Shred is Spice.

[Darin]

My conclusion. Shred is spice and should be used sparingly to "spice" up your "music".

How many times have you been bored off your rocker within minutes of listening to an amazing "shredder". Yet, Satch, who could only loosely be described as a shredder makes CD's that are listenable even for the wife unit.

Now, Suspended Animation is probably a rule breaker. JP has the ability to use ALOT of spice/shred and still play music. He's the exception. AT, very little shred, LOTS of music. Easy to listen to all day long. YM? Several minutes and I'm done. Sweepers, tappers, arpeggiators etc all over youtube, lots of notes, very little music.

Even when you throw a sweep in the solo when playing live, it's for the one guy in the audience that plays. So as guitar players that spend much time running scales, we have to ask ourselves, why? Who really wants to hear all those notes. It's fun to sit down at GC and throw out some sweeps that turn a few heads. But how many hours of practice are worth that. Bands that gig anymore regularly rarely have a shredder. If you're covering EVH you'll need to be able to play well.

So do you practice so you can gig, or possibly get a spot on Via's label Favored Nations, or just to make youtube vids and enjoy the positive comments? I claim that setting personal goals and being our best has it's own reward. But playing simple but great sounding music will get you more gigs than even very good shred.

So, what to you hope to gain by spending hours running scales?

This question came to my mind because I have been running scales while watching DVD's alot lately. But I have no real reason. Other than I hate to be with other shredders in a room and be the suckiest player. A few rippin runs, a few sweeps, even a tad sloppy and I'm ok with myself.

I walked in to a local music store the other day and the owner was selling a guy a guitar and it was plugged into a little cheap amp. He see's me walk in and says, "Hey, that guy can sweep, come over here and show him how to sweep" I HATE being on the spot, on a cheap guitar on a cheap amp and WATCHED closely. So, It was a big motivator in practicing again.

[shogun]

i agree..

my personal thought is:

you can tell the level of musical maturity in a player by what they focus on when playing. their objective is usually pretty easy to pick out, within the first 5 seconds of a lead.. the more i play, and learn.. the more i realize that 95% of people don't care if you can shred, or play jason becker tunes.

[Darin]

I did this about 7 or 8 years ago. It's an example of what I'm getting at. Only, in my own pathetic way.

http://christianbattleofthebands.com... Happiness.mp3

Link fixed. Guess I should put underscores in my song titles.

[shogun]

Originally Posted by Darin

I did this about 7 or 8 years ago. It's an example of what I'm getting at. Only, in my own pathetic way.

http://christianbattleofthebands.com/music/Flowing Happiness.mp3

bad link!

[Darin]

Fixed

[kotornut]

I agree Darin. Good post. I feel the same way at guitar stores and stuff. That urge to show what I can do is very strong. But it isn't all that musical. I've been coming round to the realization that if I concentrat on the melody and the rythym of the song in the band's context the outcome is far better than when I was throwing down stuff that was technically difficult for my fellow band mates to do and fun and cool only for me. I'm even trying not to over riff in a song, you know have too many riffs in one song. The greats don't do this. They select themes.

Even John Williams (soundtrack extroidinare) does this. He has themes that reoccur when necessary and don't get too repetitive and complex so they are more memorable and excessable. I think in a way, and this isn't absoulute, but you should be able to hum most of a song immediately after you hear it. I can't hum Yngwie songs even after years of listening. No matter what type of guitar playing it is, intrumental, metal, rock, jazz; there still has to be a strong melody. What's the point in writing music that no one remembers.

I hum alot of Andy Timmons gutiar melodies these days. I hum Satch, Greg Howe, Pertucci and Paul Gilbert's stuff as well. But there are a lot of songs by shredders that I can't begin to hum or remember what happened in them. Yeah, I might have dropped my jaw initially, but it wore off quickly and I went back to listening to melodic, even if more simple, music.


BTW Darin thanks for recommending me Andy Timmons, you told me to try him out in another thread a while back and I did. I'm a big fan now. Very musical and his tone is amazing. The other guitar player in my band likes him a lot too now.

[Darin]

Originally Posted by kotornut

BTW Darin thanks for recommending me Andy Timmons, you told me to try him out in another thread a while back and I did. I'm a big fan now. Very musical and his tone is amazing. The other guitar player in my band likes him a lot too now.

Is there an AT300 in your future?

[GuitarBizarre]

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f384/SpartanRob87/1170790889008.jpg

[Darin]

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

HAHAHA Terrific!!

[elcid]

The main difference between spice and shred is spice is tasty and rarely boring.

[CosmicDebris]

Yea Steve sucks.

[Darin]

Originally Posted by CosmicDebris

Yea Steve sucks.

Who are you agreeing with? No one said Steve sucks. Tender Surrender would certainly fit into the category of using shred tastefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw74sDWPH7U
12meg video
Download with www.keepvid.com

[shogun]

the thing I lol about is the fact that 99% of shredders today are sloppy. most of them could not play accurately over a metronome-- don't even get me started with the fools who try to sweep @ a billion notes per second.. its so frustrating to see people who spend hours a day practicing, but cannot bend a note to pitch, or tell you what key you're playing in

[GLG421]

Originally Posted by Darin

I did this about 7 or 8 years ago. It's an example of what I'm getting at. Only, in my own pathetic way.

http://christianbattleofthebands.com... Happiness.mp3

Link fixed. Guess I should put underscores in my song titles.

Very nice, Darin. I always love when you drop a tune for us. Always gives me some inspiration to try a different angle.
Just wanted to let you know that.


As for the shredding, I kind of equate it with a lot of rap. Once it gets too far away from melody and something that, too me, is musical, I loose interest.

kotornut's analogy about humming a tune is right on. I rarely get mind numbing sweeps stuck in my head, but a good melody can haunt me for days.


Geoff

[kotornut]

Originally Posted by Darin

Is there an AT300 in your future?

I'm not a big sig player so probably not. But it is a great looking guitar.