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.