Most guitar players become good at lead guitar improvisation by imitating their favorite guitarists and through plenty of repetition – myself included. I spent hours upon hours playing the same riffs or solos that I learnt by heart from guitar tablature.
Eventually, I managed to learn how to improvise over simple songs initially. Over time, things just happened and I became fluent with guitar improvisation. It took me about a year before I even begun being competent at it.
Many people have asked me if this was an effective way for a beginner to learn improvisation, and my answer is..
YES!
However, you will need to make certain tweaks to your practice routine in order to speed up the learning process so you don’t take as long as I did.
You will firstly need to learn solos of other songs by heart. That’s how you start. It’s important for 2 reasons:
1. Playing your favorite songs inspires you to play more.
2. It builds up your musical vocabulary – What we guitarists call ” Chops ” or ” licks ”
You will find that when you DO start improvising in the very near future, you will tend to borrow these guitar licks from other songs you have played, and these will make your lead playing sound so much more professional!
I spend as much time as any guitar player tweaking knobs to find great tones. Here are some links that have helped me in the quest: First, the effect of pickups on guitar tone: