Highway Ghost · level 2 · goal 110 bpm

Highway Ghost is an eight-bar lead riff in standard tuning: Blues-metal lead, A minor pentatonic, fifth position. This is level 2 of 3, played at 110 bpm; the three levels of the riff run from 90 to 130 bpm. It works on hammer-ons and pull-offs, slides, vibrato. The player loops the riff with drums and bass, starts at 70% speed and steps up 5% after every clean pass until you play it at full tempo.

Phrases, not scales: play each two-bar line like a sentence and leave the rests empty. Vibrato on every long note, slow and even. The slide in bar three lands on the 10th fret on the beat.

The three levels

1. Level 1 · 90 bpm · Blues-metal lead, A minor pentatonic, fifth position. One finger per fret: index on 5, ring on 7, pinky on 8.
2. Level 2 · 110 bpm · Blues-metal lead, A minor pentatonic, fifth position. Phrases, not scales: play each two-bar line like a sentence and leave the rests empty.
3. Level 3 · 130 bpm · Blues-metal lead, A minor pentatonic, fifth to eighth position. Keep the long notes long even when the pickups get busy; the fast notes serve the slow ones.