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"Lead Guitar Exercises: Speed Boosters For Shred Guitar"

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Lead guitar exercises keep guitar players at top performance. Use guitar exercises every day to increase speed and strength.

The most important thing when learning these guitar exercises is to follow a few basic practice rules. If you want to be a good student, follow these rules!

• Always adhere to strict alternate picking unless otherwise noted
• USE your metronome!
• Use good finger positions by spacing them out on the frets in a way that makes sense
• Play each exercise at least 15 times (or more!)

Using sloppy picking and left hand fretting could totally negate the good conditioning these exercises give you! Go slow if you have to, but stay clean.

Want to learn how to play any song, at any speed, just by listening to it?

Confusing your fingers on purpose

Using intentionally confusing guitar exercises to trick your fingers can be effective. It helps develop those neurological connections in that brain of yours as well as strengthening your valuable fingers.

These guitar exercises are based on mathematical patterns. If you play through them a few times you should pick up on the pattern. Then grab your metronome and practice them up to speed like a truly disciplined shred guitarist.

Click tablature to enlarge:

Exercises for lead guitar in odd rhythmic groupings

The combination of odd time signatures and strict alternate picking forces us to change how the pattern feels every other time through it. One time you start with the usual down pick. The next time you have to start with an up pick due to the odd time signature.

If you are used to playing your sixteenth notes with strict alternate picking, than this will force you to manage a contrast between a consistent left hand pattern and what you want your right hand to do. It's counterintuitive.

Use only strict down/up/down/up picking. No matter what happens with your left hand you should never deviate from the strict alternate picking.

Click tablature to enlarge:

Chromatic guitar exercises

Do you know what "chromatic" means? It just means every fret in a row. It's a technical term for a scale that uses every note in existence.

In terms of lead guitar exercises, chromatic notes help us use every finger equally. This increases strength and speed together.

These exercises will force that pinky into submission! Don't forget about him...he is important too...

We will use some of the lower frets for these exercises. It will give us a break from all those high "lead guitar" notes...

Listen to the file and make sure you get the timing right! It's more like a crazy progressive metal riff than a cliche' lead guitar exercise.

Click tablature to enlarge:

Guitar scale exercises

Some of the best lead guitar exercises are made from regular old guitar scales. This one comes from the A minor scale.

Try making your own once you learn the pattern...

Click tablature to enlarge:

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