Video: How To Play Lead Guitar Licks With 6ths To Make Your Playing Sound Expressive


Wish you could play expressive lead guitar licks that make people feel a strong sense of emotion?

It's not as hard as you might think!

Learning how specific musical intervals feel while playing helps you express particular emotions whenever you want.

Sound interesting?

For sure!

Good news is, this is something you can get started doing right now.

Learn how to play lead guitar licks with 6ths in this video to make your playing very musically expressive:

Click on the video to begin watching it.

Now you know how to play better lead guitar licks using major 6ths and minor 6ths.

Combine these additional tips to use what you've learned to play lead guitar licks that are more expressive and emotional than ever:
 

Tip #1: Make Your Lead Guitar Licks  Higher In Quality Using A Simple Trick

There is one thing anyone can do to make their lead guitar licks sound better.

What is it?

Easy - use the bridge/neck pickup selector (at the right times).

While playing notes higher up on the fretboard, use the neck pick up. This is done by moving the switch to the top position.

This instantly makes the tone sound very smooth.

Use the bridge pickup to give pitches in the lower range sound great and is an easy way to improve the sound of your rhythm guitar riffs. In general, stay away from using the bridge pickup on higher notes (this can make the notes sound too thin and brittle).


Tip #2: Play Tight Rhythmically

Your lead guitar licks and overall playing gets much better when you improve your rhythmic timing.

For example:

Lead guitar players often stay on the beat some of the time but are a little bit off at other times.

How do you improve this skill?

Make improving your rhythmic timing a higher priority during your practice time. Try to divide up your focus between playing the notes cleanly and playing in time with a backing track/metronome perfectly. Using recording software helps you see and hear your mistakes so you can quickly fix them.


Tip #3: Stay Away From Generic Lead Guitar Exercises

There are many ways to practice lead guitar and many conventional (but ineffective) approaches that are popular.

For example: Using generic chromatic exercises to "increase dexterity or speed".

Practicing these types of lead guitar licks is not effective because it has no particular musical purpose or application.

Think about it:

How often do you play chromatic lead guitar licks like these in music?

Probably not often, if ever.

Working on this mostly just improves how well you are able to play these specific chromatic lead guitar licks.

Your practice time can be used much more efficiently by working on items that actually can be applied into music and make sense with your specific guitar playing goals.


Tip #4: Clean Up Your Lead Guitar Licks With Effective Muting

To eliminate string noise so your lead guitar licks sound great, use the index finger of the fretting hand to mute the strings that are right above the one you are playing.

So, if you are playing the D string, have the index finger covering the G, B and E strings to keep them from causing noise. Then use your picking hand thumb to mute the strings that are lower (in pitch) - A and E in this case.


Tip #5: Improve Your Fretboard Visualization

Do your lead guitar licks sometimes become lost and you end up making mistakes or just playing boring ideas?

Learning how to visualize the fretboard is important for making your lead guitar licks flow smoothly from one note to the next.

Here is one way to do this:

Focus on getting better at visualizing the scale shape you are moving into before you start to move your guitar licks in that direction. Do this by staying within close fretboard positions at first.

For instance, practice improvising short lead guitar licks using the minor pentatonic scale beginning on the 12th fret of the A string within a single octave. Do this for 10-20 repetitions while trying to create short licks that are as different from one another as you can make them.

Then practice playing lead guitar licks using the same scale only starting from the 15th fret (position) of the A string.

Use any technique you know (such as vibrato, legato or bends) to make these short licks more expressive.

Then mix these two scale positions together. Over time, slowly expand your fretboard coverage by adding more notes to expand into other positions or octaves.This helps you expand your lead guitar licks to begin stepping outside of your comfort zone while helping your to train your guitar phrasing and expression.
 

Tip #6: Work Together With A Guitar Teacher

Start taking lessons with a guitar teacher instead of trying to do everything on your own.

It's frustrating to find yourself stuck and far away from reaching your lead guitar goals. Even worse, when you are unaware of what you need to do to improve.

This makes improving your lead guitar licks and soloing skills seem tiring and demotivating rather than exciting - as it should be.

Having a guitar teacher makes this process easy and fun.

This is very important for helping you make bursts of progress, because a great guitar teacher is reliable at getting you to understand where you are going wrong, improve any bad playing habits and get new perspective on guitar that you may not have discovered if you learned totally by yourself.

I have given instruction for many years to thousands of guitarists worldwide and am very proud of the guitar playing wins I have been honored to get for them.

This is what my guitar students say about taking lessons and how it changed their musical lives:

 

 


Think you are ready to learn more about playing awesome lead guitar licks? Let me teach you all about playing creatively on guitar. Get started with online guitar lessons with a great guitar teacher.