Help me WIN the Bloggin Idol 2 Contest, subscribe to my RSS feeds!

To shred or not to shred?!

In: Electric guitars Tuesday Jun 10,2008

electric guitars shredders I’m no shredder. And I don’t say that as a proof of “man, how cool I am, shredders are bad, I am no shredder!” No, I don’t say it like this, I just say that in my instrument education, I have never found the pleasure, determination and “usefulness” to learn how to shred.

I think it is due to the fact that in the last 9 years I have never played metal or hard rock more than a song, for fun, even if I love to listen power and heavy metal very much. Due to the fact that I have played mostly pop rock and alternative rock, the guitar solos were different (I speak about pop rock solos, not alternative) and I had no need to practice my shredding capabilities.

Anyway, as an exercise, shredding is good, I guess, even if you don’t play long and fast solos, even if you are not the guitar player of Symphony X, shredding capabilities may come handy here and there because they can help you solve a particular soloing situation in a very interesting way and opens interesting possibilities.

So, just as a curiosity, how many of you, reading my blog, can actually shred? I mean, maybe you don’t like it, maybe you don’t play a style that ask for fast solos, but can you actually shred?

Of course, some of you, may say that this post is something like that fox that says the grapes are not sweet just because they are out of reach. But I like to think it is not.

So, let me hear you: despite of your current musical style, country, blues, rock, jazz, CAN YOU SHRED OR NOT? Huh?!

Bookmark It

Other people also liked these articles:

If you are new here you may want to subscribe to my RSS feeds!

10 Responses to “To shred or not to shred?!”

Jon
June 11th, 2008 at 1:15 am

I’m not sure if I can really shred, but I love shredding and certainly try to achieve a high standard! I’ve recorded a version of Satriani’s Summer Song which is a bit dodge but check it out if you like, this is me trying to shred, I’m a bit out of practice!

http://guitarnoize.com/mp3/summer_song.mp3
Dr. J
June 11th, 2008 at 3:07 am

I shred all the time, and when it gets too tough, I go down the hall and ask the department secretary to do it; –she can do industrial-strength shredding!
Ricky Sharples
June 11th, 2008 at 8:30 am

Shredding leaves me waiting for some guitar playing. I used to get off on watching the Meeting Of The Spirits video with Paco de Lucia, Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin and somehow de Lucia’s fast playing did it for me but Mclaughlin didn’t. Dunno why.
Ovidiu
June 11th, 2008 at 11:24 am

@Dr J: well, Dr J, not everybody has a secretary. Some of us need to do it ourselves

@Ricky: Yes, sometimes you get that feeling, after hearing somebody shredding. You need to hear some guitar playing, as you say. But if used wisely, shredding may bring value to a solo. Speed has always been appreciated, right?
Gary Fletcher - Write Scribe
June 11th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

I took at look at shredding over on Wikipedia and I can safely say that my Yamaha CPX and I don’t do that

We do sometimes like some fast tremolo picking in a blues solo, though…
Sammy
June 14th, 2008 at 1:51 am

Nope, not me either. I don’t think I ever will either, mainly because I don’t have the necessary hours in a day/week to practice to get to that level.

I think a lot of the world’s best shredders likely didn’t see a real vagina until at least age 25.
Sammy
June 14th, 2008 at 1:53 am

re: above post…

i.e., Sammy is jealous…
MG
June 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am

Nope-I actually would like to be able to do some shredding but I am not fast enough. I am just getting better at learning some arpeggios now. I think it would be cool to be able to be doing some “regular” solo and then do a part where it has some very fast shredding in it.
I don’t play in a band now-just mess around at home when I can- but I don’t really play stuff that is shred-type music anyway. I do love metal but more classic metal Priest, Scorps, Ozzy ACDC, etc so I don’t know about the shredding thing. I admire someone who is really good at it but I don’t (and can’t) listen to it all the time.
I wanna check out Jon’s shredding-probably blows my crap right out of the water!
MG
June 15th, 2008 at 8:13 am

Yep-Jon that was great! I don’t even like Satch that much, and I thought that version was excellent! I think you sounded better than the original!
Ovidiu
June 15th, 2008 at 10:17 am

@Sammy: No matter what we say, I think we are all jealous a bit because in some cases a bit of shredding sounds great.

@MG: I love Satch and I think Jon did a very good job there.

To shred or not to shred?!

10 Responses to “To shred or not to shred?!”

Leave a reply