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shred tips

solidsnake316	Date: April 10, 2004 @ 12:05 PM anybody have any places where i can get tips on playing shred, or does anybody have tips themselves? feel free to post whatever having to do with learning those elusive shred skills in here to help me and anybody else out...
fighterpilot	Date: April 10, 2004 @ 4:33 PM wat the hell is shredding??
solidsnake316	Date: April 10, 2004 @ 4:35 PM shred as in yngwie malmsteen, steve vai, joe satriani, etc... really really fast guitar
fighterpilot	Date: April 10, 2004 @ 4:39 PM so how can there be any tips for playing fast other than "PRACTISE, LITTLE BOY, PRACTISE!!!" ? im still baffled to how its done....im a dumbass 1yr old selftaught guitarist n am in awe of those freaks
solidsnake316	Date: April 10, 2004 @ 4:45 PM well that's why i made this thread, maybe someone can show us where we ca nfind some tips as to how to build up speed, etc...
Traf	Date: April 11, 2004 @ 7:16 AM Shredders are just playing scales up and down using the plectrum (no hammerons). An overdriven, compressed sound helps iron out the discrepencies in volume on each picked note. Using your plectrum hand to dampen the strings slightly also gives a little more percussiveness to the run. But don't forget... You need to be able to play slowly and create something meaningful first before you start shredding. It's not just about tearing up and down scales.
shinkaide	Date: April 12, 2004 @ 9:52 PM Yep. And when shredding you have to make sure your picking hand is fast too. Most guitarists nowadays just focus on the fretting hand speed and letting pull-offs and hammer-ons compensate for their picking hand. You can't do that if you wanna be a shred guitarists. Another thing is you should make yourself comfortable with playing licks/scales with all four fingers. If you haven't already, you should practice scales going up and down. Scales going up are a bit harder because after placing your last note (i.e., with the pinky), you have to shift your hand forward to progress to the next position before laying down your next note, whereas if you were going down a scale you'd simply let go of each note and move your hand to the next position. Fu.
Arthen	Date: May 8, 2004 @ 11:46 AM Start practising playing with a clean sound first. Don't use too much distortion. You can use distortion frequently to just enjoy the sound, but don't get too hooked on practising WITH too much distortion otherwise technically you'll be spoilt and your playing will be sloppy. Start with some basic scales like the harmonic minor because scales like these are great for practise because of the amount of notes they contain. Practise scaling down and then to up and then to down. However, don't do it TOO gradually. Once in a while, you have to be IMpatient. You need to be obsessed. Try playing faster than your normal current speed twice in a while. In no time subconsciously you'll be trying to blend your current speed with that of the speed you dream off, while you will be also making sure on the cleanliness. Sounds dumb? Try doing that for months. Record yourself now and do a record about 6-7 months down the road and compare. You'd be fucking surprised even at the cleanliness. Then to make your learning interesting, fuck around with pentatonic scales because unlike blatant shredding it takes a different mentality and feeling to achieve a decent pentatonic sounding playing. Use this to be your "fortress of solitude". You'll be in fact learn pentatonic with a good subconscious reason which will make your pentatonic playing shine with feeling while at the same time your shredding will be cleaner and faster in time. Usually when there's parts of any song of any artist (e.g. Malmsteen) I cannot play, I will get sick of that song and move on to another song to try and accomplish again certain parts of it. Then after some time like maybe 3-4 months, I would come back to the same song and attempt the parts I cannot play again with the latest efficiency I have acquired (for me that song was Far Beyond The Sun by Yngwie.). Usually when I realize I can play those parts my interests in the song itself comes back again. Makes it interesting again. This was what worked for me, but the question depends on how obsessed you are or how easily you are influenced by others' comments on this whole thing ("bah shredding is bullshit, sucks, no feeling at all and so boring, etc") or a COMBINATION of your mental determination and social influence streak. Just believe in yourself if that's what you really want to accomplish. Good luck, Teo
Arthen	Date: May 8, 2004 @ 12:04 PM Then comes the problem of originality of style of playing once you've reached the technical stage you've always wanted to at the start. This is where I ended up getting fucked myself real bad, because I was too dependent on Yngwie's style to get my message across. Then comes along "composing". Create your own "scales" with notes you feel makes sense when u play them in a series together. Come up with ANYTHING. But you need to have a good sense of chord structure and bassline to do this..I suggest to get some training in that first in composition. Take time to learn composing. Then come back to the guitar and create your own sets of "scales" with ANY note you can possible imagine that sounds nice or unique to you that can be executed to a majority of basslines. From that on you can start creating your own 2,3,4,5,6 string sweeps and other so on and so forth. Well, that's the stage I've gotten to so far, although guitar takes a backstage for me now since I'm into filmscoring. However always bear this little thing in mind THROUGHOUT your learning (i've think i've mentioned this before here and i'll do it again) Technique is like your vocabulary. Without great vocabulary, grammar and sentence phrasing and structure, how can you write a great book? But then,if your story is boring and sucks shit, who the hell wants to read it no matter how bombastic your languange is? Sorry for being a hag. Good Luck again! Teo
Arthen	Date: May 8, 2004 @ 1:24 PM Then comes the problem of originality of style of playing once you've reached the technical stage you've always wanted to at the start. This is where I ended up getting fucked myself real bad, because I was too dependent on Yngwie's style to get my message across. Then comes along "composing". Create your own "scales" with notes you feel makes sense when u play them in a series together. Come up with ANYTHING. But you need to have a good sense of chord structure and bassline to do this..I suggest to get some training in that first in composition. Take time to learn composing. Then come back to the guitar and create your own sets of "scales" with ANY note you can possible imagine that sounds nice or unique to you that can be executed to a majority of basslines. From that on you can start creating your own 2,3,4,5,6 string sweeps and other so on and so forth. Well, that's the stage I've gotten to so far, although guitar takes a backstage for me now since I'm into filmscoring. However always bear this little thing in mind THROUGHOUT your learning (i've think i've mentioned this before here and i'll do it again) Technique is like your vocabulary. Without great vocabulary, grammar and sentence phrasing and structure, how can you write a great book? But then,if your story is boring and sucks shit, who the hell wants to read it no matter how bombastic your languange is? Sorry for being a hag. Good Luck again! Teo
woodhead	Date: May 8, 2004 @ 1:42 PM but don't get too hooked on practising WITH too much distortion otherwise technically you'll be spoilt and your playing will be sloppy GOod advice, to lear to play clean with no slop learn to play with out distortionfirst. When I first started I usedto sit on the couch and watch TV while I practiced, no amp just me and the guitar, hell I still do this. and listen to what you are playing and listen to each note. im a dumbass 1yr old selftaught guitarist n am in awe of those freaks and to fix this lots and lots of practice is right. When I first started playnig I used to practice 4 hours a day. an hour in the morning, an hour after school, homework then a couple hours before I went to bed. You can break it up as you want but when learning as much practice as possible for sure.
victorsskull	Date: May 8, 2004 @ 11:09 PM good thought wood
sqrlcub	Date: May 9, 2004 @ 7:41 PM The easiest way to learn to shred is get a teacher who will point out where your technique lacks and where you are getting sloppy and listen to him/her. Other than that, Arthen gave great advice. Play with a metronome and play it clean. Start playing everything on the beat then start subdividing it up. 1 a beat, 2 notes a beat, 3 notes a beat, and 4 notes a beat. If you start around 60 beats a minute on the metronome it will sound like you really speed along while doing it in time. Eventually you will find some places where rubato's (playing just slightly out of time) will be much more expressive. After you can do all the scales you plan on practicing (all keys of major/minor are a good start)clean at 4 beats per metronome click at 60, you raise it up 5 and keep going until it works out again until you eventually get it to around 120. You can take it faster if you want but there isn't much else that is out there and is musical. You probably don't want to really go that route. If you think you do, Michael Angelo is pretty good example of someone that is all speed and no musicality. He is really funny to watch playing on the other hand. You can find him here if you want a good laugh: http://www.angelo.com/html/michael_angelo_batio.html
BedroomSessions	Date: May 10, 2004 @ 10:25 AM i've only recently learnt how to really shred...i generally do it as a humourous expression in my music- its not meant to be serious. Sometimes it can sound really good at certain points of a song, but its pointless all the way through a solo! in terms of technique, playing clean is a good indication of how well you are playing- turn on distortion just for fun. I agree that right hand is as important as left hand as it gives a better compression on your sound (ie. all sounds the same volume). You can pretty much play almost any notes- my favourite to use is a chromatic scale! We're going to put on a song soon with 'taking the piss' solos on this one song which surprisingly sound really good- playing at about 210 beats per minute over a drum loop! take a look around, it should be sorted in the next week! And theres another song there, be nice and have a listen! hope thats the kind of help you wanted!
JoeyDahlia	Date: August 30, 2004 @ 11:36 PM try it slow and easy !! its going to make you sick but fight thru it good luck! here is a arpeggio lesson video http://65.254.79.230/floating1.wmv and here is the tab http://65.254.79.230/floatingarps1.htm set your device on steel strings its sounds the best! hope to hear from you joeydahlia
billrhynes	Date: September 24, 2004 @ 10:00 PM playplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplayplay
GreatGooglyM...	Date: September 29, 2004 @ 11:13 AM i played that arpeggio thing... and it was nothing special. At least in the video that guy plays it very slow. For the shredding tips: Play 1234, 1243, 1342 etc... patterns from string to string. It really helps your technique.
Bhairava	Date: October 7, 2004 @ 12:11 PM My advice would be to pace yourself and not play fast all the time. Just try to find interesting sounds and create new original ideas. Playing fast doesn't matter that much though Its a good idea to practise it. If you haven't go the feeling you wont have anything to distinguish you from all the other people that can play tremendously fast. Also look into chord work and how to have good chords backing that is part of getting an interesting solo. With shredding you also have to have the ability to just keep going on and on. You should practise keeping a solo interesting for about 3 mins with out much breaks without repeating yourself too much. This type of thing requires being able to keep in time with the backing and is very important. The tendanct is to stop at the end of a certain bar but just try dragging it out. Though silence is an important aspect of music keeping things going is also important. Vary the loudness of your notes too. Play some note loud some quite depending on how you feel. It is important. Don't constrict yourselfs to scales but do learn them. Find a few that you like a lot and just play around them without thinking. FIND YOUR SOUND!!!
hueseph	Date: October 7, 2004 @ 5:53 PM Funny that someone might mention Vai and Satriani in a post about shredding. When you listen to them they generally don't play all that fast all the time. Most of there songs are built around a melody and when the "solo" comes along, then the shredding begins. I can't say that I shred but I do know that the focus should be on accuracy and as much as sweep picking will add speed, you can only do that so much before it starts to sound like a rut. Alternate picking is still the crux of shredding. Playing at extremely slow tempos is very difficult. It helps your timing immensely and prevents what some people might call galloping lines. Soloist mentioned those simple patterns. Awesome for developing finger independance. Also linear scales (on one string)using those patterns will help build up speed.
hueseph	Date: October 8, 2004 @ 10:50 PM Oh yeah I forgot. www.chopsfromhell.com an extensive tab and mp3 lesson library.
jeddak	Date: October 9, 2004 @ 7:53 AM shredding doesn't necessarily mean "picking every note." Eddie Van Halen , Malmsteen, and Allan Holdsworth do a lot of left-hand hammer-on (aka legato).
5thprojekt	Date: October 9, 2004 @ 8:46 AM i found it great to practise along with classical musicians. think that vivaldi was really good for that. may the force be with you!
hueseph	Date: October 9, 2004 @ 5:09 PM Legato is all good and well. The focus should still be accuracy over speed. Not all shredding is classically influenced. I'd say probably most of it has a jazz influence. IE:Holdsworth, Satriani, Vai. Shredders don't necessarily shred all of the time. Jeff Beck shreds but he's noted for his emotive playing rather than shredding. Santana, Page, Blackmore, all shredders of their time. All noted for soulfull playing.
Traf	Date: October 11, 2004 @ 7:30 PM I've found that if you have a bowl of Shreddies every morning, that really helps.. Cold milk and demerara makes them taste better, but is not essential..
victorsskull	Date: October 11, 2004 @ 8:31 PM play it like you stole it dont be afraid to hit that string hard and fast and stuff
hueseph	Date: October 12, 2004 @ 1:43 AM Funny, before my kids I used to go for the Shredded Weedies but I just slowed way down man. And after while I just forgot I even had the guitar in my hands. Pass the brownies please.
Bhairava	Date: October 13, 2004 @ 11:59 AM i found it great to practise along with classical musicians. think that vivaldi was really good for that. may the force be with you!" I agree with you on this. There is so much ego in it. There isn't much shred played clean that is classed as Shred anyway Stevie Ray Vaughn is a shredder but people don't usually call him one. There is such an ego issue with shred which puts me off it the most but I still do it but don't concentrate on playing fast or having to have distortion all the time or playing a minor scale. I wouldn't neccesarily say it is a copy of classical as such. The Shred I prefer is based on blues and expanded into heavy metal. That is partly what Satriani did which is why I can appreciate him for it. I wouldn't care if he could play fast as long as he had feeling and could control what he was doing. That feeling that you really can control your music to express yourself is very important. You can pick up if someone is just on the verge of being able to play something very easily. " id="115186">i found it great to practise along with classical musicians. think that vivaldi was really good for that. may the force be with you!" I agree with you on this. There is so much ego in it. There isn't much shred played clean that is classed as Shred anyway Stevie Ray Vaughn is a shredder but people don't usually call him one. There is such an ego issue with shred which puts me off it the most but I still do it but don't concentrate on playing fast or having to have distortion all the time or playing a minor scale. I wouldn't neccesarily say it is a copy of classical as such. The Shred I prefer is based on blues and expanded into heavy metal. That is partly what Satriani did which is why I can appreciate him for it. I wouldn't care if he could play fast as long as he had feeling and could control what he was doing. That feeling that you really can control your music to express yourself is very important. You can pick up if someone is just on the verge of being able to play something very easily.
milesov	Date: October 20, 2004 @ 3:07 PM alot of good advice here, the metronome, scales(i'd add diminished scale to the list too), tv/no amp, etc. learning the CAGED system of arps/chords will help you tie arpeggio ideas together too and help yer fretboard knowledge. i'd agree that legato is part of shred, tapped arps can be played wicked fast and sound very very cool, also string skipping ideas should be worked on, they are great way to bust out ov a rut too.
mdearing	Date: November 17, 2004 @ 7:55 PM You don't have to pick every note to shred. Joe Satriani very rarely picks every note. There are different methods. My theory is shred killed the guitar solo in popular music, because it was overkill. I like shred guitar and do it from time to time myself, but that's not all there is to lead play. Those who shred should do so with taste. For example: Michael Schenker, John Sykes, Satriani are tasty shredders...But to get better at shredding you must keep playing the same thing over and over and eventually you will develop a feel for what you are doing and playing fast scales will become easy. Kinda like typing fast. There are even some players that only practice getting fast on scales only and can't play a tasty lick to save their life. For example, Kirk Hammett. He can't even keep his vibrato in tune. If your a Kirk Hammett fan and enjoy out of tune vibrato don't pay attention to me. After you learn to play fast, put in some David Gillmore and ask yourself if you can make your licks sound as dynamic and full of emotion and heart like ol' Dave can? If the answer is yes. Then you might just be Gary Moore.
GreatGooglyM...	Date: January 1, 2005 @ 7:03 AM Hell, these threads are annoying. "how to shred" PRACTICE GODDAMMIT!! There's no shortcuts or things like "learn shred in 30 days". Useful links: www.shredzone.com, www.chopsfromhell.com. Practice those for couple of years.