Rock and heavy metal music originate from the blues,and thus inherit all the technique,style and tricks with a few modifications suited to the subgenre.Over the years, Lead guitar gained more and more respect, and as a phenominal Amount of new bands became a part of mainstream rock, This area became a competitive environment where only the best survived.
In my journey of learning the intricacies of the wonderful 6 stringed instrument,I quickly discovered that there were two ways to go about the process of playing lead guitar.
Both these approaches were new to me, and i got my feet wet in both of them.
Based on approach,leading can be broadly classified into two formats:
FEEL BASED and TECHNIQUE based.
Technique is often difficult and takes a lot of practice time, patience and hardwork to be good at, whereas developing feel requires a lot of playing and listening experience, and often develops automatically with time, and as the ear becomes trained, the fingers just sort of seem to know where to land at the right time.
Virtuoso Guitarists such as Marty Friedman often rely heavily on some technique,and a large dose of feel.
"Alternate picking", a known term amongst lead guitarists, is totally ignored by the likes of Friedman, and he suggests that with experimentation, "quarks" can be developed,memorised, and improvised with feel, making lead guitar an interesting practice routine.Friedman believes in developing one's own technique, and beautifying it.
A lot of bands come up every single year still, and the leading bit may be completely based on feel or be knee deep in terms of technique, but the reason that 99% of them never make it to the fame is because failiure to blend the two together, in just the right proportions to bring out the beauty of the emotion which each and every song is about.
In the end, although technique matters so much,it is the feel which decides the extent upto which the listener assosiates with the song.In my journey of being a lead guitarist, the perfect combination of Technique and feel is one i am yet to achieve.When I do, you'll be the first one to know :)
