Solo lab
Original etudes for lead guitar — chordal colour, picking clarity, odd meters, and neck athletics. No quoted solos. No artist names. Paths A–C build vocabulary; Path D is the advanced ladder. One TAB + Play per card.
R| attacks show timing; fretboard lights the sounding note.
Pair with Improv · Alternate lab · Solo drills.
Path A · Chordal lead voice
Guitar as a harmonic + melodic voice — rolls, hammers, octaves, call/response. Steal shapes; invent lines.
A1 · Triad roll (Am)
Your job: Roll through Am shapes across the low four, then reverse. Light left-hand pressure; clean right hand.
A2 · B-string hammer flurry
Your job: B-string flurry with H/P. Land on the target fret and let it bloom.
A3 · Double-stop climb
Your job: Root+fifth (or third) blocks climbing. Keep both notes even — no weak top.
A4 · Neck octave stabs
Your job: Root + octave as thick stabs on 1 and 3. Mute the middle strings hard.
A5 · Harmonic cascade → answer
Your job: Natural harmonics (or open colours), then a fretted answer that lands.
A6 · Wide leap motif
Your job: Low sustain → high answer on the top strings. Leave air between the leaps.
A7 · Call / response (neck dialogue)
Your job: Bars 1–2: low stabs. Bars 3–4: high run. Trade roles next loop.
A8 · Alternate tremolo seed
Your job: Same pitch, fast even alternate picking. Then leap to the fifth and hold.
A9 · Em lead showcase
Your job: Same roll idea as A1, moved to Em. Feel the open E as a pedal.
A10 · Mini lead showcase
Your job: Continuous lead etude — rolls → flurry → climb → cascade → silence.
Path B · Progressive picking
Odd meters, dense arps, sequences. Strict right-hand evenness before you chase BPM.
B1 · 7/8 pick pocket (3+2+2)
Your job: Accent every group “1”. Count out loud; pick stays even inside the groups.
B2 · 5/4 neck arp walk
Your job: Five quarters up the chord tones, then reverse. Own the long bar on the neck.
B3 · 9/8 pick cell (2+2+2+3)
Your job: Accents on 1 of each group. Let the final 3 breathe under even alternate.
B4 · 11/8 pick vamp (3+3+3+2)
Your job: Three groups of 3, then a short 2. Keep the last 2 crisp under the pick.
B5 · Dense lead arps · Am–G–F–E
Your job: One bar each. Chord tone on beat 1 every bar — don’t blur the changes.
B6 · Lead chord-tone targeting · G–Em–C–D
Your job: Root on 1; light fill; anticipate next root on & of 4. Hear it as a solo line.
B7 · 3-against-4 pick phrase
Your job: Click in 4; pick attacks every 3 eighths; resolve together.
B8 · 5-against-4 pick accents
Your job: Click in 4; pick accent every 5 eighths. Meet on bar 5 beat 1.
B9 · Lead sequence (down a third)
Your job: 4-note cell, repeat starting a third lower, twice more. Classic progressive sequencing.
B10 · Pick feel shift
Your job: 2 bars half-time, 2 bars double-time on the same root. Pocket must survive.
Path C · Lead etudes
Longer forms across the neck. Learn the TAB, match Play, then rewrite pitches keeping the form.
C1 · Chordal lead sonata
Your job: A A B A′ — rolls, leap, colour, return across the neck.
C2 · Progressive suite
Your job: Odd meter → dense arps → lock. One take across the neck.
C3 · Lead showcase mash
Your job: Chordal intro → 5/4 → climb → poly cool-down on the top strings.
Path D · Advanced neck
Painfully precise — climb in order. One clean take beats ten messy ones.
D1 · Six-string 16th cage
Your job: Strict sixteenth grid across all six, one finger per fret. Rush → drop 8 BPM.
D2 · Adjacent-string blizzard
Your job: Zig-zag adjacent strings as sixteenths. Mute everything you are not on.
D3 · Sweep / wide span
Your job: One continuous arpeggio across the neck — up then down. No hesitation at the turn.
D4 · CAGED teleport
Your job: New cage every quarter. Land silent, then speak. Eyes ahead of the fretting hand.
D5 · Open-E + high answer
Your job: Sustain open low E on each beat; high line answers on the offs. The one deliberate overlap.
D6 · 13/8 neck denseness (3+3+3+2+2)
Your job: Accent every group “1”. Sixteenths on the last two cells. Count until boring.
D7 · Semitone lead engine
Your job: 4-note cell on the high string, drop one fret each pass, eight times. No tempo sag.
D8 · Nested pick poly (3 / 4 / 5)
Your job: Metronome in 4/4. Bars 1–2: every 3 eighths. Bars 3–4: every 5. Land on bar 5 beat 1. Read the R| row.
D9 · Neck endurance wall
Your job: Cage → cross → sweep → sequence without stopping. Soft picking forearm.
D10 · Capstone · Neck form
Your job: Teleport → two-voice → 13/8 → semitone engine → poly cool-down → silence. One clean take.
Same lab, other rooms
Text twin: solo-lab.md