Here's a good excercise that you might want to try:
|-5-6---7-----8------------------------------------| |-----5---6-----7-----8----------------------------| |-----------5-----6-----7-----8--------------------| |-------------------5-----6-----7-----8------------| |---------------------------5-----6-----7---8------| |-----------------------------------5-----6---7-8--|The first lead techinque in this lesson is tremolo picking. This one is very simple. All you have to do is pick the note as fast as you can. This technique is good to use at the climax of a solo.
Take your first finger and put it on the fifth fret on the low E string and put your third finger on the seventh fret on the D string. These are both the same note and this is called an octave (7 letters in the musical alphabet _A_,B,C,D,E,F,G,_A_). You can pick each note with a different finger or you can use one picking motion. To do this you need to lay your first finger across the string in the middle to damp it out. Here are octaves across the strings. Notice they change crossing the G string.
|----------8----| |-------8-------| |----7-----5----| |-7-----5-------| |----5----------| |-5-------------|
T T |-------------------| |-12p8p5--12p8p5----| |-------------------| |-------------------| |-------------------| |-------------------|You can also tap on twelve, pull to five and hammer on eight. There are many possibilities. Experiment!
Natural harmonics are sounded by laying your finger on a string directly above a fret, but not fretting it. Try laying your finger across the 5th, 7th, and 12th fret (the metal bar itself, not the gap in between) and picking the string. You should hear a note sounded.
Another way to sound harmonics is the tap harmonic, probably the hardest one to sound. Fret a note, let's say the second fret on the G string. Now tap lightly on the fret 12 frets higher, in this case the fourteenth fret (it doesn't have to be 12, it just sounds the best). Now be sure to hit the metal bar and not the space in between, that would be fretboard tapping. You should hear a ring.
The third way, most common in leads, is the artificial harmonic. This is accomplished with the thumb on your picking hand (and very rarely, with other fingers). Fret a note, let's say the seventh fret on the G string again. With your picking hand pick the note and, as you pick, very lightly drag the side of your thumb across the string. This will sound different each time you move your picking hand up or down the string. In some places, it won't even sound at all, so keep trying! Just for fun, here is the A Dorian minor scale. Used a lot in metal for some melody:
|-----------------------------5-7-8-| ------ |-----------------------5-7-8-------| ||OO|| |-----------------4-5-7-------------| OOOOOO 5th |-----------4-5-7-------------------| |||||| |-------5-7-------------------------| OOOOOO |-5-7-8-----------------------------| O|||OO