Getting better at it

Practise

This involves knowing the chords (obviously) then learning the scales relevant to those chords. If you know your Major, Minor and Pentatonic scales you are on your way, but this is only the beginning.

Practising partly involves listening to and copying those guitarists who appeal to you most, ‘borrow’ their riffs, learn their techniques, then spend regular practise time on your own where you can experiment with what you learn. Discover your instrument; the feel of it, the sounds you can get out of it, which combination of guitar / amp / effects / pick-ups / tone settings / plectrum / playing styles etc. work for you. Keep in mind that it’s no good trying to get your sound right while using headphones or playing softly - an amp reacts totally differently when cranked up. You’ll get this great sound in your room, get to the rehearsal and everything will sound just horrible - no really!

Playing

Take what you have learned, and through playing with other musicians (backing tracks and/or midi files are a poor substitute) and interacting with them in rehearsal and live situations you can learn how to step up to the edge, look over, close your eyes and jump. When your time comes don’t think about what you are going to play or where you’re going next, live in the moment and just play. Don’t get technical, and unless you want to impress propeller-heads, play from your heart.

There are some lead guitar players who want to get up there and blast away on lead all night - this does not make for good listening and will destroy a bands sound. Aggression is good, but so is finesse, and when it comes down to it remember that tasteful lead playing is mostly a case of ‘less is more’.