What makes a "shredder"?

[Hard Max]

What is your definition of a shredder?

To me it's a player who utilizes a specific type of soloing involving fast sweeps, odd scales, and other advanced guitar trickery. For some reason the sweep technique is a shredding must in my eyes.

I've always wanted to labeled a shredding guitar player and sometimes I have moments where I think I fit the bill. I was rocking out in Guitar Center the other day thinking I was all that when I was approached by some young kid who recommended I check out YouTube for lessons on sweeping so I could learn not to deaden half the notes (ouch!). Anyone from Denver wanna give me a lesson or two on sweeping?

Maybe being a shredder will always be beyond reach and only means "better than I am right now"... One day I will master sweeping and will find some other reason to say I'm not a shredder (like not being able to do economy picking... stupid ingrained muscle memory!).

What makes a shredder to you?

[garageband]

What makes a shredder to you?

When I was starting out, a "shredder" was a mildly pejorative term to describe someone who could play a million miles an hour and did so in order to camouflage the fact that he had no earthly idea what he was doing, musically. Also sometimes referred to as "blazing" or someone as a "blazer".

I saw one of these dudes blazin' away on YouTube a while back and thought, geez, he can play fast over one chord, I can play fast over one chord, too. So what?
Hey... found it:
YouTube - Insanely Amazing Guitar Solo
Anyhow, as anybody knows who's ever made something like this, your playing doesn't have to be that tight to sound amazing, when there's this much FX on your sound and there's another gtr in the mix with the same basic sound confusing the ear (favorite Joey Satriani trick, Les Paul too, for that matter) as to who's playing what.

So, for me, not so much love for "shredding" as such. Nice to be able to "shred", not really into being called a "shredder". If that makes any sense at all.

[Hard Max]

Originally Posted by garageband

Nice to be able to "shred", not really into being called a "shredder". If that makes any sense at all.

Makes sense to me.

Personally, I think I fall somewhere between shredding to just show off my chops and soloing for feeling. Depends on the song I guess.

[crooked09]

I think it has a lot to do with the type of music, is inherently connected to rock and metal music. A style that is generally characterized by fast playing and flashy styling. But you don't necessarily have to play that fast and kind of knowing what you're doing/being tasteful with when and what to go fast with will go a long way.

I would certainly say sweep picking isn't necessary. I might be mistaken but guitar players like Angus Young or Randy Rhoads almost never if not never used sweep picking and yet I would consider them as shredders

A lot examples of non-sweeping shredders actually.. just a couple others that come to mind are Kerry King and Trey Azagthoth and if you're into metal they are pretty prolific shredders

edit: this is all about the good definition of a shredder... for the bad one that just means playing fast without taste

[Hard Max]

I guess I really want to be able to be a proficient sweeper and being a shredder is part of the justification.

Originally Posted by crooked09

edit: this is all about the good definition of a shredder... for the bad one that just means playing fast without taste

I'm with you on this.

[cakewalkgg]

Originally Posted by Hard Max

What is your definition of a shredder?

To me it's a player who utilizes a specific type of soloing involving fast sweeps, odd scales, and other advanced guitar trickery. For some reason the sweep technique is a shredding must in my eyes.

I've always wanted to labeled a shredding guitar player and sometimes I have moments where I think I fit the bill. I was rocking out in Guitar Center the other day thinking I was all that when I was approached by some young kid who recommended I check out YouTube for lessons on sweeping so I could learn not to deaden half the notes (ouch!). Anyone from Denver wanna give me a lesson or two on sweeping?

Maybe being a shredder will always be beyond reach and only means "better than I am right now"... One day I will master sweeping and will find some other reason to say I'm not a shredder (like not being able to do economy picking... stupid ingrained muscle memory!).

What makes a shredder to you?

Ill give you a tidbit from the sweep picking arena..
I also obsessed about sweeping (I was a big racer x fan) earlier in my development. I think a truly important piece of effectively sweeping is to make sure you are actually playing appreggiated notes, not just raking the pick over a chord. The sweeps should have timing and clarity to sound good. Try playing the sweeps to a metronome so you get the percussive, rhythmic feel to the patterns. I did a collab (all I did was the guitar solo) with a great Canadian artist Anton Evans. Check out his site at Anton Evans - Home The site will automatically play the song (you'll see it in the little player at the bottom) and at 1:12 I start a passage of sweeps that I think (hope) is an example of what I'm trying to say. In this type of sweep picking the notes are really not muted at all.. just getting the outer edge of my right hand to shadow the pick to silence the strings that needn't be making noise.. Thats one of the tricky things to get comfortable with and takes lots of practice.

And to elaborate on the "quiet the strings" part. Keep in mind a lot of this is with the left hand. you should be lifting off the notes in a way that you are not leaving a lot of noise for the right hand to silence.

[Post Toastie]

Originally Posted by cakewalkgg

I did a collab (all I did was the guitar solo) with a great Canadian artist Anton Evans. Check out his site at Anton Evans - Home

ooooooh i like that !!!!!!!!!!

[cakewalkgg]

Originally Posted by Post Toastie

ooooooh i like that !!!!!!!!!!

Kick ass Toastie thanks!

And hard max, ironic as it may, I am in Denver.. well Wheat Ridge...

[Hard Max]

Thanks for the advice calkwalkgg! I practice sweeping almost every day and sometimes I think it comes out right. I'll start utilizing my drum machine more in the future.

Wheat Ridge huh? My wife and I recently moved from 6th and Union to Roxborough (just south of Chatfield reservoir). If you are up for it I’d love to jam out sometime. In all the bands I’ve been in I’ve always been the de facto lead guitarist and rarely have had the opportunity to play with other advanced musicians (I’m not that advanced, but I think you know what I mean).

Are you currently in any local bands? I recently got back together with one of my old high school bands but we haven’t really played any shows yet.

Have you heard of Envinity (formerly Envy) or Rightfully Accused (recently ended)? I used to play with the keyboardist/singer and guitarists from Envinity and know a couple of guys from Rightfully Accused. I don’t think Denver’s local music scene is very big so I figure you probably know some of the same people I do.

[cakewalkgg]

we likely do, the previous bands I was in was The Quiet Room (Metalblade) and Corruption
no more bands for me, hence the addiction to recordingreview.com
I spend my time now just recording in my office