with KevinDowning TheLead Guitar Player's Role

n the lastissue lwrote part part I aboutthe roleof the Playingless can mean a lot of things,but comealive. lf thereis no bubble in the I rhythm guitarist,so this month I will give hereare a few Don't play six stringchords, cut songyou couldplay both bars. I you somecool ideas to usewhen you arein them down to two or three strings.Strum less lf your rhythm player is playing power the leadguitar role. vigorouslyor maybeonly playone strum per chordson the lowerstrings,you can play power Essentiallya good guitarplayer can playa bar.Play fewer notes in your licksand/or play chordson the higher strings.Power chords rhythm or lead role with easedepending on longernotes in yourlicks.There are many more, on the higherstrings sound great if playedas what is requiredfor the gig or jam session. too numerousto mentionhere. arpeggiosbroken up rhythmicallyand with a Sometimesyou are the only guitaristin ihe Creatingdifferent parts to complementthe bit of delay,as in Excercise3. band so you need to do a bit of both, but if others in the band is a lot of fun and can Playingtriads (or doublestops) higher up you have anotherguitar or keyboardplayer reallystretch your imagination.I recommend the neckto what the otherguitar or keyboardis playingis alsoa great idea. lf one guitar is playingpower chords on the 5th and 6th strings then triads like those in Excercise mr] r--r--n 5 will come in handy 10_8_10_10 andcomplement what the power chord part is doing. They could be played strummed, Ex2. Ex 3. arpeggiostyle, etc. lf the other guitar is playinga triad part like that of Excercise 5 then you could - - rT'r1 | \l -l play a part higherup ry_n_,1 the nec( like that of _8_8_1 5_10_ 12_5 Example 6. Again, I-I'I T '-I arpeggiosbroken up rhythmically sound Ex 5. Ex 6. great with this type of L- parT. Of course, there are many other parts you will hear, but thesesix different lead ll i guitar parts might 0_12 just your ,t3_ 10 2-13 transform 12-10 0-12 thinking and playing. 2_ and they are all very easyto do with a bit of practice.Over the next few monthskeep your then you might find you aremore in the lead listeningto all the partsyou hearon someof earsopen to seeif you can hearthese partsin guitarrole. your favouriterecordings to get someideas. your favouritesongs. lf you havetrouble with Forthis role,you must think very differently One idea is not to play anything at all any of this,it might pay to see a good guitar 'tacit'. to whatwas discussed in the rhythmguitar role - otherwise called a You quite often teacher. lastmonth. lf you haven'tgot NZM'sFeblMarch hearthe lead guitar on recordingsnot playing issueyou can see the rhythmguitar lesson here anything,especially on VerseI or Verse3. Kevin Downing is a professional guitarist, http://www.guita r.co.nzlfree-lessons/ Anothercool thing is to playsome simple tea ch er and auth or. H is contact detai I s, a long with Play less, and what you play needs licksin betweenthe vocals,as can be seen in many otner to complimentthe song.Stay out of other Excercise1.The idea here is to keepthings very articles and instruments'sonic spaceand create different simple with no show off stuff,otherwise the freebies,ore on partsto whatthe othersare doing. vocalistwon't be happywith you. his websiteat In a nutshell,staying out of the other Excercise2 is a bubble part.Quite often the www.gu ita r. instruments'sonic spacemeans not playing rhythm player is playinga palm-mutedlower co.nz in the sameoctave range as the others.For bubblepart as in barone, so you could add to it example,if a keyboardis playingchords guite by playinga simplerhigher one played without llungry low,then you needto think maybein the mid the mute as in bar two. Havingtwo different lor morefl or higherranges of yourguitar. soundson eachguitar really makes this type of Tseterolono lo

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