Highway Ghost (hard) · level 3 · goal 130 bpm

Highway Ghost is an eight-bar lead riff in standard tuning: Blues-metal lead, A minor pentatonic, fifth to eighth position. This is level 3 of 3, played at 130 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.

Keep the long notes long even when the pickups get busy; the fast notes serve the slow ones. In bar eight pick the first note of each pull-off pair and let the fingers do the rest.

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.