Re: Need advice for beginner lead guitarist
I've been playing for more than 30 years. I would say jam with songs you like, the notes that sound bad, remember what they were and don't play them over that song anymore, the notes that sounded good, remember what they were and use them more over that song to make interesting mini-melodies, phrases. If you can't tell what's good or bad while you are playing, try recording yourself jamming and listen to it right after while you can remember what notes you played and identify the good from the bad.
After a while of this, you'll have a vocabulary of patterns of notes and phrases that have your unique identity and make you stand out as a lead guitar player. Along the way you'll also happen upon how to play licks and riffs you've heard that you like and can integrate them into your playing also. In the end, you'll sound like you and not something you read in a book. Books are fine too. You'll only remember the parts that fit you anyway. I just mean you don't want your playing to sound like student exercises.
By the time you are developed as a player, Friedman and anyone else you look up to will not be the leaders in guitar playing, you will. You need to take your influences and look to the future, develop new styles and become the next Friedman - but you'll have to do it being you, doing something a little different.
What I wrote might sound juvenile and simplistic, and unexpected, but the net net is use your ears more than what's on paper.
