[Guitar Solo Lesson] - How To Make “Wrong” Notes Sound Good In Rock Lead Guitar Solos

By Tom Hess


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Is it possible to make “wrong” notes (like the 9th, 7th or #11) sound good in any of your lead guitar solos?

And can it be done even while shredding or playing metal?

The answer is yes.

More:

Not only is it "possible"...

...it's something you'd better know how to do if you want to become a great player. Why? 

Because your other option is to only play the safe notes (chord tones).

And that makes lead guitar solos sound predictable and boring.

But don't worry: 

Learning to use "wrong" notes creatively is easy.

(Even if you aren’t an advanced lead guitar player yet, or don't know a lot of music theory.)

Let’s begin:

Watch this video to see the secrets to making “wrong” notes sound great in any guitar solo:
 



Want some more help with practicing what you just learned?

Then check out these practice tips that make any lead guitar solos you play better almost immediately:


Lead Guitar Tip #1. Set Yourself Up For Success

Use a slow-moving backing track.


The Secret To Adding Fire &
Emotion To Any Guitar Lick
The Secret To Adding Fire And Emotion To Your Guitar Playing e-Book
ENTER YOUR NAME AND
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
FREE E-BOOK

By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.


This means: use a backing track that has as few chords as possible (2 at the most, ideally – 1).

You can do this using Guitar Pro or a similar program. Simply enter one chord and set the track to loop over and over.

Then perform a guitar solo over it.

Also:

- Make sure the chords are played on a clean electric guitar, acoustic guitar or piano (NOT distorted electric guitar).

- Play your guitar solo over full triads (or 7th chords) – NOT power chords or single-note riffs.


Lead Guitar Tip #2. Practice Micro Phrasing

This means:

Get really good at “milking” maximum drama and emotion out of a small number of notes.

Challenge yourself to make just 1-2 notes sound as expressive as possible.

When you do – it becomes easier to emphasize the dissonant (“wrong”) notes and make them sound really good.

Watch this video that shows what “milking” is and how to do it:




Lead Guitar Tip #3: Use The “Triple Mute” To Clean Up Sloppy Guitar String Noise.

Know anybody who loves the sound of sloppy guitar string noise?

Me neither.

That’s why, I use not just one or two, but THREE ways to mute excess string noise in my lead guitar solos (and the playing of my guitar students).


How to get rid of unwanted guitar string noise

Make these techniques part of your playing and all your lead guitar solos will sound much better.


Lead Guitar Tip #4: Put It All Together

To play lead guitar solos well, you need many skills. Using “wrong” notes expressively is one of them.

Set time to practice this skill, same way you would practice your scales, sweep picking or music theory knowledge.

5-15 minutes per day is all it takes to see (and hear) real progress in your lead guitar solos.

Now that you know how to make “wrong” notes sound good during a guitar solo – want some help with improving the rest of your guitar playing ?

I helped hundreds of guitar players transform their lead guitar solos from average to totally awesome – even the ones who were stuck in a rut for a long time and were plagued by self-doubt.

See the results my students are getting and how you can become one of them at: https://tomhess.net/Guitar


Tom HessAbout Tom Hess: Tom Hess is a guitar teacher, music career mentor and guitar teacher trainer. He teaches rock guitar lessons online to students from all over the world and conducts instructional live guitar training events attended by musicians from over 50 countries.

Ready to make every guitar solo a great one? Transform your guitar playing with the best rock guitar instruction online.

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