Book two of the learn guitar series. This book deals with lead guitar and blues. Download and be the guitarist you were always meant to be. Enjoy.
Excerpt:
I will assume that you have a guitar and you know how to tune it and you know how to make the basic open chords.
I also assume you know/don’t care what all the parts of the guitar are called and that you can read tab music.
Other teach yourself guitar books will fill the first 50 pages with these four subjects just to fill up the book, so I won’t waste your time with that.
Let’s get on with what you downloaded the book for, learning to play blues and lead guitar.
Once you have the knowledge in your head you will use it to make music for the rest of your life, if you live that long. The more effort you put into learning how it all works now, the better music you are going to play in the future. So you must put aside any ‘couldn’t be bothered’ feelings and work to make yourself exceptional. How good you become is all according to how much effort you put into it.
If you have already downloaded my previous book ’learn guitar easy’ the first edition of which is called ‘guitar omnibus’ then you are way ahead and you have less work to do, otherwise don’t worry, enjoy the journey ahead. I certainly did in my life.
The first thing you should learn is this scale pattern (illustration)
This is the blues scale in A. Let me briefly explain what this means.
If a friend is playing a song or instrumental tune in A major and you are playing lead guitar for him then you need to use a scale different from the A major scale otherwise it would sound off.
When you are listening to a song, your ear listens out for a major scale. When your ear hears a major scale it recognises that bit of the song as the main bit. If there are two people playing different things but both are using the major scale then your ear gets confused and has to go and have a lie down.
When your ear hears a blues/pentatonic scale it recognises that as the lead.
It’s just like when you watch Laurel and Hardy or Abbot and Costello; you recognise right away who the straight guy is and who the clown is. In the same way, your ear says aha, this bit is the guy playing the main song and this guy is playing along. You know what I mean because you do it all the time.
More by Fuzzball:
Learn Guitar Easy
Hank Williams Songs and Chords
Learn All Instruments Easy