If you are thinking of going solo with your lead guitar then the one thing that you need to master is how to use the guitar fretboard to its maximum capacity. If you are well-versed with the fretboard, then you will be able play just about anything on your lead guitar.

The guitar fretboard is the most important area of an acoustic as well as electric guitar. The fretboard is where you play all the scales, the chords and use the various progressive scales and improvisation techniques for lead guitar.

When you buy a guitar, you will find dots all across the Fretboard. These dots represent the different frets. The first dot is usually on the 3rd fret and is followed by dots on the 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th and 19th frets.Mastering the fretboard will help you to play lead guitar compositions with ease. One important thing that you need to know is that when you move forward while playing on the fretboard, you are actually playing the various chords that will render a higher sound while moving forward and lower sound while moving backwards. For example: The 5th string also known as the open A will look like this:

FRET -----0-|-1-|-2-|-3-|-4-|-5-|-6-|-7-|-8-|-9-|-10|-

STRING---A-|---|-B-|-C-|---|-D-|---|-E-|-F-|---|-G--|-

If you compare the lead guitar fretboard to a piano, you will find that the frets that lie between the natural tones are also known as the flats (b) or Sharp (#) and represent the black keys on the piano. If you raise the natural tone on the lead guitar fretboard by half a step then it will become a sharp tone and whenever you lower it half a step, it will become a flat tone.

Those who are right handed will be using their left hand to play or pluck the various scales and chords on the guitar fretboard. You will need to use 4 fingers of your left hand to play all the various scales on your fretboard. The only way to master them is by practicing. Here’s a simple exercise that will help you practice better and let you hone your lead guitar skills:

E = 0 |1----|2----|3----|4----
B = 0 |1----|2----|3----|4----
G = 0 |1----|2----|3----|4----
D = 0 |1----|2----|3----|4----
A = 0 |1----|2----|3----|4----
E = 0 |1----|2----|3----|4----

One thing that you need to remember is that the notes on the guitar fretboard move upwards chromatically. If you start with A then the notes will move like this:A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab, A You will notice that there are no flats or sharp between B and C as well as E and F.

Jamorama Guitar Learning Premium Package

Overview:

As featured in Guitar World magazine, Jamorama is basically a compilation of EBooks (in addition to mp3 and soon to be added video files) and Software combined into one easy to follow package.

The EBooks are divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced sections that take the reader in a very well thoughtout progression through the very basics of the guitar like tuning, proper position and technique all the way to advanced chords and rythym variations. And every example in each EBook has an accompanying example in mp3 format. In addition to the ebooks and mp3 files, you also get some pretty cool software programs as a bonus.

NEW: I’ve just found out that there will be soon be video examples for the beginners book with videos to be added to the intermedite and advanced books soon after.

Positives:

The mp3 and video examples are an inavluable tool that accompany the ebooks that help the reader learn quickly and effectively. The Ebooks are well written and easy to follow with lots of different examples that go from easy to advanced in a progression that will not overwhelm beginners. By the time you’re done with the 3 ebooks you will know how to read music and be able to play fairly advanced rythyms and have a pretty good knowledge of chords all over the neck as well as soloing concepts.

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Negatives:

No real negatives other than the fact that if you’re an advanced player that already has a number of years of playing experience you might not find much new here. Intermediate players might also take caution as well as they might already be familiar with most of the concepts. Also the downloads are pretty big so make sure you have a high-speed connection otherwise it could take a few hours to download.

Summary:

Jamorama is highly recommended for beginning players who are looking to advance their chordal knowledge and soloing concepts. Intermediate and advanced players will probably be familiar with most of the concepts already, but intermediate players still might find some things here worthwhile.

The mp3 files and soon to be added video files that are available for immediate download overdeliver and are well worth it. And with new material being added on a regular basis with no additional costs you really can’t go wrong!

Rating: 9/10

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Guitar improvisation is a necessary aspect of playing as it will help you to master the various scales of lead guitar and helps you to play solo.

Guitar improvisation can be divided into several categories that include using scales like the blues scale, minor and major pentatonic and many others as well as applying techniques like bends and tapping etc. Most of the guitarists end up spending their entire life trying to learn how to solo using only one or two different scales.

Most guitarists use the 5th and 12th frets but then this is not improvisation. Guitar improvisation uses many more scales and the entire fretboard. The scales that can be used for guitar improvisation include: The Basic scales. There are mainly 5 basic scales that you as a lead guitarist should be able to play.

Learning the scales will help you in:
• Building strength so that your fingers can work independently on the fretboard
• Playing these scales will help you to train your ears in recognizing the basic note combinations
• You will be able to use various note choices for guitar improvisation as well as writing music

Once you are well-versed with the basic scales, you can move to the open position major scales.

Open position major scales

The open position major scales represent the 5 common keys for acoustic or electric guitar, which are C, G, D, A, E.

Minor pentatonic

The minor pentatonic is one of the major scales that is used extensively for guitar improvisation. It is also known as the king of all scales by many great guitarists of all times and they have been used repeatedly lead guitar improvisation. The minor pentatonic scale is also the most common scale used by rock, metal, alternative and blues bands. Penta stands for 5 and this means that there are 5 different notes in the minor pentatonic scale.

Blues scale

The blues scale is another major scale that is used extensively by blues guitarists. The blues scale is a type of minor pentatonic scale with an added note often called the blue note. This type of guitar improvisation helps in creating a little bit of tension that brings out the blues sound.

Major Scale Shapes

The major scale shapes should be studied by every lead guitarist as understanding it will help in guitar improvisation. This is also known as the CAGED scale system and is considered as one of the corner stones of understanding the guitar neck or fretboard.