If you are interested in becoming a skilled lead guitarist a general guitar teacher may not be able to accommodate your needs, you may need one who specializes in lead guitar. For the beginner and intermediate lead guitar student, a general guitar teacher will probably do the trick, but for the advanced lead guitar student, you should seek a specialist, someone who eats, breathes, and sleeps lead guitar. This article will give some insight into what to look for in lead guitar instructors and the different avenues to get instruction.
You can find lead guitar instructors that teach via group lessons, webcam, and private. You can even find online videos and instructional DVD’s for it, but private one on one lessons are the best for learning lead guitar hands down. You can find lead guitar instructors that specialize in specific styles and genres or one’s that do multiple styles. There are certain aspects of lead guitar that are shared among all styles and others that are specific to a certain style. Group lessons for lead guitar usually don’t go beyond the beginner stage. There are video courses for the intermediate and advanced player, but it is difficult sometimes to get to the next level on your own. Private one on one lessons are best, especially for the advanced student. Advanced lead guitar instructors can work with you like a personal trainer. They can spot your problem areas and work on those specifically. Often there may be problems in your technique that you may not notice and could end up spending a lot of time practicing bad technique that can be very difficult to unlearn. Good lead guitar instructors can spot these problems and fix them before they become bad habits.
*Beginner: Lead guitar instructors for beginners could cover minor and major pentatonic scales, hammer on/pull offs, slides, bends, and alternate picking. These are techniques and things that would be shared among all styles.
*Intermediate: Lead guitar instructors for intermediate players could cover improvising with pentatonic scales, the 7 positions of the major scale, advanced bends, taping, and an introduction to hybrid picking. These are things that could be shared across different styles, although hybrid picking is not usually found in metal.
*Advanced: Lead guitar instructors for advanced guitarists could cover arpeggios, sweep picking and raking, the 7 major modes, exotic scales from around the world, string skipping arpeggios, following chord changes when improvising, exotic bends, 4 finger tapping, incorporating 5 tone and 7 tone scales together, and how to create your own licks.
So if you are in need of finding lead guitar instructors in your area, do an online search, read reviews from past and present students. A little homework can go a long way in finding good lead guitar instructors.