Playing Lead on Electric Guitar: Part 2

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Tom. This is for Expertvillage.com. These are shortcuts to playing the electric guitar for rock and roll. We talked about in our last session a lead pattern. And I just want to go over that slowly so you get the feel of it. With this one pattern--a pattern meaning where to put your fingers, it's almost in a box arrangement, you'll be able to pretty well improvise and play lead guitar, it'll surprise yourself, your family, and any girlfriends that you're trying to impress. If I am playing, say in the key of G, the G chord is where my bar finger is. So, there's a G bar. If I was playing the key of A, there's an A bar. Wherever my index finger is, that's the chord or that's the root of the song. So let's say we're playing the key of A, there's my A. If I have to play a lead over that, that also tells me where to start my finger, which is right there. And this pentatonic scale is a finger there, and then you go up three frets, then you move over to the next string, skip a fret, same thing on the next string, same thing on the next string, and then on the following string, you're skipping two frets, and on the highest string you skip two frets. So, basically, everything starts on this fret, and then you're either putting your finger here or here. And if I look on this lowest string, it's there and then the next three in a row is there, and then the last two strings I skip again so it's like the lowest string here and here. And that is a pentatonic scale pattern."