Listening
As well as transcribing solos, you will need to do a lot of listening to lead guitarists to learn what type of playing sounds best in each musical situation. Since all lead guitarists use the same notes, it is the way they put these notes together, along with the phrasing and timing they use that makes one player sound different from the next. Listen to albums featuring different lead players and try to notice what it is that makes each player sound the way they do. It may be a particular way of bending notes, a way of playing around with the timing, the use of dynamics, a particular vibrato sound, or a combination of many elements. Listen analytically to solos and figure out what you like and what you don’t like. Try to copy the aspects you do like and then experiment with them to create your own style. It is very useful to listen to players from older styles of music, particularly Blues, as most of the techniques, sounds and musical language used by all lead guitarists were pioneered by Blues players such as T-Bone Walker and B.B. King. Some other great Blues players include Albert Collins, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam, Gatemouth Brown, Peter Green (early Fleetwood Mac), Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Debbie Davies and Gary Moore. For open string slur sounds it is useful to listen to Rock players such as Angus Young (AC/DC), Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) and Eddie Van Halen who is also the originator of the two handed tapping style.
