So you think you can shred?

[GuitarToneFreak]

I do think it's kind of funny that a classical piece of music has become the standard for shredders, it's an awesome piece of music - but it's just weird

 

[cynic79]

...

What the hell was that?!

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

...

What the hell was that?!

are you woozy? Is your butthole sore?

Something might've just happened to you!

 

[ptate]

Try and play it before you p*ss on the guy first....

I managed 250bpm on Bumblebee, but just to prove to myself that I could do it....Nothing musical, just technical proficiency for my picking hand and it worked perfectly. Anything over 250bpm (and perfectly played) is a superb piece of skill; not music.

 

[leftyguitarman]

Jesus that's a mess. It sounds like he's just shit himself.

This.

 

[EasyAce]

Quality is more important than quantity, IMHO

It's great to play fast but it's more important to play beautifully. Otherwise, you'll have a room full of guys and not a woman in the house.---Carlos Santana.

 

[coldsteal2]

im pretty sure thats the music they play in hell

 

[Skintaster]

I generally try to defend fast players against the "Better one note with emotion than a million with none" crowd, but that sounded like a complete mess to me.

There's a point of speed where the human ear ceases to hear something as "musical", and just hears mush... And that guy has passed that threshold.

 

[naturalblack]

It's great to play fast but it's more important to play beautifully. Otherwise, you'll have a room full of guys and not a woman in the house.---Carlos Santana.

this... If the chicks don't dig it then whats the point?

 

[EasyAce]

I generally try to defend fast players against the "Better one note with emotion than a million with none" crowd, but that sounded like a complete mess to me.

There's a point of speed where the human ear ceases to hear something as "musical", and just hears mush... And that guy has passed that threshold.

You just put me in mind of an old crack by Elvin Bishop: How would you like some speed freak to come up to you and start talking the way Alvin Lee plays guitar? You could substitute this guy's name and the names of a bunch of others and have the same thing going for you . . .

 

[Skintaster]

Anytime that music gets turned into an athletic competition - "Fastest in the world" or whatever, it generally suffers in quality.

Speed is a fine playing skill to hone, but if the entire purpose is to play faster than anyone else, I can't see how that's beneficial in itself.

 

[BuzzHaze]

Gotta admit, it would be awesome to be able to play that fast. I wouldn't go all out like that during a performance or anything but more like using it sparingly and with taste. It would be nice to know you can enter any lick without worrying about the speed. While not overly musical or melodic, it's still very impressive and shows a dedication that make me feel like a lazy slug...haha. I say "hell ya, gimme speed" I'll figure out what to do with it.

 

[Skintaster]

I don't understand why speed is a hard skill for some people to develop. I guess any guitar skill can be hard for some people, there's definitely stuff that gives me a hard time.

But once you gain a certain mastery over stuff like double picking, and fret hand accuracy, speed (Within reason) isn't all that hard.

Certain speedy techniques like sweep picking can be challenging, but if you start off slow and gradually "speed up" it's not impossible or anything.

Speed as demonstrated in the video can begin to sound like a jumbled mess at a certain point though.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I like my shred of the Al Dimeola or Yngwie variety. Anything faster then that and it sounds all wonky to me.

Especially when there's lots of chromaticism like Michael Angelo, or this type of Bumblebee shred.

I like it in stages. Give me some melody, then some vibrato, THEN rip my face off, ...and repeat.

It's funny though. People talk about shredders and lump them all into one category, but really none of the big names sound much like each other. The only thing they have in common is they can play quickly when they choose to.

Al Dimeola
Yngwie
Tosin Abasi
Jeff Loomis
Satriani
Vai
Shawn Lane
Michael Angelo
Eric Johnson
Danny Gatton
Jason Becker
Marty Friedman
Rusty Cooley
Frank Gambale


None of them sound alike but they're all considered shredders.

I guess there's something for everyone if you dig that kind of style. Personally Yngwie and Dimeola are probably my favorites. I like their tone and their phrasing and note choices.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I like being able to have a turn of speed here and there, so I'm glad I tried to learn how to shred. There are some guys who are great at it.

I love playing musically, though, so I'm glad I ran into my own limitations trying to learn shred, and rather than devote hours to picking exercises, I went with learning musicality deeper. I feel that was a better expenditure of my time, because I found that once I reached a certain speed, I wasn't thinking about notes and phrasing and moods, which is what I love.

As far as the guy in the vid, he's a shredder alright. He shredded the musicality of the piece.

 

[Phil47uk]

One must look at this in perspective.
Playing the guitar is a bit like everyday conversation.
If your friends Mum just died you'd say in a soft unhurried tone. " Oh I'm really sorry to hear that". But on the other hand if your best friend suddenly stepped out in the road you'd virtually scream at a rate of knots.. " Look out there's a car coming."
I can play fairly fast if I want, but only when it's neccessary and certainly not just for the sake of it.
The problem today is many of these people have turned playing guitar into some sort of Olypic sport and have somehow deluded themselves along with a load of others into thinking it's the ultimate technique.

The ultimate technique, is to have no technique., but of course you have to have the technique in the first place to rise above it.

Do you know what I call technique.
Some years ago, I did a gig with my daughter who was still learning the trade and she sang Hallelujah with an acoustic guitar. When she'd finished the whole place went quiet before errupting into applause and three women in the audience were crying their eyes out .
My daughter looked worried when she saw the women and said "Jesus dad was I that bad?".. I patted her on the back and said " If you can do that kid you are there.. Congrats".

This is technique. It's often not what you say..It's how you say it. It's about depth, soul, light and shade of expression and timing.


This for instance..

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACUxJ6fq2IY&feature=related]John Astin Reads The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe - YouTube[/ame]

Compared to say this..

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7zR3IDEHrM&feature=related]THE RAVEN. EDGAR ALLAN POE. READING BY VINCENT PRICE - YouTube[/ame]

 

[EasyAce]

Gotta admit, it would be awesome to be able to play that fast.

I was actually able to play that way, once upon a time. I suppose it impressed people who heard me play. But then in 1992, I suffered two broken bones in my fretting hand in an automobile accident. The bones healed but the injury robbed a lot of dexterity from my fingers. I learned how much so when I was able to pick up a guitar again after that accident.

And it forced me to rethink my entire approach to the instrument. All the knowledge I had was now somewhat useless to me because I could no longer play all those supposedly great gigaspeed runs and lines. And since I was still a bluesman at heart and at core, I thought to myself---who gives a flying **** about playing faster than the speed of light? What the hell does it have to do with playing from your heart and soul, and trying to move someone who's granted you the honour of giving you a listen?

So I went right back to my absolute blues basics. More or less. There were still a few things I'd picked up from other musics (jazz, Indian and other eastern and ethnic musics, soul music), of course, but now I had to think, ok, I'll never be able to rat-race the fretboard again so why even think about it? Just play whatever I can play and make it my own.

That was when I began searching in absolute earnest for my own tone, my own voicing, and quit beating myself up for finding a few core licks to fall back upon even as bridges to the next improvisation. I developed a little vibrato again, not like what I once had, but this one seems more like a human voice when I use it. I actually found I was better at tonal varieties than when I could play fast, I found I could now use my fingertips and the attack of my picking hand to modulate the volume or presence of my notes or chords or triads. (I'm horrid with full chords thanks to my injury, I can only spread my fingers so far, and I have no use of my left pinkie anyway, or very little, a condition I'd had since I was a teenager, but I've figured out a few little triad tricks I can use that almost sound like full chording in an ensemble to atone for it.)

And people come up to me with my non-shred, non-speed, non-ostentatious or ornate style of gigfast playing, and say, "I just love the way you play and the way you sound!"

So I can't shred?

Big deal.

I came to play the blues. I didn't come to put on a show that I haven't been able to put on for years, anyway. Maybe nobody will ever list me in the top one hundred guitarists, and I'm ok with that, even if I kid people that I'd like to become the world's third greatest Jewish blues guitarist, but nobody took away my ability to make any kind of music, never mind play the blues as deep as I can play them.

 

[Lurko]

Damn, some sour grapes up in this biotch! LOL

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Damn, some sour grapes up in this biotch! LOL

How do you figure?