourself a lot?
Don't fall into the common trap of only playing in one or two scale positions in your solos. This makes it much worse.
Taking advantage of the entire neck makes it easier for you to come up with creative phrasing ideas.
Take greater advantage of vibrato (by making it wider and more noticeable) especially on bent notes. This adds a lot of fire and emotion into your soloing.
Make good use of the “call and response technique” in your soloing (introducing a melodic idea and following it up with a complimentary melodic idea a moment later).
When soloing over a progression consisting of only a few chords, there is only so much you can do with diatonic pitches. Make a little bit more use of non-chord tones to build tension and keep the music going forward.
Lead Guitar Tip: Play Faster Guitar Scale Runs With One Adjustment
When you are playing guitar scale exercises for your picking hand, look more at your picking hand instead of away from the guitar or at the fretting hand.
Practicing scales is extremely powerful for your improvement when you concentrate your attention on the picking hand.
So as you practice, look at your pick and make sure it is moving correctly and efficiently.
This helps you focus more on using correct technique so you get faster in less time and have less complications.
Additionally, working with sequences helps you add a musical feel to your scales, helping you to integrate them into actual licks and solos more easily.
That said, there is so much more to learn in this aspect of guitar playing...
Think you are ready to learn more about playing great guitar solos? Let me teach you all about playing creatively on guitar. Sign-up for online electric guitar lessons.