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4K views 27 replies 23 participants last post by  jpm100 
#1 ·
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!
 
#9 ·
... try to apply those exercises to write your own song.
bisect them to small sections and practice each one very slowly in different positions and scales, then work on increasing speed gradually.
Oh, and don't get angry or frustrated with it. Try to have fun and understand Rome wasn't built in a day!
Join a band.
All great advice and something which I still try to do (and think about) to this day.
 
#3 ·
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.
 
#4 ·
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.
 
#6 ·
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!
 
#10 ·
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.
 
#12 ·
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.
 
#14 ·
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.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Today I invested in two books. They are the rock school series books that provide songs that are at a certain skill level 1-8, 8 being the hardest.

Listened the the CD that came with and the grade 7 has the best pieces. The Van Halen spoof is brilliant.
I'll try and have it recorded soon but the songs not exactly easy, nor is the guitar solo.

I had passed grade 5 when I was at school 6 months ago so stepping up to grade 7 should be fun!
Theres a sweep picking excerpt in it too.

http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/apmaman/ The one called Third Degree...
 
#20 ·
Go to a good guitar teacher, they should hopefully open your eyes to a large number of bands and artists with music that you can have a crack at AS WELL as breaking the songs down into exercises and smaller parts.

He should also show you how to use your newly acquired techniques with taste, this will require you learn how to use dynamics, rhythm and note choice in your playing.

Speed means NOTHING if you cannot put it to some kind of ARTISTIC use.

A good 'plan' for the future would be: (either with or without a teacher), make a list of songs you would like to play - include a variety that are manageable right up to being completely out of your reach (these last few should be your goals to attempt when you feel ready).

Get the music for the above songs from a RELIABLE source, if you have to use guitar pro/powertab, then so be it, buying published tab books is probably a good idea - The difficulty with this is that many solos by artists such as Satriani/Vai will be rather complex in terms of the amount of notes that are flying at you, so also look at LIVE performances of these songs by the same artists (and even covers) and then you will see that they rarely play the same solo twice (I think this is very important, early on in my guitar playing life I 'wasted' for want of a better expression hours sctrutinising over the tinest details where in the end I could have been looking at the bigger picture).

Once you have listened to/read through the tab/watched videos/tried to play the above songs you will start to become familiar with various techniques associated with this music - alternate picking, legato (hammer ons/pull offs), string bending, tapping, muting, barreing, etc etc. Begin to search for exercises on the above techniques and extrapolate your OWN exercises from the songs you have been learning (a teacher is a BIG help to do this, I personally break every solo down into small sections for my students).

The bigger picture! (mentioned previously) -- > Whilst doing this your technique should be improving all the time (be patient and take your time) you MAY want to start learning how to use the above mentioned techniques in a CREATIVE context, the most common is improvisation:

Research into the 12 bar blues and learn about your pentatonic scales, there is absolutely tonnes of information on the web about pentatonics, improvisation and playing the blues but once again - a GOOD teacher should be able to start you off with the most effective things to practise.

A good grounding in blues improvisation will give you a great stand point for moving into more 'shred' styles of improv *hopefully you'll experiment other roads too other than just 'shred'* :) Becoming familiar with how to solo over a basic 3 chord change with pentatonics, diatonic major and minor scales, arpeggios and eventually modes will be the best preparation possible for trying to dive into Steve Vai esq music. Knowing how to play in a certain key by and/or using scale shapes/knowledge of the fretboard and tonality will give you useful ammo for altering those solos to your own taste.

Good luck and have fun, keep us posted on your progress too ;)

Steve

EDIT: Oh and buy a metronome, there's also no such thing as B#/Cb and E#/Fb (most of the time) - this will make sense to you in a few months :D
 
#21 ·
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!
Most shredding is just simple stuff played so fast that it is hard for your brain to comprehend. Go on youtube and just type in "shred lesson". there are some great patterns, and they have helped.

Like everyone else said, just practice. Shred guitarists are just geeks with a lot of time on their hands deep down inside!!!
 
#22 ·
I'd also invite you to check out my book.. "Intelli-Shred"
http://www.amazon.com/Intelli-Shred...2963851?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187805884&sr=8-1
.. it just got a GREAT review in "Guitar Techniques" December 2007 (SRV cover) issue.
Other's I'd recommend would be:
Shred Is NOT Dead (Teryy Syrek)
Speed Mechanics for Lead Guitar (Troy Stetina)
Wild Stringdom (John Petrucci)
Rock Discipline (John Petrucci)
I've used all these personally with my intermediate and advanced students along with the concepts in my book with wonderful success.
Anything I can ever do to help you.. please don't ever hesitate to pm or e-mail me.
 
#23 ·
My advice:

Learn the diatonic modes + melodic & harmonic minor. From there you can see chords and arpeggios. Build three tone and four tone chords and invert them all over the neck. Do the same with all scales and practice the sound over a key tone like "A". Then you will get a good feel of the structure of music and how to express yourself via tones. Also use intervals.

Practice 1,2 and three step bends. Nothing worse than a bend out of tune and believe me.. it happens a lot..

Practice vibrato. Listen to all the greats ( Clapton, Hendix, Van Halen, Steve Vai, Malmsteen, SRV, etc.) and duplicate all vibrato's. See what you like most.

Dynamics: When to play loud on the strings and when to calm down? When should you pick that note hard?

Rhythm: just take up a few drumlessons. learn a couple of basic rhytms, so you know you 4/4, 3/4 and 16 bar lines. Real usefull!

Song structures: what works? Do a little research in songwriting. What songs do you like? and analyse those songs why you like them. Is in your favorite key? Do you have a couple of changes that you like? Break it all down :)

Good luck and don't forget: it's all about fun and the song!
 
#24 ·
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!
FWIW, I am 47 years old. I just received a JS1200, I am lookin' at this thing & thinking about my abilities (or lack thereof) wondering how I can live up to this guitar, then I start to get all intimidated thinkin' about the guitarist it's attributed to.

I have been playing for over 20 years, and I just went out and started taking lessons again...from a guy way younger than me in so many ways, but he can play what I want/feel I need to learn...so that's the direction I went.

I can look at tab and hear tunes all day, but sometimes, I need it taped to my forehead before I start to get it.

Lessons may help you too, they are helping me.
 
#28 ·
hey there, some really good advice going on here. I totally agree with the metronome. very important to get your timing right, even if you can do thousands of modal runs its gonna sound terrible if not kept in time. I tend to play along to Dreamtheater. Well rounded for technique. Very helpful for warmup too!! I use erotomania from awake for warming up usually. Good for stretches.
 
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