For the next few lessons, we’re going to learn about lead improvisation, also known as improv.  What this basically means is making up a solo as you go along. Don’t worry; it’s not as difficult as it sounds.

The first step is to master the basic lead techniques: The slide, the hammer-on the pull-off, the trill, the bend, and vibrato.

Let’s start with the slide. Start with your third finger on, let’s say, the 5^th fret of the D string. Play the note, and slide your finger up to the 7^th fret. Through the whole thing, you should only pluck the string once, and yet you should get two distinct notes from it. Let me demonstrate it for you:

Slide.avi

(I apologize for the poor video quality. We don't have much money.) 

Great, now let’s move onto the hammer-on. Start with your 1^st finger on the 5^th fret of the D string. Pluck the string, and forcibly strike the 7^th fret with your 3rd finger. The result should be that you once again create two distinct notes with only one pluck of the string. Here it is:

Hammer-on.avi

Now pull-offs. Think of pull-offs as reverse hammer-ons. Start with your 3^rd finger on the 7^th fret of the D string, and your 1^st finger on the 5^th fret of the D string. Now, pluck the string, and pull off your 3^rd finger. As you’re pulling off, pluck the string a little with your 3^rd finger to keep the sound going. Here it is:

Pull-off.avi

Trills are simple once you get hammer-ons and pull-offs. A trill is just alternating those two things back and forth. Only pluck once and see how long you can keep the sound going. It’s a great strength builder.

Trill.avi

Bends are the most difficult technique in this lesson, but if done correctly, possibly the most rewarding. For a reference note, play the 11^th fret of the high e string. Now that you have that sound in your memory, put your 3^rd finger on the 10^th fret of the high e string, and also put your 2^nd and 1^st fingers right behind it on the string, for support.

Now pluck the string and bend it upwards with the strength of all 3 fingers until the note sounds like your reference note, the one from the 11^th fret. This technique is difficult to master, but can add a great amount of emotion to your solo. Here’s what it looks like: 

Bend.avi

Finally, vibrato. It takes some practice to get this sounding right, but it will add a touch of sweetness professionalism to your solo if done correctly. There are two methods to vibrato. There’s violin vibrato, in which you will slide your finger back and forth horizontally on one fret, and guitar vibrato, in which you’ll slides up and down, vertically on a note.

Violinvibrato.avi

Guitarvibrato.avi

Practice all these techniques, on any frets, all over the neck. Practice over and over until they come easily to you. In the next lesson, we’ll put it all together.