By Nick Layton
Do you want to be able to express yourself more fully in your lead guitar solos? Are you struggling to apply all of the licks and techniques you’ve been learning? Most lead guitarists aren’t lacking for more information. They are lacking the knowledge and ability to apply what they already know in a meaningful and expressive way. If this describes you then this article will help shed some light on how you can end the frustration now and start getting the results you’ve been wanting!

In my many years of teaching and interacting with other guitarists I have seen the following scenario happen in various ways more than a few times:

An aspiring lead guitarist (who we’ll call Joe) starts out learning to play by devouring everything he can find on the Internet and in books related to lead guitar soloing. Joe is motivated and excited and is progressing at a good pace. He studies scales, patterns, modes, theory, and learns a lot of licks and solos from his favorite players. His friends and family are impressed at how fast Joe has progressed and now Joe wants to start his own band and begin recording his own music. Joe’s technique is solid. His vocabulary of licks and knowledge of scales is better than average. He joins a band as the lead guitarist and is thrilled to have come so far in his playing and is ready to get his new band together and start performing on stage. But as the band starts rehearsing Joe is having problems coming up with cool solos for the bands songs. Everything he plays sounds like patterns and exercises and old clichés. All the practicing Joe has done does not seem to be translating into him being able to create killer solos. Joe is frustrated and embarrassed! So what does he do? He decides he needs to practice more and learn more stuff then he’ll be able to come up with better solos. But even after trying all of that it’s still not happening. What is Joe doing wrong and why is he having so much trouble? The problem lies in the fact that Joe is unable to apply what he already knows to an actual musical situation. In short, he has practiced all of the right material; he just hasn’t practiced applying the material.

Hopefully you can see that it’s not enough to just develop your technique and learn a bunch of licks. Whether you want to form a band or create your own CD or even just play for your own enjoyment, investing time into finding ways to implement what you have learned is the key to your success. So, how can you begin applying the licks, scales and techniques you have been working so hard on and start creating cooler solos with better phrasing now? Here are 5 action steps you can take immediately:

1. Get 3-5 backing tracks in a style of music you like. Make sure that at least one track is in the key of A minor. Try and get tracks with different tempos and keys. These tracks should include at least drums and rhythm guitars and should be at least a couple minutes long.
2. Gather 5 of your favorite licks. These licks should be fairly short, 8-15 notes or so. Make sure you can play the licks cleanly and have them memorized.
3. Transpose all the licks into the key of A minor. For example, if you have a lick in the key of E minor try moving it up 5 frets or back 7 frets.
4. Now, beginning with your A minor backing track, play your first lick over the track. How did it sound? Did it fit? Now try playing your remaining 4 licks over the same track. How do they sound? Chances are you are going to have to change something about the original lick to make it work over the track. You may have to adjust the way you phrase the lick. For example, the rhythm of the lick may not sync up with the track in which case you’ll need to adjust it so it sounds more natural and fluid. Also, there might be some notes in the lick that don’t sound good over the track. If this is the case you’ll most likely need to change a note or two. Many things will most likely need to be adjusted. Everything from the rhythm of the lick to the width of your vibrato and bends, to the actual notes and speed of the lick.
5. Once you have adjusted all 5 licks so that they work over the A minor track begin playing them over the remaining 4 backing tracks. Now you are going to have to transpose the licks again to whatever key you happen to be playing over. Typical keys for rock and metal are A minor, B minor, C# minor, D minor, E minor and F# minor. Getting familiar with these keys is very important. Go through the exact same process with each lick over each track, adjusting as needed.

This entire process is what is called applied practice. Going through these 5 steps may be slow and difficult at first but the results over time will amaze you. If you practice this way consistently you will eventually get to the point where you can play any lick you know in just about any key or tempo that you want. In our hypothetical example above these are the phrasing and soloing skills that Joe needed. Learning more licks or improving his technique by practicing more was not the answer to creating killer solos for his band’s music. And it’s not the answer for you either. Technique is important and broadening your vocabulary is important but they are useless unless you can apply them to real music. Start improving your lead guitar phrasing and soloing today by going through these 5 steps and watch your skills skyrocket.

By Tom Hess


Are you musically frustrated with yourself? Are you not the musician that you want to be? Or not as good as you could be or should be? Do you look with envy at other musicians who are doing what you wish you could be doing? Does reaching your musical goals seem out of reach?

I think just about everyone has had these thoughts go through their mind from time to time. Fortunately, you are not alone and there are things you can do to combat the negativity of frustration. Many of the great masters of music have been frustrated at times with their own musical abilities. I've provided four (4) examples from famous classical composers:

1. Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827) worked for long periods of time on his compositions before completing them. He revised his pieces over and over again, reworking them, doubting his original efforts. This was almost unheard of in Beethoven's time. Many of you may already know that Beethoven gradually became deaf later in his life. Because of this, Beethoven quit performing as a pianist in 1814 (13 years before his death). He stopped composing in 1815.

2. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was so frustrated with his composing abilities that he spent twenty-one (21) years composing his first symphony!!! He felt as if he could never compose a symphony as well as Beethoven. Brahms kept starting over with his symphony, revising it, abandoning it, starting over, reworking it, etc.

3. Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) (master of symphonies), revised his symphonies and other works after having doubts about what he had composed originally. Mahler kept revising his works until his death. It must have been frustrating to keep revising pieces that were already published.

4. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) actually stopped composing for about 30 years because he felt that he had run out of new musical ideas. He doubted his abilities to compose anything worthwhile at the height of his popularity. He worked on new music for those 30 or so years, sketching his ideas during the day and throwing them away every time. That is some very serious frustration!

Beethoven began composing again in 1817. Many of his most important compositions are from this last period in his life. Beethoven broke new ground and had done things never before done in music once he began working again. Had he continued to let the frustrations of his deafness paralyze him musically, Beethoven would not be as highly regarded as he is to this day.

After the twenty-one (21) period of composing his first symphony, Brahms felt relieved. The shadow of Beethoven was lifted enough to allow Brahms to move forward. He finally found a way to move on and deal with his frustrations. He completed his next symphony in less than one year.

Frustration can be help you or hurt you depending on how you deal with it. As you can see, Beethoven and Brahms eventually found positive ways to deal with their frustration and overcame it. Unfortunately, Sibelius never did. He is perhaps the most extreme example of a person who let frustration destroy him musically. Sadly, he died without finishing any substantial music compositions during the last 30 years of his life!

When I was a teenager, some friends of mine (all guitar players) and I went to see Yngwie Malmsteen perform in Chicago. After the concert had finished, some of my friends made comments about how they felt depressed after hearing Yngwie and that they just wanted to quit playing guitar completely. We were all young and knew how much better Yngwie was as a musician than we were. The main difference between their reaction and mine was they let their awe for Yngwie frustrate them to the point of feeling hopeless in their efforts to become better players. Many of my friends stopped playing their guitars for several days, one of them actually did quit completely.

My reaction to the event was quite different. I used my awe for Yngwie as a massive positive inspiring force. I was so inspired that I went straight home and practiced through the night until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

The point here is not to seek to avoid frustration, but to use it to your advantage. I have always turned my own musical frustrations as the biggest source of motivation. I was always looking for other players to jam with that were better than I was. Of course that was easy to do when I was a beginner and became increasingly more difficult over the years that followed. I got a lot out of those experiences.

In a past article I wrote on perseverance, I wrote of the importance of believing in yourself and not giving up. I don't want to be too redundant here, but those points are worth mentioning briefly again.

Too often players don't ever reach their own potential because they feel they couldn't measure up to other players or their own expectations. Why compare yourself to others. Does it really matter if you are, or are not, as good as someone else? Of course not. Music should not be thought of as a competitive sport. It is, and should be, an art. All that really matters is how well you are able to express yourself. Therefore the only question should be this: Do you currently have the skills to express yourself fully in music?

As much as I have never liked or respected Nirvana'a singer/songwriter/guitarist, Kurt Cobain, I must admit that he was able to express himself fairly well. Despite the fact that Kurt's musical skills were primitive and very limited, one could hear his personality come through his music. It didn't matter that he was not a good guitarist. It didn't matter that his knowledge of music theory was probably close to zero. It also didn't matter that he played out of tune and had an absolutely sloppy guitar technique. Fortunately for him, what he wanted to express didn't require any of the skills that most musicians generally consider to be good and necessary. Had Kurt wanted to express anything more significant or complex he would have been extremely frustrated because he didn't have a lot of musicianship skills beyond what could be heard in his music. So in the end, it worked out well for him and my guess is that he probably wasn't very frustrated with himself musically because he wasn't trying to be a better guitarist, songwriter or singer than anyone else. He didn't make those types of comparisons between himself and the rest of the music world. This is, in my opinion, the only significant thing to that we can all follow. Of course Kurt Cobain's approach to not caring about those comparisons is certainly not a new idea, countless others before and after him have also done so. He is used here as an example because most everyone during our time knows him.

In my own life, the thought of quitting guitar early on did occur in my mind (although never very seriously). As a teenager, I too was frustrated when I thought I may never become a virtuoso guitarist (like Yngwie or Jason Becker) and may never become a master composer (like Bach or Chopin). When I stopped trying to compete with everyone else and made new goals of self-expression, everything changed. I stopped making comparisons to other guitarists, composers and songwriters, because with my new goal, those comparisons did little or nothing to serve my new quest to simply express myself fully through music. I felt liberated from the burden of having to compete with the rest of the world. Beginning in the early 1990s, my only focus was on gaining more of the skills, tools, etc. that I would need to express what I had inside me.

In my case, what I want to express does require a high level of guitar and compositional virtuosity, musical complexity and integrity, etc. Because I need those skills, my journey to reach a higher level of musicianship has taken a lot more time, effort, studying, etc. than it did for someone like Kurt Cobain who had very different needs to express himself than mine.

Most musicians who will read this will have much greater musical ambitions than Kurt Cobain and so for you, you will feel frustrated whenever you feel limited by your abilities. The key is to use that as a positive force in the form of motivation and inspiration. Masters of all types of art have gone through what you are going through. Today you are at whatever skill level you are at. Through your frustration and motivation, you will eventually reach your current goals. As you reach those goals you will probably still feel frustrated because your desire to improve even further will make you establish new goals for yourself. And so the cycle will go on and on. But you too are progressing and improving on and on....