better lead ?

so i really want to be more like Jerry Garcia and Dave Gilmour (if you dont knoew em, no need to respond).. but my lead work and solo skills are a bit lacking..

i originally planned on being a ryhthm man, so i built an extensive chord vocab, but still my fingering is sluggish and fumbling.

i CAN play: st. stephen - dead,
turn on your love light - dead,
white lace and strange - nirvana
brain damage - floyd (except the chorus, where i use chords to just follow the song), the solo to roulette-soad,
the solo to something - beatles,
the intro to no rain - melon
the intro (pianos intro) to while my guitar - beatles
smokestack lightning - howlin wolf
sunshine of your love - cream
revolution-beatles

thats pretty much it
.. but im really high right now and cant remember more.

so are there any suggestions to being able to get faster and stronger for leading and soloing longer?

seeing what i can do, what do you think i should learn next? are there any practices i can do to help this?

** these arent all the songs i know, more like the ones that have extensive finger working. most of the stuff i play is chordal work, so i didnt list the tons of beatles songs i know for johns part or grateful dead tunes from bob.

The fastest way to improve your technique are with exercises. They are often boring and unmusical, but they work best.

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That works great. Alternate pick it, and play it legato. Start slow and focus on staying clean. Speed up little increments when you can play it perfectly several times at a certain speed. Using a metronome is recommended.

This forum doesn't support code so..that didn't line up. You start on the 6th string and work your way up,

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almost like a chromatic?

i read on a forum about some one suggesting that you play each A on the fretboard, then each B, and so on..


i havent tried it yet

that does NOT work!!!. even though you are probably way better than me hippiecune, i know that chromatics will speed you up a little but what you NEED to do is learn the scales you feel comfortable with and do the whole scale and go up a fret, repeat. that is how you will get quicker with scales. my personal fav is dorian, neutral pentatonic, minor pentatonic and lydian. im learning different modes and youd probably know about those. i know how to play quickly, but my problem is learning theory. ive learnt all about chords, and ive practiced scales and learned about sharps and flats in scales, but im having some trouble here so im focusing on learning that. try what i said

yea, i'd recommend learning lots of modes and scales all over and right down the fret board, so your fingers just know where to go, with out you even having to look where your fingers are, learn to improvise with each of them, also, i think learning new chords is also a good developer of dexterity in your fretting hand, so learn some some difficult chords and be able to just snap in to them,
its all about practice, learn to play solo's and learn to solo over progressions, and you should get the hang of it.