Lead guitar refers to a the use of a guitar to perform melody lines, instrumental fill passages, and guitar solos within a song structure.

In rock and metal bands, the lead guitar lines are usually supported by a second guitarist who plays rhythm guitar, which consists of accompaniment chords and riffs. In some rock or metal bands with two guitarists, the two performers may perform as a guitar tandem, and trade off the lead guitar and rhythm guitar roles.

To create lead guitar lines, guitarist use scales, musical modes, arpeggios, licks, and riffs that are performed using a variety of techniques. Metal lead guitar lines often use employs alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking and left-handed techniques hammer on, pull off, tapping, are used to maximize the speed of their solos or riffs. In a blues context, lead guitar lines are created using call and response-style riffs that are embellished with string bending, vibrato and slides.

In rock and metal contexts, the lead guitar line is often performed melodies with a sustained, singing tone. To create this tone on the electric guitar, guitarists often select certain pickups and use effects pedals such as distortion pedals and delay effects. Other effects used to embellish lead guitar tone include the wah-wah pedal and the univibe effect, both of which were popularized by the late-1960s icon Jimi Hendrix.