Transcripts
1. Intro: Hi everybody. I hope you're all doing well today.
My name's Kaelyn. I've been playing
guitar for 15 years. And today I would like
to share with you my approach to lead guitar. This course is aimed
at guitarist that have a beginner to
intermediate level. Maybe someone who
knows the codes, knows a few songs, but he's struggling with the
lead guitar side of things. So whether you're looking to
jam along with your friends, record a solo on
top of a record, or just have fun
with the loop pedal. I believe this
course will make you feel more confident moving up and down the guitar neck
if you're anything like me, the first thing you learn
when you started playing guitar was the first
opening chords. Maybe a few riffs. But lead guitar always
seem like an elusive part of the puzzle that
didn't quite fit. So hopefully today I
can clear up some of the mystery around that
Quick Rig rundown. I'm playing a Mexican made Fender Telecaster going
into ditto looper pedal, coming out of a
Yamaha THR tendency. And the Mike I'm gonna be
using is an AKG C one-thousand
2. Major & Minor: This section is going to be a brief lesson on the
major and minor scales, inversions, and finding the
tonality of a piece of music. If you already feel confident
with these concepts, I understand it's not the
most riveting subject in the world and feel
free to skip ahead. The first scale we're going
to learn is the major scale. And let's start with C major, as it's the easiest
to understand, because there are
no sharps or flats. The way I like to imagine
a scale is like a pattern. Western music only has 12 nodes, and the intervals
between these nodes are called semitones and tones. Semi-tone refers to the space in-between two notes that are directly next to each other, like G and G sharp. And a tone refers to the space between two knows that
two semitones apart, for instance G and a. So for example, the
major scales pattern goes is followed. Tone, tone, semi-tone,
tone, tone, tone, semitone. So in terms of the C
major scale, C, D, E, F, G, a, B. And back to see. For every major scale, there is also a relative minor. The relative minor for
C major is a minor. We can find the relative minor, the sixth degree of the scale. For example, 123456,
we find in a node. So that's how we can find the relative minor
of the major scale. The Minor Scale, she
has all the same nodes, is the major scale. It just starts in
a different place, therefore changing the pattern and giving it a
different flavor. So the pattern for a minor
scale goes as follows. Tone, semi-tone, tone, tone,
semi-tone, tone, tone. In the case of a
minor, it's a, B, C, D, E, F, G, back to a. So here we can see the first step is a
tone than a semitone. Than a tone, another
tone, semi-tone, tone. The tone. The same notes can be played in various positions up and down the fret board. For example, C-Major can be
played on the third fret. The fifth threat, a
threat, etcetera. This is gonna be important
later when we come to choose where we want to
play on the threat board. Playing a scale over
cooperation is all well and good when you know
the tonality of the piece, like when you're
playing with a friend or playing for loop pedal. But what about those times? You don't know what
the chords are. Here's a simple way
of finding the key. For this example, I'll be
using diatonic chords, which is just a
fancy way of saying chords the all belong
to the same key. So while do is, I'll just start by playing the hyphae and see if
it sounds harmonious. And then what I'll do is
I'll just work my way of Sinek and see which
ones sound dissonant, in which one sound and harmonious
one semitone at a time. Sounds good. Sounds good. Not so good. Yeah, I will work. Now one's not in the scale. That one works. A bit
dissonant. That one works. And usually when I get past
having played two semitones, what I'll do is I'll take the
first pattern that I found. But on the B string, I know that is in the key, and I know that can be
laid on the B string here. So now I know I have, from that, I can pretty much see the C major shape.
And they haven't
3. Steal Like an Artist: In this section and other
segments of the course, I'm going to be talking
about a book called steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. In the book he talks about how
nothing is truly original. And if we're obsessed
by originality, it's going to hold us back from achieving our
creative potential. So how does this
apply to lead guitar? A great way to become a great improviser is by learning a lot of
different guitar parts. The idea here isn't directly
copy other people's work, but rather to gain inspiration. And through learning,
you'll build up repertoire of riffs, motifs, and lakes that can be incorporated into
your own style. This doesn't mean
you need to learn every riff and guitar
solo ever written. In fact, I recommend
being selective with your choices and only learn what you really
enjoy listening to. That way when you come to solo
over a chord progression, you'll have a library
of great ideas
4. Building Blocks: In this part of the course, we're going to take a look
at how to find inspiration. The fret board can seem
like a daunting place. A bit like a blank
page to a writer. Having a pre-existing idea can
be a great starting place. For this example, I've chosen, you know, I'm no good. By Amy Whitehouse. The chords or D minor. G minor, seven. D minor. In terms of theory, we're playing in
the key of D minor, and we're playing on
1451 chord progression for the five is an A7
and not an a minor. This means that not all of
the chords are diatonic, and that's what gives
it its jazzy quality. Over-the-top, I'm going to
play in the riffs from, is this love by Bob Marley.
Here's how it goes. I'm gonna be linking
the tablet shut down below so you can
learn it if you like. Usually this riff has
played an F-sharp minor. But if we transpose it
up eight semitones, 12345678, we find
ourselves in D minor. So this means any
shape or referee learn can be transposed
into any key. So here's the refund the chords
played at the same time. This sounds great
just by itself, but it's not very
original and we can't directly copy
somebody else's work. So what would happen if we take the same notes and start
to rearrange them. Maybe at a slide
here and there are some vibrato and dynamics
to spice things up. So I'm using this
riff like a base, and then I can branch out and experiment with other ideas. I'm using the same notes and the same position on
the threat board. Maybe even some of
the same ideas like repetition or the
use of low strings, that high strings
in the same phrase.
5. Inversions: Learning a scale and putting your notes together
in interesting ways. Great. But sometimes
you can feel like you're stuck up one position
on the guitar neck. And that can get a
little bit stale. In this segment,
I'm going to show you how to use inversions. Just like chords,
scales can be played at various time positions
up and down the neck. Let's go back to our
previous example of is this love and see if we find the same riff in
different positions. So I could play the ruth
here on the 12th fret, like we usually do. I can Play it here on the fifth, on the low strings. I can also play it here
on the seventh fret. There's lots of options. So now I'm going to put
those pieces together and improvise them over
a chord progression. Just for the sake of diversity, I'm going to play
the chords from you wish by nightmares on wax
6. Tips: In this section, I'd
like to go through some tips and strategies to
help you improve with guitar. My first tip is about decreasing the resistance between you
and your practice time. I find one of the best ways to consistently practice is by removing the barriers between you and the thing that
you're trying to do. What do I mean by this?
Here's an example. Imagine your guitar
is hanging up in your room in an easily
accessible area. Your AMP is plugged in, your loop pedals plugged in, and all of your Jack
leads are connected. This means whenever you
have an idea you want to explore or just the
urge to practice, you're already to go. In contrast to this, imagine you guitar
is, in its case, you're amperes
unplugged and you Jack leads are all tangled up in
a snake pit in the cupboard. This second scenario creates much more resistance between you and your practice routine. Another topic I'd
like to explore with you is the idea of goal-setting. It's great to have goals. Like, I want to be able to solo, like John Mayer or play rhythm
guitar like Nile Rodgers. Goals will stay just goals
without a plan of action. So what could a plan
of action look like? It could be something
as simple as saying, I'm going to play for 1
h every day at 06:00. It could be half an hour practicing slash learning a new solo or chord progression. And the other half an hour,
rewarding yourself by just noodling around,
experimenting. Highly recommend practicing
with some element of timing. It could be a backing track, a loop pedal, or a metronome. That way, when you come to
play with other people, you'll feel confident
staying in time. Another important
element to this equation is setting yourself a
realistic schedule. If you say you sell
something too challenging, then you run the risk of
not sticking to your plan. It's also important
not to be too hard on yourself for missing a practice or not doing the full time. After all, perfect is
the enemy of good. So to summarize, having a
goal is better than no goal. But having a timetable you
can stick to is even better
Caelan Henry
