Help Me Shred!

Rgt_Lover · #1 10-07-2005, 07:25 PM

O.K so I'm average at guitar. I can't alternate pick all that fast (110 bpm-ish at 16ths) and I'm just learning to do basic 3 string sweeps. I can tap fast and quite fluiently.

My question is this. Angelo tells us to play slow as you would fast, i.e tremello pick style slowed down. Now I can tremelo with two fingers (P and I), but can do it faster and more acuratly with three fingers (P,I and M). However when I'm practasing I find three fingers holding the pick can get in the way changing strings and also I've noticed very few shredders using 3 fingers.

So should I just start using two and work speed and acurasy up again?

Infact will I ever be able to shred? I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and it makes me sad. Any general pointers would be nice.

goofy913 · #2 10-07-2005, 10:42 PM

you should be trying chromatic scales... work on hammer ons and pull offs. and just develop off of that . just practice and you will get better. i may recommend heavier gauge strings to build your muscles in your fingers. but remember that shred can b good if not over used like micheal angelo.

lyconxero · #3 10-08-2005, 01:49 AM

I would say to just keep studying your scales and check out the wealth of guitar knowledge on the internet. Look specifically for guides to soloing, since that's all shredding really is. Speed comes with lots and lots of practice.

Rgt_Lover · #4 10-08-2005, 06:38 AM

I do practise a lot, but because I'm completly self-taught I think my practasing is not focused enough. I don't think I "practise" well.

goofy913 · #5 10-08-2005, 01:05 PM

you know wat you should do..... just set yourself a time were you are not busy and for 1 hour practice your chromatics... major and minor scales..... lycon is right speed comes with practice and patience

mike2558 · #6 10-08-2005, 01:11 PM

I was like you at one point. Trying to go from a noobie to a shredder, but realized it wasn't realistic. Just start out with easier stuff, learn some rythm work from your favourite bands and you'll get better. Like people said, learn chromatic scales and others. The blues scale is a very good one to learn. Try learning some of Metallica's solos, that's what I did. Start off with some easier ones like Fade to black intro solo, master of puppets (the easy one), the first 2 solos from One. And you'll gain confidence and over time you'll get better.

King Knall · #7 10-08-2005, 01:53 PM

Will power is also a key factor sometimes. I used to listen to Vai and say 'I'll never be able to play as fast as him'. I tried playing 'Liberty' and it just didn't happen. One day, I picked up my guitar and just played it. I agree, practising scales is very important, though I usually use only the chromatic and blues scales for regular practising.

lyconxero · #8 10-08-2005, 04:30 PM

I remember that after I had been playing guitar for about a year, I started listening to all the super fast shredding stuff like Symphony X, Vai, Gilbert, and I wanted so badly to be able to play like that but I had no idea how to get there. I sure as hell didn't have the patience to really WORK at it everyday in the traditional sense and eventually I just gave up on the notion and came to the conclusion that it would happen eventually over the course of years and I just went back to having fun playing the guitar. I spent the next year learning as few songs as possible and doing as much noodling on guitar as possible and the other day I actually sat down and tried to learn how to play No Boundaries by Michael Angelo and found it surprisingly less difficult to learn then I thought it'd be. In my year of noodling, my fingers had actually gotten quite fast and accurate and my ears MUCH MUCH SHARPER.

My point is that for ME the only thing that was holding me back was the idea that being able to "shred" is something that can be achieved overnight. Once I stopped thinking that way, everything just kind of fell into place. Also, that year of noodling gave me time to learn and come up with all sorts of little licks which help me to come up with music of my own. Learning other people's stuff is all well and good when you're just getting started, but as soon as I was able to put together 3 notes that sounded good together I KNEW that there was something better out there.

pawel · #9 10-08-2005, 08:37 PM

The above advice is good. The bottom line is to keep everything you are trying to do musical. If you are working on your alternate picking, and are doing some exercises (something like 1234-1243-1324-1342-1423-1432, etc is good), try to pick through some scales as well, and improvise or play along with stuff using the techniques you are trying to master. Once you can pick through scales at speed you will probably feel good about yourself and will impress a handful of shred freaks on the net, but if you can't use that for anything meaningful, it really wasn't worth the effort IMO.

As for the picking, I would advise you to stay away from getting too used to holding the pick with 3 fingers (I don't think using 2 is that great of an idea either, but that's a different thing). If you ever feel like learning hybrid picking (ala Eric Johnson, Shawn Lane, Brett Garsed), and think about the amount of possibilities those techniques can give you, you will find that those other fingers are actually pretty darn useful.

mike2558 · #10 10-08-2005, 10:45 PM

If you're going to learn chromatic scales, learn "Bite of the mosquito" by John Petrucci. Sure you won't be able to play it that fast but it will really help your alternate picking and over time, speed.

timi_h · #11 10-09-2005, 05:44 PM

shred works like girls, the more desperate you are for it the harder a time you have achieving success!! dont despair and get on with playing AT your level and let speed teach itself. If you want a good hint then have a 2nd guitar loaded with gauge 11s and high action and do all your technical exercises/hardcore practice on that through a clean amp.

Mike7771 · #12 10-09-2005, 10:32 PM

try my site http://www.guitarknowledgenet.com it should help a little.

Shep · #13 10-10-2005, 01:54 AM

start off soloing over songs you like..using your own style of soloing(impro)..this really helps.then learn a riff that and try and use it into your impro over songs...

vette6600 · #14 10-10-2005, 02:50 AM

i'll jump on the bandwagon and say work with some songs at your level. i ran into a problem of just practicing scales and licks. so i played decently, but if someone said, "play something", i couldn't even play through a full song. it was really bad when someone playing a beatles tune showed me up lol what i do now is: start with excercises, pattern-oriented stuff, then some easy cover songs, then improvise over those songs, then more excercise type stuff, and end on jamming on some of my own things (even if its just a static vamp). a metronome and a guitar with heavy gauge and/or flatwound strings are super helpful.

Chris From Singapore. · #15 10-10-2005, 05:01 AM

I say ditch all the so called miracle formulas. Trust me none of them work for the simple reason that there is absolutely no short cut for being able to play fast. It's basic mechanics, the better your mind and body is familiar of what you want it to play, the faster and more efficient it will be able to.

Slow everything you're currently playing, whether be it scales, arps or some fast licks. Let the phrases assimilate, make sure you know them inside out, right from the way you finger them on the fretboard to how you even pick them. Picking direction and fingering has a lot to do with being about to shred. If you make sure you get the most efficient way in order to do it right from the very foundations, snycing everything up to a higher speed would make things much easier.

Speed to me is just a product of accuracy.

But I feel you should practice on other things as well and not just concentrate on speed. There's much more to guitar playing than shredding. I'm kind of in this rut right now, I spent so much time practicing arpeggios and scales, soloing and all, that I can't even play rhythm for nuts!