Shredding 101

[Revolution777]

I love fast playing and would love to incorporate it into my playing, only one problem...
I can never seem to play fast enough.
I'm wondering if some experienced shredders could help me out and give me some tips on how to improve speed.

 

[noodles]

Practice with a metronome. Play the same lick ten times in a row cleanly before notching it up one click.

 

[Drew]

Shredding? Don't do it.

No, seriously, odds are it's not you can't play fast enough, it's that you're trying to play TOO fast. Timing is everything here. The fastest guitarist in the world will sound like shit if he can't hold a steady rhythmic groove while playing.

This is where the metronome comes in - practice scale patterns and picking drills and scale sequences against a metronome, focusing on keeping your delivery even and your articulation clean. Practice different rhythmic groupings, too - 4 notes per click (sorta the "default" here, as tha's 16th notes), three notes, 2 notes, 5 notes, six notes, whatever. Just keep it perfectly even).

Personally, I love an application called YMetronome - it's a software metronome that allows you to program subdivisions, and can speed up or slow down by a preset amount every preset number of seconds/minutes... Great practice aid. Dig around the Lessons forum, I've mentioned it in there a few times with links.

-D

 

[Metal Ken]

Metronome is the key. Also, some good things to do, are download some badass shred pieces (malmsteen's first CD, anything from Becker, Friedman, or Gilbert)... Get the sheet music for them and practice some of the licks slow and build them up to speed with a metronome. Its very rewarding \m/

 

[maliciousteve]

I agree with the guys here, deffinatly use a metronome, start slow, then build up speed when you feel comfortable. I've learnt Scarified by Racer X and at first i found it hard, but then i practiced alot with a metronome and now i can play it as fast as Paul Gilbert. plus it's awesome when you know you can play it properly

 

[Allen Garrow]

Agree with the above the metronome is an awesome tool. You have to remember in order to play fast and clean you must first be able to play it slow and clean. Makes a huge difference man. To shred is one thing, but to be able to play it slowly and accurately,,, that is the key. When ever I need to get pumped up a little on shredding I go to www.rustycooley.com and check out his vids. He also has some mini lesson on chop from hell which you can find from his website. He shows some very basic but very kick ass runs all based off of scales like D mixolydian and such. Like you'll probably hear over and over,,, " if you want to play fast you must first play slow". Whoever made that statement was on his or her game because it's so true.

~A

 

[Vince]

Even better than a metronome is a drum machine. That way you can get up to speed and not just hear clicking, but actual backing tracks of some kind.

Find some licks that you find challenging and begin by playing them around 120 bpm (or whatever is easy for you for that lick).

After you get that lick tight at that tempo, up the tempo by 5 or 10 bpm. Get the lick down at that tempo, and then increase it again. Rinse, repeat. Before too long, you'll be busting out the lick at 210 bpm like nobody's business.

Another good idea is to record some rhythm guitar playing of your own, along with a click or drum machine track (either on a 8-track recorder, or your computer), and then work on soloing over your pre-recorded rhythm tracks.

Bust out powertab, and write some hard shit for yourself, then get it up to speed in the same manner as before.

Just some ideas to get you started. Oh, and don't worry about speed. Joe Satriani isn't the fastest rock guitarist in the world, but in my opinion he's absolutely the best.

 

[dpm]

Tip one - relax
Tip two - become comfortable and familiar with what you want to achieve
Tip three - relax

Chances are you're becoming frustrated and tense, which will slow you down.
I don't know if you play racing games at all, but I find the same thing happens in Gran Turismo for example. You know how the really fast laps seem to happen when you're not even trying, in that trance-like state? Almost a meditation.

Well, that's what happens to me anyway

Oh, and practise your ass off too

 

[SevenatoR]

Everybody's right on the money with all their suggestions. The most important ones for me are:

1. RELAX!!!
2. During practice sessions, start slowly and work up
3. Use a metronome or drum machine

One of my big problems is trying to play TOO fast, like Drew said. I'm usually pleasantly surprised if I actually slow it down a touch.

 

[Chris]

Shredding? Don't do it.

-D

Triplets are the place to start to get your speed picking up, imho. Three note runs are a lot easier to work with than four.

 

[Drew]

"Shred" sucks. Really bitchin' technical/progressive guitar delivered with killer feel and articulation and lots of melody rocks. Hence, don't shred.

(for every John Petrucci there's a twenty Rusty Cooley clones who couldn't write a song to save their lives)

 

[Bastard Toadflax]

+1 on the relaxing. And also, if you find yourself having trouble with something, move to something else and come back to it. Ive had many experiences where I couldnt nail something for the life of me, gave it a break, and came back, say half hour later, and stuck it on the first try.

 

[Drache713]

hey I was just curious, for you guys out there that play really fast leads, aside from the obvious relaxing and metronome work up to speed stuff, how do you actually construct your leads? I mean, you don't just bust a fast passage out of no where do you? Do you sit down and have to think it out and/or write it out and all that for the entire passage, and then work on what you have written slowly until you have it up to the speed or tempo you desire? Sorry if my question seems a little vague or unclear, i guess i'm asking if you guys are able to just play a very fast lead you have wrote for a song without any work or if you have write/think the solo/lead out and start slow and work it up to the desirable tempo?

 

[Drew]

fuck, idunno, I just improvise.

 

[fatherbrennan]

As far as practicing playing fast I think its important to do it BOTH ways. Improving shows a good knowledge of the scales and its good to keep those patterns memorized, improving really helps that along. However writting it out in advance is also good, because if you improv you will instinctively not do things that give you problems. Thats when you need to write out the things that give you problems and practice them until you can do them.

 

[keithb]

I find my biggest obstacle when trying to play something fast is that I tense up. If you look at really good guitarists, even when they're playing a million notes per second they're perfectly relaxed. They're not just showing off - it really helps to untense and 'let go'

 

[fatherbrennan]

Yeah that used to happen to me a lot. This may not be the problem for you guys, but it turns out for me I was using my arm way too much when playing fast and tense up and get tired quickly. I had to learn to pick using primarily my wrist and then I had no problems anymore and its pretty easy to be really relaxed now when playing fast.

 

[dpm]

+1 the wrist.
I mostly improvise, but then I'm not writing anything particularly structured right now.
Constructing a lead for me usually means improvising over a recording over and over and coming up with a structure. It's like a city tour, there's a few places you need to be at particular moments but a whole bunch of different ways of getting there. Once I've got that down I'll record a few takes and hope one works out ok.
'Exploring' is very important to me, just playing, improvising and becoming familiar with what notes are where. That way when it comes time to play something deliberate I can do something unexpected and (sometimes) make it work.

 

[Allen Garrow]

Everybody's right on the money with all their suggestions. The most important ones for me are:

1. RELAX!!!
2. During practice sessions, start slowly and work up
3. Use a metronome or drum machine

One of my big problems is trying to play TOO fast, like Drew said. I'm usually pleasantly surprised if I actually slow it down a touch.

I totally agree. I have found that I have spent many of hours just trying to pull off stuff and sometimes feel like I am getting nowhere. I just put it aside and have fun. Quite often after drilling for hours on the same thing, I find it coming out almost by accident later when I'm relaxed and just fooling around. The mind is a quarky thing. If you can imagine it,,then you can do it.

~A

 

[fatherbrennan]

Ive often noticed that I seem to get better at guitar during the breaks when Im NOT playing. haha Its weird I'll practice something, cant quite get it, decide to give it a break for a day or two. Then when I come back to it I play it the first time perfectly. It could be because of the rest and Im more relaxed. Theres also several psych studies that show that muscle growth and dexterity isnt directly caused by exercise, but are caused by brain function that exercise can induce. One study showed that a person thinking about making their thumb stronger was able to increase their thumb strength by 30% after a month, even though they never once did anything physical to strengthen it. Maybe the same principle applies here, when you take a break from an exercise you cant quite get down, you think about that exercise and analyze it, then when you come back you are able to play it. haha crazy I know, but hey Im bored so Im hitting you all with some theories of mine.