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Chapter 8
Playing Lead: Soaring Melodies
and Searing Solos
In This Chapter
Perfecting your picking patterns
Deciphering between the pentatonic scale and the blues scale
Exploring your expressive opportunities in the blues scale
Blues rhythm-guitar and riff-playing are pretty exciting in themselves,
but blues lead-guitar usually gets the joint on fire. It’s the lead guitarist
who gets to play the really soulful, expressive stuff, and the best-known
blues guitarists — T-Bone Walker, Albert King, Albert Collins, Freddie King,
B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton — are known for their leads.
When you think of their solos and their stylistic hallmarks, you may think of
their lead-playing first. But they all started out the way you’re going to in this
chapter: by eking out single notes in open position against a backdrop of a
12-bar blues progression.
Lead-playing involves not only playing single notes but also taking a creative
leadership role. As a lead guitarist, you’re expected to step up, step out, and
take center stage when it’s your time. Part of being prepared is having a solid
picking technique and the confidence to relay your expressive impulses —
both in your choice of notes and in your execution of them.
In this chapter, you take the first step and start playing the guitar melodically,
where you’re the featured instrument — the big dog on the stage. In Chapters
9 and 10, I cover playing up the neck and incorporating articulation and
expressive techniques — the next two steps.
Mastering Your Picking Technique
Lead technique requires you to get a little more precise and scientific about
your approach. The rhythm, articulation, and dynamics are more varied in
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