The Ten Basic Lead Guitar Moves

I thought this was an interesting idea for beginner guitarists. Jim Bowley lays out 10 basic licks or building blocks that you can combine to make longer more complex phases. You can read the full article on Jim’s blog here. Here is what Jim has to say about this lesson:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away* lived a guitar teacher who had a bright idea. Although bright ideas were not his typical thing, on that day he felt particularly enlightened.

He knew that some of his guitar students wanted to play lead guitar. He knew that they were ready to take the leap.

And from his vast experience, he knew that playing lead guitar was really just a matter of mastering a few basic moves and combining them to form seemingly complex phrases of musical genius.

Does Everything Really Boil Down to Ten Moves?

In my experience, yes.

Although there is more to lead guitar – much more – than The Ten Basic Moves, everything that is more complex seemingly flows from or incorporates these common phrases. They are the building blocks of lead playing, but certainly not the end-all.

Of course, guitarists who are new to lead playing can’t be expected to jump in and handle complicated movements. So these licks are designed to get the new lead player movin’ and groovin’ in a way that they can handle.

Please note that the Ten Basic Moves are just that: movements. They can be applied to any strings, any frets – not just in the spots that I’m about to demonstrate.

Think of them as movement ideas. Although some of them work best when performed exactly the way I show you (like Move 10), most of the other moves can be adjusted to use whatever fingers, frets or strings are required or desired at the time. Get creative!

If you have any questions, riddles, or haiku leave them in the comments and please help our site grow by sharing this awesome knowledge with others.