Are you a shredder??!!

[Doug H]

No, but I appreciate a good shred. I like to fake the odd fast passage but I really don't have much scales/skills in that area

I used to love the lead (still do actually) in La Villa Strangiata, that's shredding isn't it?

I thik shredding can mean "crapping fast guitar runs" these days, so it's kind of a loaded question.

 

[Toker41]

It's funny how I spend much less time trying to be a great guitar player these days, and more time writing good music. There is alot less pressure these days to be a guitar god. However, some bands do take it to an low and can't play there damn guitar at all...but I won't mention any names (sum41).

 

[mixmkr]

I think the speed thing is all relative. Most people with any talant should be able to do a major/minor/chromatic..etc scale at a pretty decent speed that you might call shredding. Arpeggios become more difficult and the "odd" interval jumps...so....ah...aaahh...right??

I've seen some flatpickers around here whip the hoot out of some of these so called wannabe elec. shredders. Then..they slip into finger pick mode....oh oh

 

[64Firebird]

Really?? you gots to be shitting me?
click on this link, then click on the little tv icon
.
http://www.chopsfromhell.com/guest_rc1.html

still feel...........fast?

Yeah, I still feel fast. And, I still thinks it's harder to get a good wide, fast vibrato (ala BB king).

 

[badassmak]

I am not a shredder.

I think first off my fingers are a wee bit knobby and the frets too damn small on my geetars. I can tap and stuff pretty decent , but the rest kinda blows at high speeds. I prefer nowadays to do slower kindof soloing, with notes that feel, plenty of bends and vibrato. Having said that, there are some wicked shredders out there. The best one I ever saw was this dude playing a giant f-hole in a blues band I don't even know the name of. He was just standing there wailing away, smoking a pipe, like it was nothing special. The music was slow, but his shredding fit perfectly.

When it comes to rythm stuff, I can double pick pretty damn good I figure. I always wanted to be a shredder, but now I am plenty happy with what I do do. I was always a huge fan of Bolt Thrower, because of the constant thick heavy rythm, with virtually no soloing. That held way more appeal to me than any stuff the Glam bands of the day did, with the blistering solos, and painful hair.

The main thing is it's gotta fit the music, or it has no place. I am not really a fan of Yngwie (sp)?. But a guy like Marty Friedman has some very interesting stuff, with plenty of influences built into the music.

I think I voted the middle choice , thats about my speed.

 

[esun127]

There's a point where it's just too fast that you can't hear the notes and it just sounds muddy. The links that someone posted from chopsfromhell.com sounded so muddy you can't even tell which notes the guys were playing. This probably has a lot to do with the distortion. Also, the riffs are pretty much normal diatonic scales played fast and mixed around. Not very impressive musically.

While typing this post, I went to my Yamaha P80 electric piano and played the "Un Suspiro" Etude in D flat Major by Liszt. There was no tempo marked on the sheet music, and the tempo changes constantly throughout the piece, but it was basically around 96bpm, most closely resembling 32nd notes, with 28 notes per measure. Despite the speed, it is a beautiful song and doesn't really sound that fast.

 

[darknailblue]

It all depends. By definition I am a shredder. I can alternate pick 16th notes at around 180bpm. Some things I can play faster, and some I can't play fast at all. When I do Vai and van halen esque tapping lick I don't measure it because it's insanely fast (vai is a better tapper by the way). When I play legato I can decend fast but not ascend fast. With sweep picking I kind of suck, but oh well. Like analytical man said, its not required of today's music. I've play with a hored of people and I'll get "holy shit thats fast!!!" or "dude that's dead" or "wow that's awsome, but not in our band" and my favorite "what?!" Thing is, no one shreds anymore because it became a body building competition and not about the song. Some songs call for a solo and some don't. Every song in the 80's had a solo just because.... LAME!!! It is coming back though. Listen to Tremonti rip it up on the Alter Bridge album. He has the technique, but not the fluidity of shred greats, like Satriani, Vai, or Petrucci. It's coming though. Guitar rock will be here once again.

~darknail

 

[Larry Gude]

Howdy all...

...hope not to be to offensive with a first post but HERE GOES:

The first and only time I heard Yngwie live, he opened for Maiden, Cap Center, DC, 19,000 people. This was, Christ, a long damn time ago.

To keep a short story short, Yngwie finished his set to hysterical cheering...of a couple hundred people. Then, no encore, the lights came on and the crowd errupted. We'd had enough.

Contrast that to the first time I heard Van Halen live. They were, in 1977, just as obscure to the masses as Yngwie was when I saw him, in fact maybe less known comparably. EVH blended speed and cute stuff and taste and touch and put the hammer down and only got one encore because that's all Nugent allowed in the day. The old man came on a played his ass off to. He had to!

'Shredding' in and of itself is a fascinating ability but it is not entertaining. At least not for very long.

Put me in with the 'what you play' not 'how fast' group.

Oh yeah, and put me down as 'slow'.

 

[mshilarious]

The first and only time I heard Yngwie live, he opened for Maiden, Cap Center, DC, 19,000 people. This was, Christ, a long damn time ago.

To keep a short story short, Yngwie finished his set to hysterical cheering...of a couple hundred people. Then, no encore, the lights came on and the crowd errupted. We'd had enough.

It wasn't 1988.

That was the year I saw Maiden, Cap Center, DC (MD really, MadAudio will get mad), 19,000 people.

Unfortunately, the opening act wasn't Yngwie. We had thought it was gonna be Guns & Roses, but they sold more records in about a week than Maiden did their entire career, so they left the tour.

Replacing them was supposed to be LA Guns, I think. But somehow we ended up with the Killer Dwarfs. Their schtick was the lead singer riding a tricycle. Needless to say, the Maiden crowd was not too amused.

Unbelieveably, they tried a sing-a-long:

Singer: "Do you believe in me"

Desired Response: "Like I believe in you"

Actual Crowd Response: "NOOOOO!"

They left the stage after 3 songs.

 

[Stefan Elmblad]

Anyone who can shred too fast should wake up and realize the eighties are over. It's called music and not xtreme sports.

 

[beezelbubba]

I shred!God do I rock!!Yay me!!!

 

[Ronan]

I play about as fast as Neil Young, which is fine for me, but I just produced and album for a Guitarist named Anthony Curtis, who many people think is the fastest guitarist in the world. Guitar Player magazine refused to review one of his early albums because they thought it was tape speed manipulation. They finally reviewed it after witnessing a performance.

He does not play in an 80s metal sort of way, but more like a Cecil Taylor sort of way. And also he does not do sweep picking and does really wide interval leaps across many strings

There is a video link from one of our sessions. It is certainly not his fastest stuff but it give you a flavor of his style.


http://www.anthonycurtis.net/videotest.html (high speed internet users only)

 

[hixmix]

re: Are you a shredder??!!

I'm more of a chopper, mincer and dicer myself.

 

[Rokket]

i've always wanted to shred. My lead playing is dreadful, but it's my fault. WANTING to do something about it and DOING something about it are two totally different monsters. I kick myself so much for being lazy about learning when I was younger. I also decided I wanted to be a bass player and put my 6-string down for 2 years and lost all my chops. Now I am relegated to playing chords and doing rhythm guitar. I suppose I will find a good teacher and get my ass back on track. But, as I said, wanting and doing.... sigh...

 

[hixmix]

Are you a shredder??!!

I'm a smoker, I'm a toker, I'm a midnight joker...

 

[guitar junkie]

hahahahaha

i have played Blue Grass for a few years now
and to tell you the true hard facts rock music is played to slow
we play out at about 130 or so on many intrumental
tunes and i find that we all burn em out about that speed
i play guitar and mondo on most of those although i can play fiddle faster than i play guitar i can find that shredder crap is easy when i had to get a strat and rock out with a stack of amps its easy.

 

[keebob]

Shredder... no... I like to play rhythm and use a lot of chords.

 

[beezelbubba]

Chords are dumb!Only shredding matters!

 

[justapicker]

It's funny, I certainly wouldn't consider myself a "shredder" but from studying classical guitar I can hit around 200bpm playing 16ths using tremelo technique. That allows you to get a nice legato line going in the upper voice while picking out arpeggios or a counter melody underneath. It's not difficult and I actually find it relaxes my RH. The point though isn't the speed, it's the musical statement.

 

[shredfit]

Ok OK,

I fall into the shred catagory... Although I don't really do it as much as I used to....

The bottom line is that people who "HATE" shredding cannot do it and never could... Can The typical shredder play the tuned down stuff of today? "One Finger Metal" sure... It's stupid easy! ... Can a shredder play the slop emo punk? Yup again!

Now the question is... Can the slop/emo/punk/nu metal guys shred????

Shred