I want to be a better player.

[apmaman]

I am trying to focus on learning how to be a shred player, however I cant really find anything useful to get me started. I have total guitars "beginners guide to shredding" but its just a handful of exercises.

Does anyone have any good material they can point me in the direction of becoming a proficient shred player? Something like songs that are shred-esc but are not too hard and good to begin with. All i seem to find are songs that are well out of my league just now.

Thanks a bunch!

[JJEMMER777]

Originally Posted by apmaman

but its just a handful of exercises.

Boring as they may be, that is your ticket

As far as songs, maybe try "Always with me, always with you' (Satch)

Or "Liberty" by Vai????

Plus try to apply those exercises to write your own song. Try Arps in a simple 3 chord pattern to help you get more fluent

[barbarelaxe]

In order to become a shreder you need to do all these exercises over and over at increasing speed. If you want to make it a bit more interesting then try practicing some fast licks from your favorite shredder, bisect them to small sections and practice each one very slowly in different positions and scales, then work on increasing speed gradually. that was what I used to do when I was becoming bored with exercising.

[slask1]

Originally Posted by apmaman

I am trying to focus on learning how to be a shred player, however I cant really find anything useful to get me started. I have total guitars "beginners guide to shredding" but its just a handful of exercises.

Does anyone have any good material they can point me in the direction of becoming a proficient shred player? Something like songs that are shred-esc but are not too hard and good to begin with. All i seem to find are songs that are well out of my league just now.

Thanks a bunch!

Check out Rock Discipline (JP's instructional thing.) He's got some really great exercises in there. On the shred thing, of course you have to be a little into 80s stuff to enjoy it, try learning some Ratt songs or something of the like. It's always fun to finally get a solo, and DeMartini's solos are difficult in some place, but they're not hard to work out. Check out Round and Round for sure. Loads of fun to play.

[HDS]

I studied Satch's moves when I was learning which helped out alot but the down side (if it is one) All my solos now sound like Satch. So much for sounding org.

[mike570]

There really is no substitute for practice. Play those "boring" scale patterns over and over, slowly increasing speed, until you get faster.
I too was guilty of the Satch "legato" thing since I listenet to him a lot growing up. (I'm still guilty of it a bit.) The trick is to do things you're NOT comfortable doing until you get comfortable.
Oh, and don't get angry or frustrated with it. Try to have fun and understand Rome wasn't built in a day!

[JeffWiredBeck24]

Do those boring exercises over and over! I usually do alt. picking, legato, tapping, and sweeping, all for about 45 min-hour each.

Also, if you want to learn a song along with that, try "Ytse Jam" by Dream Theater.

[mi2tom]

Join a band.

[Batchimp RG]

Originally Posted by JJEMMER777

... try to apply those exercises to write your own song.

Originally Posted by barbarelaxe

bisect them to small sections and practice each one very slowly in different positions and scales, then work on increasing speed gradually.

Originally Posted by mike570

Oh, and don't get angry or frustrated with it. Try to have fun and understand Rome wasn't built in a day!

Originally Posted by mi2tom

Join a band.

All great advice and something which I still try to do (and think about) to this day.

[Dazza1004]

get a copy of Paul Gilberts intense rock I and II, watch in amazement then be prepared to spend the next few years 1bpm away from a total mental breakdown.

I like Petrucci's rock discipline as well but it's a bit dry.

Try not to loose focus on other aspects of the guitar. I am certainly not what I would consider to be a shredder by a long way but I have gone through phases of dedicating 99% of my practise time to exercises, one day I went to the local shop to try out a guitar and all I could think to play on it were scales and exercises, it was a big of a wake up call for me.

[jemaholic]

Plus Yngwie has a DVD out for a while now - you can see parts of it on Youtube.

[TicTac in my eye]

First learn simple speed exersizes start slow and play each note very clean. Its very important to pick each note clean. When you start to speed up the pattern speed up a few notches. The get the best result is to practice your speed picking exersizes with a metronome.

Someone mention Paul Gilbert's intense rock videos, those have awesome exersizes. He's got some real simple ones that are great for people that want to start developing their speed picking.

Remember start simple.

[TicTac in my eye]

And one more thing don't just stick with just shredding its great skill but you'd be shooting yourself in the foot if you don't explore other types of styles of guitar while your developing your shredding abilities.

Its no fun being one dimensional.

[Wild_Child]

Don't just PLAY the excercises. UNDERSTAND the excercises. Play them in different positions, really try to work out what it is you're playing, how you can connect them together and how you can vary them.

This will make it a little more interesting, and will get you towards playing solos as opposed to a bunch of licks one after another.

[Jemwielder]

Try to mimick the people you like the best. Learn all your scales and modes all the way up the neck. Learn major, minor and diminished arppegios all the way up the neck. Practice a lot.