Difficulty rating: Medium – Difficult

There have been many lessons and study pieces written for lead guitar, and they ‘re normally based around the technical aspects of lead playing such as a sweep picking/legato/tapping etc. They are very effective as they take all the variables of a technique and put them into one long piece. This not only saves you practice time, but also gives you an idea of how to link ideas together in a musical way, they are also very good for building up your playing stamina. However, I have not seen any devoted to rhythm playing which is just as vital part of your playing if not more so than lead.

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Difficulty rating: Medium – Difficult

As a teacher, it is apparent that most player’s primary concern’ when improvising or writing a solo’ is note choice, what scales work over what chord etc. It is very rare that any consideration is placed on how they should play something rhythmically. If I ask a student to play a very simple four-note pentatonic phrase and then alter it, 99.9 % of the time they will change the order of the notes, not the rhythm. This becomes more apparent when it comes to ‘shredding’, the word that is used in the guitar world for playing anything quickly.

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