I need advice on shredding.

[JPET]

I am also going to recommend a book -
BUT NOT because it's going to teach you how to shred...but more because it's going to teach you how to use what you learn in other books and make total musical sense out of it.

If you already know your "six note patterns" that petrucci teaches in his rock discipline; or if you already know all 5 modes of the pentatonic scale, then this will help you make sense of it all - and connect on the fretboard across, forward, backward AND Diagonally!

IT was written by John Petrucci's teacher, and mine, From Berklee - the imcomprable Mr. Jon Finn.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0786668660/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-2441523-0700646#reader-link

it's inexpensive and it's kind of like the bible for figuring out the fretboard...
Or if you can afford the real thing, go take lessons from Jon himself - he's a great teacher.

OH - and one more thing. Shredding is just playing fast - but first you need to know what you're playing. Shawn Lane played so fast and shredded SO HARD, that you can barely make out what he's playing, but if you slow it down (amazing slower downer, or similar) it's actually REALLY beautiful melodic lines. (most of the time)

 

[shredlord]

yeah, everything said so far is great advice. Also, im certainly no shredder, yet(im trying) but one thing i can say is LEARN THE BASICS! i.e. bending in tune, vibrato. simple lead techniques like that are WAY more important than learning how to alternate pick 16ths at 2000000bpm.

oh, and rock dicipline =

 

[Blackrg]

+100 for Rock Discipline

You can get it in Guitarpro format

Never knew what the fuss was about Jon Petrucci..now i do

Also Michael Angelo Speed kills is good for picking drill

 

[distressed_romeo]

This reminds me...there's an excellent Guthrie Govan article on fast playing in the last issue of Guitar Techniques. This one wasn't just a collection of Pablo/Yngwie licks; there were some cool 'burst' exercises and 313 legato lines in it.

 

[evilscribbler]

1) get a metronome
2) Paul Gilbert's Intense rock 1 video
3) Learn to Sweep
4) Learn to pick w/alternate & Economy picking
5) Learn to tap with more than one finger
6) Learn Legato
7) Learn all your modes & scales & Arpeggios & how to use them
8) Learn to Phrase over any musical context & Style
9) Learn to play over changes
10) DO EVERYTHING THAT RELATES TO CHOPS w/ a METRONOME.
11)Check out Chopsfromhell.com

peace

Santiago Dobles
MySpace.com - Aghora - MIAMI, FLORIDA - Metal / Progressive - www.myspace.com/aghora
Official Aghora Website

Everything he said, everything everyone else said and this:

Go slow, If you can't play it slow, you can't play it fast. It that simple.

Set the metronome at a nice sedate speed and don't - DON'T - increase your pace until you have the lick, riff, phrase, solo or whatever, nailed at that speed .... If you try to sprint before you can jog, you just get a nasty, flappy finger, Slayer-sounding noise. And no-one wants that.

then take it up a sensible notch - say another 5-10 beats and so on and so forth until you are at the speed YOU want: and remember, you're trying to play like you. Rusty Cooley already exists, as does Impelliteri etc.

It's fine - necessary - to learn from the masters , study them, even copy their work, but at the end of the day you have to play like you and that includes discovering at what speed the shred-o-meter feels most comfortable at for you at this time ... you will get faster, better, more comfortable with time and correct practice.

Take your time, enjoy, practice, practice, practice and keep us all up to date with how you're doing ...

 

[InTheRavensName]

joins a band, learns to improvises

...and what they saids

 

[Gilbucci]

Everything he said, everything everyone else said and this:

Go slow, If you can't play it slow, you can't play it fast. It that simple.

Set the metronome at a nice sedate speed and don't - DON'T - increase your pace until you have the lick, riff, phrase, solo or whatever, nailed at that speed .... If you try to sprint before you can jog, you just get a nasty, flappy finger, Slayer-sounding noise. And no-one wants that.

then take it up a sensible notch - say another 5-10 beats and so on and so forth until you are at the speed YOU want: and remember, you're trying to play like you. Rusty Cooley already exists, as does Impelliteri etc.

It's fine - necessary - to learn from the masters , study them, even copy their work, but at the end of the day you have to play like you and that includes discovering at what speed the shred-o-meter feels most comfortable at for you at this time ... you will get faster, better, more comfortable with time and correct practice.

Take your time, enjoy, practice, practice, practice and keep us all up to date with how you're doing ...

Nailed it there. Comparing yourself to other people is really discouraging. Everyone has their own unique strengths. Just take it slow and most important of all..ENJOY what you're doing.

 

[Kakaka]

Everything Paul Gilbert teaches...
There are tons of his videos on YouTube, and specially his string skipping and alternate picking lessons are a must.
Even emulating his picking technique has helped me lots on string-skipping-alternate-picking licks.
Kind of obvious I think...

 

[guitarplayerone]

everyone has everything covered except for this...

I COMPLETELY DISAGREE with the metronome thing later on- blasphemy? let me explain

its good to learn how to subdivide but you shouldnt 'pressure' your speed using a metronome... you arent fast enough due to faulty technique and/or underdeveloped muscles... only practice will change this...

meaning it doesnt really matter how long you sit with a metronome for the first year or so you learn how to shred... you wont get past a certain threshold of 'fast' by putting more hours in/ you wont get to 300BPM by spending 299 hours practicing with a metronome, increasing by 1 bpm per hour (believe me i tried).

the metronome is important- more accurate yes, more fast no...

what im going for is, if youre slower than you want, sit there, and at 20 BPM learn the most economical picking motions...
then use a metro to speed it up to maybe 120.(16ths).

then forget about all this, go learn some theory, or go jam, but still do some exercises with your newfound method of picking for a few months, paying special attention to economy.

youll rip

when alternate picking, I do something cooley does, but didnt realize it, until i watched some vids.

try to constantly pick up/down on one plane with your WRIST, and use your arm to move your wrist up and down ensuring that each string gets picked the same way.

DO NOT PICK completely WITH YOUR ARM or STAY IN ONE PLACE ON THE BRIDGE AND TILT YOUR WRIST. You will be cleaner than either by doing what i mentioned above.

remember, its all muscle memory

just my 2 cents

 

[distressed_romeo]

^^^^^^Good post.

I often think there's a grain of truth in the old Paco De Lucia quote; 'if guitarists thought less about their technique they'd probably have better technique'. It's easy to fall into the trap of turning practice into weight-training, but in my experience it's almost invariably counterproductive.

Incidentally, my picking is a similar mix of wrist and arm movement.

 

[JJ Rodriguez]

Tense your arm up real tight, and move your picking hand as fast as you can. Make sure you move your entire arm. Then just go meedly meedly with your fingers.

 

[distressed_romeo]

ZOMG!!!!! SONIC MOTION!!!!!!1!!!!!

 

[Jongpil Yun]

meaning it doesnt really matter how long you sit with a metronome for the first year or so you learn how to shred... you wont get past a certain threshold of 'fast' by putting more hours in/ you wont get to 300BPM by spending 299 hours practicing with a metronome, increasing by 1 bpm per hour (believe me i tried).

the metronome is important- more accurate yes, more fast no...

what im going for is, if youre slower than you want, sit there, and at 20 BPM learn the most economical picking motions...
then use a metro to speed it up to maybe 120.(16ths).

then forget about all this, go learn some theory, or go jam, but still do some exercises with your newfound method of picking for a few months, paying special attention to economy.

This is valid advice, but under one condition.

You can fret at tremolo picking speeds.

If you can't at least do 1234 chromatics while picking as fast as you can, you need to practice coordination. Your raw speed won't go up (ie, how fast you can twitch your picking hand) but the speed that you can actually play at will.

 

[guitarplayerone]

This is valid advice, but under one condition.

You can fret at tremolo picking speeds.

If you can't at least do 1234 chromatics while picking as fast as you can, you need to practice coordination. Your raw speed won't go up (ie, how fast you can twitch your picking hand) but the speed that you can actually play at will.

Im talking about picking slow, not fast. Very little music requires raw tremolo picking speed (black metal, maybe some other stuff)

If you pick more economically slow, youll pick better fast. Im 100% against going 'as fast as possible' with both hands and hoping it syncs up. It sounds like garbage when people do that
btw imho zetronome is the best metronome program