PLAYING LEAD GUITAR

Instructor: John Mead

These lead scale boxes will get you started playing leads remember that these patterns and intervals repeat all over the neck. Both boxes shown are in the key of A.

THE PRETTY BOX for bright, country-flavored leads; many people call this the major pentatonic scale (but I dont)

THE BLUESY BOX for bluesy and rock leads; many people call this the minor pentatonic scale (but, again, I dont)

Though these patterns are in the key of A, you can move them around based on what key youre in; move the blues box to the F shape barre chord for the key you want (G at 3, D at 10, whatever) and the pretty box THREE FRETS DOWN from that, in the position of what would be the relative minor of the key youre playing in. You may notice that you can play the 1 chord of your key with your index finger in this position; notice in the pretty box diagram that a A chord is right there where your index finger will be (so if you were at the 7th fret, those three frets would play a D chord). This will become more clear as we go on.