Okay, you've fooled around long enough with your momma's cheap Yamaha acoustic guitar... or maybe you've bought yourself a Martin, Taylor, or Gibson, you lucky duck. Now you want to learn electric guitar? You want to play the blues, jazz, rock and roll, and heavy metal? Strap yourselves in then and prepare for a wild ride!
1) Remember everything you learned on acoustic or classical guitar. Electric guitar plays the same, has the same tuning, fretboard, chords, and notes as classical and acoustic guitar! All the fretting and strumming techniques are the same!
2) Forget everything about acoustic or classical guitar. What? You just said remember everything and now you say forget everything. Let me explain. They are all basically the same instrument. The frets and notes are the same, the tabs and notation are the same, the chords are all the same. That said, the electric guitar has a narrower neck and a narrower fretboard, thinner nickel or steel strings, and lower action. The electric guitar was designed for the most ease of use. You can get away with bad technique a lot more on electric guitar than acoustic, and a lot more on acoustic guitar than classical. The pickups and amplifier will literally pick up and amplify all the notes you are playing so well, some notes that would sound dead on a classical guitar and slightly audible on acoustic sound vibrant on an electric. For example, strike an A chord just fretting with one finger, then try striking it with more proper technique. One should sound just as loud and vibrant as the other!
3) Good tone starts at the fingers. Just because you can get away with bad habits on an electric guitar doesn't mean you should always use them. Clean fretting will result in crystal clear notes and bad fretting will result in dead or unintentionally bent notes.
4) Don't ever forget the power chord. Remember when I said these very simple two note chords sound HUGE? Now that you're plugged in to an amplifier and you probably have some sort of distortion or overdrive, you can hear why they're called power chords. Play one and leave it ringing. The fifth interval with the added sustain of the amplifier has loads and loads of power. It shakes the ground. It gets people moving. It kicks lots of ass! The best part is that it's not difficult at all!
http://www.guitarsforrockstars.com/index.php?beginners/difference-between-electric-and-acoustic-guitars
5) The pentatonic scale is your friend! This is a simplified version of the diatonic scale. It involves five notes as opposed to seven and it exists in major or minor forms. If you remember solfege, or do re mi fa sol la ti do, think of it as do re mi sol la do for major pentatonic and la do re mi sol la for minor, or if you think in scale degrees, think 1 Major2 Major3 5 Major6 1 for major and 1 minor3 4 5 minor7 1 for minor. It's easy and fun, and it's the meat and potatoes for blues, rock and roll, and heavy metal lead guitar playing.
6) Remember the picking hand! Okay, you've learned chords where you strum across all six strings of the guitar, or maybe five or four, from the bottom string to the top, from the top string to the bottom. You've learned about power chords and strumming only two strings at a time, and stacked power chords where you strum three or even four at a time. Now to start picking single notes. Instead of strumming from the shoulder or elbow, try strumming with the slightest wrist motion as possible. Now on to palm muting. It's a technique in which you rest the picking hand palm on the strings near the bridge of the guitar. Try playing a note or a chord. It sounds way more percussive! Play that on an electric guitar with overdrive or distortion and just downpicking and it sounds freaking heavy!Try going through a pentatonic lick just downpicking. Now try it with alternate picking, or using both downward and upward picking motion. Remember the very slight wrist motion.
7) Forget the picking hand. Instead of downpicking, uppicking, or alternate picking, you can hammer on from a lower fret or an open string to a higher fret or pull off from a higher fret to a lower fret or an open string. Pulling off sounds best when literally pulling you finger downward off the fretboard. That is called legato technique and can give your guitar playing a very smooth sound. Picking a note, hammering on, and pulling off quickly is called a trill. Often, guitarists hammer on and pull off very quickly many times, making a series of trills on the same note. this can be used to great effect. Alternate picking and legato technique can be combined for a wide array of sounds.
8) Two hand tapping. This is a technique popularized and perfected by hard rock guitarist Edward Van Halen, but also used by Jazz guitar player Stanley Jordan, KISS guitarist Ace Frehley, Queen guitarist Brian May, Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads. The way Edward does it it by tucking his pick in his middle finger and hammering on and pulling off the fretboard with his pick hand index finger. This can lead to many combinations with hammering on and pulling off to virtually any note on the fretboard! This can also cause a great leap forward in playing speed! Other guitarists tend to tap while holding a pick or tap with their middle finger. Tapping with fingers sounds more smooth and legato, where tapping with a pick sounds more aggressive. You can even tap on to the fretboard and slide up and/or down the string!
9) Harmonics! Choke up on the pick. I dare you! Now pick! Your guitar just squealed didn't it? That's called a pinch harmonic, and it sounds different up and down the string and with every fret. That's one way to spice up a guitar solo. Now hold your finger over the twelfth, seventh, or fifth fret wire on any string. Now pick that note. It rings nicely like a bell, doesn't it? Those are natural harmonics. Now try fretting a note. Now tap with your picking hand 12, 7, or five frets above that note right on the fret wire, straight up and down, as quickly as possible! It rings like a bell again. That's a tapping harmonic. Thanks to the sensitivity of the electric guitar, you should have no problem hearing examples of these.
10) Bending the blues. One technique that is the bread an butter of any electric guitar player is string bending, a technique that is so easy yet so essential! You simply, and very literally bend the string! It can shift the pitch up a half step, a whole step, some can even bend strings up to two and a half steps without them breaking. Push it up toward you or pull it toward the ground, however you prefer! Actually physically bending the notes gives your guitar playing a true sense of feel. It adds lots of flavour to your soloing. I say learning how to bend is when I became a true guitar player. Caution, though string bending can be done on a steel string or even a nylon string acoustic guitar, the higher action and heavier, thicker gauge strings cause a lot more string tension, thus they are a lot less bendable. Be warned, you could break a string or a finger.
11) Vibrant vibrato. Shaking the string with your fret hand finger or wrist helps to sustain a note and make it sound more dynamic. This type of vibrato works well with string bending. Another, more subtle form of vibrato is sliding your fret hand finger up and down or even in a circular motion between the fret wires. George Lynch of Dokken and Warren DeMartini of Ratt are two guitarists known for their vibrato, often sliding their fingers across frets up and down the fretboard for a very wide vibrato. It can be overused and can throw chords out of tune, but it vibrato sounds fantastic for single note leads!
http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/mr-scarys-soloing-secrets/6482
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdSmnkLIBxI
12) Slip and slide. Like bending, sliding involves just that, sliding your fretting hand up and down the fretboard. Be very careful, always practice sliding up or down into the right note! I have overshot and undershot sliding notes many a time. This is often referred to as a glissando technique. It adds lots of feel to your playing as well, and those who can slide right, sound very dynamic!
I believe I've covered the basics of lead electric guitar. If I haven't bored you yet, stay tuned for more guitar tips!
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