Lead Guitar - Creating Lead Guitar Lines

Creating Lead Guitar Lines

To create lead guitar lines, guitarists use scales, modes, arpeggios, licks, and riffs that are performed using a variety of techniques. In rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz and fusion bands and some pop contexts as well as others, lead guitar lines often employ alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking and legato (e.g., hammer ons, pull offs), which are used to maximize the speed of their solos or riffs. Such "tricks" can employ the picking hand used in the fret area (such as tapping), and even be augmented and embellished with devices such as bows, or separate electronic devices such as an EBow (electronic bow).

Some even like to play with their teeth or feet or other bodily appendages or the like, this is normally used as a performance technique in order to impress spectators. In a blues context, as well as others, lead guitar lines are created using call and response-style riffs that are embellished with string bending, vibrato, and slides.

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