How to shred guitar
How to shred guitar
Shred Exercises: How to Play Guitar Faster?
\n The question that’s as old as the guitar itself.
\n \n \n \n \n \n \n skylinesofchaos20 \n \n \n \n \n
My Name’s Lester Mitchell. I’ve been playing guitar for a little over 20 years, and have been teaching for the last 7. Like a lot of other people, when I first started playing guitar I wanted to play FAST. I fell in love with shred guitar the minute I heard Vinnie Moore for the first time.
After I discovered a plethora of amazing guitar players, I changed my life. Guys like Greg Howe, Frank Gambale, Tony MacAlpine, Al Di Meola, Yngwie Malmsteen, and so many more. I knew for certain I wanted to be a shred guitar player. Even if it’s not as popular these days.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a great teacher when I first started, and I wasn’t shown the proper fundamentals. As the years passed I studied hard on my own, and under other teachers which helped me correct some bad habits as well as help me reach my shred guitar goal.
Flash forward to now, I’m blessed to be a part of my community as a local guitar teacher, as well as a \»would be\» YouTuber where I can reach people around the world. One thing that I hear ALL the time as a teacher, and as a YouTuber is.
So I decided to create a small video showing how I go about playing faster as well as some fundamentals I live by.
To play fast, you have to first play slow. I know that doesn’t sound like fun. Most people give me the look of dread when I tell them this. I get it, but trust me slow IS the key.
The next secret to speed picking isn’t really a secret. It’s actually just something being overlooked. That something is muscular tension. Yup, I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s the absolute truth. Most guitar players have this issue without even realizing they have it.
This is something that affects all guitar players, not just shredders. Regardless of what style you play, or what instrument you play, muscular tension will hold you back.
So, to really fix this issue, we have to do a few things. First, we have to establish a proper stretching routine. It’s important to always stretch before and after your guitar playing session. If you exercise, you’ll definitely want to spend a little more time on this due to excess tension.
Next, we have to become self-aware of our tension in both arms. Try to play with as little tension as possible. See how little effort you can put into making a chord, or running up a scale.
Whenever you play ask yourself these questions.
The same goes for your picking hand. Be sure you are using your wrist, NOT your muscles. Practice letting the pick fall through the string with minimal effort. Then do the same thing when you come back up. If we can stay relaxed, and isolate that movement we can start the building process of speed picking.
The last step is to use a metronome. I know, you have perfect timing. We all do LOL. But even still, you HAVE to work with a metronome. Do the exercises in the video at a slow bpm. Once you master the exercises and can play them without stopping, bump the bpm up by 10. Repeat. Then bump it up again. You must be honest with yourself though. Play everything accurately. Do it correctly, and precisely. Otherwise, you won’t progress.
Hopefully, this short lesson helps you guys out! Tabs are provided on screen and in the video’s description box for free if you wanna download them. If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to me on here or on my channel.
How To Shred Guitar Licks Like A Beast And Make Your Shredding Sound More Intense Without Playing Faster
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Want to breathe more fire into your shred guitar playing?
Most guitarists think that playing shred guitar playing is ‘only’ about playing every note ‘as fast as possible’. Fact is, if you take this approach, your lead guitar licks will end up sounding boring and repetitive. This is because playing awe-inspiring shred guitar playing goes beyond merely being able to play fast. In addition to playing fast, you must also understand how to creatively use the notes you play to make your shred guitar playing ‘stand out’ and capture the attention of anyone listening.
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
I will take you through the process of quickly and easily making your shred guitar licks more intense without playing faster. However, before you go through the steps in this guitar playing exercise, it is crucial that you watch this shred guitar video so you can see and hear the concepts I will be discussing. By watching the demonstration in this video, you will be able to go beyond the examples in this article and easily create awesome new shred guitar licks of your own. Watch the video below right now, then come back and complete the steps in the exercise on this page.
Now that you have watched the video above, follow the steps below to improve your shred guitar playing.
Step One: Create your own shred guitar playing ideas starting with a basic 3 string A minor arpeggio pattern. For this pattern, make sure to use a pull off from the highest note to the next highest note when descending. For example, in the A minor arpeggio, make sure to use a pull off from fret 12 to fret 8 on the high E string while descending. See the tab below if you are not sure how to play the notes of the A minor arpeggio:
Fix Sloppy Guitar Playing Technique
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Play Clean Sweep Picking Arpeggios
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Play Faster Sweep Picking Arpeggios
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Step Two: Play through the pattern several times (at shred guitar playing speed or whatever speed you are comfortable with).
Step Three: After playing the original pattern straight through several times, begin ‘repeating’ the highest two notes in the pattern every time the arpeggio starts over (exactly like you saw/heard me do in the video above). In other words, when you are playing the A minor arpeggio (A C E) and the highest two notes are “E” (12th fret) pulling off to “C” (8th fret), repeat these two notes once as you are descending in the pattern like this: E – C – E – C (and then continue the arpeggio).
As you heard in my video demonstration, adding these two notes changes the overall contour of the phrase and causes the notes to be emphasized in a much different manner than how they were in the original pattern. By using this approach in your lead guitar phrasing, you will instantly make your shred guitar playing sound totally badass.
Step Four: Repeat the new variation you just created in the previous step several times. Then create 1-3 ‘additional’ variations by changing the highest note in the arpeggio pattern to a different note. For example, instead of always playing “E” on the 12th fret, play “F” on the 13th fret or “D” on the 10th fret. Now repeat the same concept from the previous step using the new highest note in place of the old one. Play through your new idea several times.
Step Five: Play the original A minor arpeggio in combination with the new variations you created. You will hear a MASSIVE increase in the overall intensity and creativity of the original arpeggio pattern. Here is a possible example:
Once you have gone through all the five steps of this shred guitar playing exercise, begin integrating this concept together with other types of licks and techniques (this exercise is NOT exclusive to arpeggios only). Replace the arpeggio in step one with any other shred guitar playing licks you want and use the basic concept of ‘breaking the contour’ of a straight ascending or descending phrase to create the same super intense feeling. Then simply repeat steps 2-5 and begin creating an endless supply of killer shred guitar playing licks. By integrating the ideas of this exercise into all areas of your playing, you will add a lot more creativity into your shred guitar playing!
Enhance your shred guitar playing from the exercise above by watching this guitar phrasing video and learn how to play creative solos.
Уроки гитары для начинающих!
Здесь Вы научитесь играть на акустической и электрогитаре, а так же узнаете как можно быстро и эффективно овладеть этим удивительным инструментом!
Здесь Вы научитесь играть на акустической и электрогитаре, а так же узнаете как можно быстро и эффективно овладеть этим удивительным инструментом!
5 Шред Упражнений, Которые Вам Необходимо Играть Регулярно!
Развитие Шред Техники
Шред, скоростная игра медиатором, запилы, называйте это как пожелаете, но суть остается одной. Чтобы научиться невероятно быстро извлекать ноты, нужно потратить чрезвычайно много времени и сил.
Плюс, нужно играть не только шестую открытую струну! Есть несколько направлений, которые Вам нужно играть регулярно и которые рано или поздно приведут Вас к успеху. Так что если Вы готовы к трудностям как никогда, то это просто отлично, можно начинать.
Первым делом, если Вы решили взяться за скоростную игру медиатором, то постарайтесь находить время на развитие этого навыка МИНИМУМ по 4 часа в день!
Да, знаю, 4 часа свободного времени это невероятно много. Но если это действительно то, что Вы желаете и тем более, это то, что Вам нужно, то я уверен Вы с этим справитесь. Так же, на всякий случай напомню, что регулярность так же важна.
Теперь, к пунктам, которые я для Вас подготовил, постарайтесь не отвлекаться следующие 5 минут:
1) Упражнение с Открытыми Струнами
Многие начинают свое обучение шреду именно с открытых струн, это даже хорошо, но беда в том, что когда скорость наращивается, большинство забывают про необходимость игры на открытых струнах и начинают играть хроматику (или что-то близкое к ней).
Поэтому, Вы продолжайте практиковать игру на “ноликах”, так как в более быстрых (быстрее, чем Вы привыкли) темпах, Вы наверняка будите слетать с ритма и не сможете уместить нужное количество нот в долю. Это на 100% нормально, главное продолжайте играть и постепенно поднимайте темп, а не бросайтесь сразу на свои пределы.
2) Хроматика Горизонтальная ИЛИ Упражнения на Одной Струне со Сменой Позиции
Тут Вы можете выбрать, что Вам интереснее играть – либо хроматику, либо упражнения на одной струне и обязательно со сменой позиции. Если с горизонтальной хроматикой все должно быть понятно, то пример второго Вы видите на табулатуре ниже.
Можете чередовать эти два варианта играя, например, неделю хроматику, а следующую неделю упражнение. Главное, обязательно внесите что-то из этого пункта в свою регулярную программу, так как подобные упражнения хорошо развивают беглость пальцев, а значит, для прокачки скоростной игры это самое оно!
Время: 30 минут в день!
3) Хроматика Вертикальная ИЛИ Игра Гамм
Кстати, Вы можете играть не только упражнения составленные из шестнадцатых нот. Экспериментируйте, введите себе в репертуар упражнения с секстолями (6 нот за долю) или с каким либо другим ритмическим рисунком. Уверяю, хуже от этого не станет, так как чем больше умеешь, тем большим специалистом в данной теме являешься.
Теперь к гаммам, думаю, у 99% людей которые решили взяться за шред не возникнет проблем с поиском и тем более пониманием гамм, но если Вы все же входите в этот 1%, то обязательно изучите следующие видео по гаммам (и пока наверно стоит повременить со шредом, окей?).
Время: 30 минут в день!
4) Зацикленные Паттерны
Тут все просто, в нашем мире существует удивительно много зацикленных упражнений, т.е. тех, которые Вы можете играть бесконечно. Явное преимущество подобных паттернов в том, что их можно разучить и играть, например, сидя перед телевизором смотря какой-нибудь фильм, или сериал.
Таким образом, Вы вроде занимаетесь, развиваете беглость и подвижность пальцев, улучшаете координацию левой и правой руки, но в то же время и не слишком обременены рутиной.
Хороший способ, но главное помните, что фильм вторичен, поэтому, если чувствуете что не можете нормально играть и смотреть в монитор, то тогда возможно, Вам лучше сконцентрироваться только на игре.
Вот пример подобных упражнений, но я уверен, что Вы без проблем сможете придумать сотни подобных паттернов самостоятельно.
Время: 1 час в день (по 30 минут на одно упражнение)!
5) Секвенции
Если говорить очень просто, то секвенция, это разложенная гамма, но если Вам интересно узнать подробнее про это жуткое слово, то окунитесь в данную статью, там все интересно и подробно расписано! Если же Вы знаете значение этого слова, то двигаемся дальше…
Умение быстро играть секвенции просто жизненно необходимо каждому шред гитаристу, так как на них базируется почти каждое соло (особенно в быстрых темпах). Плюс, разучив несколько вариаций секвенций, Вы можете без проблем применять их в своей игре, а это уже огромное преимущество для тех, кто увлекается импровизацией (или планирует за нее взяться).
Как обычно держите пример, а если есть желание научиться самостоятельно, составлять из гамм секвенции, то тогда, вперед за просмотр нужного Вам видео, там есть все что Вам необходимо об этом знать.
Время: 1 час в день!
6)* Арпеджио
Это дополнительный пункт, это значит, что если у Вас много свободного времени и Вы желаете развиваться еще быстрее, то специально для Вас бонусный уровень.
Арпеджио – это способ обыгрывания аккорда, при котором ноты данного аккорда звучат друг за другом, а не все сразу. Проще говоря, когда Вы перебираете аккорд ноту за нотой это и называется арпеджио, или возможно, более известное для большинства определение – перебор.
Играть арпеджио быстро — чрезвычайно сложно! Именно поэтому я оставил этот пункт на дополнительное обучение, так как считаю, что не стоит тратить на него много времени на ранних этапах шред практики.
Лучше, потратить свое время на разгон хроматики или какой-либо секвенции, так Вы и результат увидите быстрее (а если он будет у Вас появиться дополнительная мотивация), и больше отдачи получите от своих занятий, НО, если есть время, то обязательно потратьте хотя бы его небольшую часть на арпеджио, будет полезно для Вашего гитарного мастерства.
Время: Сколько пожелаете!
На последок скажу не самые приятные слова, но я считаю, что их необходимо усвоить сразу, не смотря на всю печаль что они содержат. Готовы?
У Вас уйдет адово много времени на развитие скоростной игры, порой, будут этапы, когда Вы начнете думать, что ни черта не развиваетесь в этом направлении, что уже потрачены сотни часов на запилы, а результат невероятно мал.
Это может быть связано с чем угодно, Вы допускаете ошибки в постановке, звукоизвлечении или же просто мало занимаетесь. Возможно, что даже совсем сказанным выше у Вас нет проблем (или Вы так думаете), но развитие не идет.
Могу дать только пару советов, первое, найдите учителя, который поможет Вам с постановкой и звукоизвлечением, не пускайте это на самотек, это важный этап и без закрепления его почти невозможно двигаться дальше. Второе, не отчаивайтесь и никогда не сдавайтесь, например, у меня ушло более года на преодоление планки в 140 УВМ…
Не знаю почему так много, но рука просто не могла двигаться быстрее, я отчаивался и даже начинал думать, что мне не дано играть так быстро. Хорошо что я продолжал заниматься не смотря на свои мрачные мысли, в итоге, я преодолел свой порог и сейчас развиваюсь хоть и не в сверхскоростном режиме, но зато иду к своей цели медленными, уверенными шагами!
Поэтому, не торопитесь сорвать куш, возможно, и есть люди которым эта техника дастся без особых проблем (хотя сам таких живьем не видел, а только слышал байки), но лучше настройте себя на медленное и главное качественное развитие! Подобный навык отрабатывается всю жизнь, так что, не имеет смысла брать столь высокую планку за год-другой, рискуете просто огорчиться в себе и в своем таланте.
Главное не забывайте, что помимо шреда есть еще много необходимых качеств и навыков, которые необходимо развивать настоящему музыканту. Поэтому, желаю удачи Вам на этом нелегком пути и если нужен совет, то смело просите его в комментариях.
Guitar Shredding Exercises – Your Ultimate Guide To Building Speed & Accuracy
These guitar shredding exercises are designed to challenge your hands! Let’s get to shredding!
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In this free lesson you will learn…
A Lesson In Guitar Shredding Exercises
Shredders – They make up a massive part of the guitar community and they play a mile per minute.
Do you know what every shred-heavy guitarist has in common?
Effective practice is the key that ties together every great musician throughout history.
How is ‘effective practice’ different from regular practice?
Regular practice usually involves us playing over the same concepts we already know, or maybe jamming to a song or two. Perhaps we crack open a few tabs and lift a couple lines of music.
Regular practice, however misses out on one key thing:
When we practice effectively, we set an intention, a goal or accomplishment to reach, and a method for reaching it.
Effective practice involves goal-setting and a willingness to advance our skills.
Pro Tip: If you want to start practicing more effectively right now, get yourself a practice journal!
Next question: What is ‘shredding’, anyway?
What Do We Classify As ‘Shredding’?
‘Shredding’ refers to the art of playing fast and with extreme precision, often in long bursts at a time.
Any way you look at it, ‘shredding’ is a fast and precise form of guitar playing that takes patience, practice and skill in order to master.
In order to learn how to shred with the best of them, we need to develop speed.
Let’s talk about that below!
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It can be disorientating for guitarists to understand which scales work with which keys.
With this in mind, we created a cheat-sheet; a key and scale-finder that you can use again and again.
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How Do We Properly Develop Speed?
Speed is the great challenger of music.
The process of building speed in order to ‘shred’ involves repetition – and a lot of it, at that.
As we repeat the process of playing a line of music over and over, our brain begins to better understand the inner workings of that line of music.
This ‘inner understanding’ of the momentum needed, coupled with our brain’s muscle memory are what help us learn to ‘shred.’
These guitar shredding exercises are meant to be practiced repeatedly in order to help you build confidence and momentum in your guitar playing.
Speed isn’t the only component at play here, though.
Taste is another element we need to consider.
Shredding isn’t just about the notes. It’s about how we play those notes, and how tasteful the musical lines are.
Remember: It’s one thing to learn to play the right notes – it’s another to play them quickly and with character.
A fantastic example of this type of ‘tasteful shredding’ is Sims Cashion.
You can find this young upstart shredding up Instagram at @simscashion.
Pro Tip: What you should take notice of with this guy is the direction he takes his playing. All of the musical lines he plays lead to a point, or a transition to another musical line.
This type of approach to shredding keeps things sounding lively and musical, no matter how fast.
Be like Sims Cashion!
The Key To Mastering Guitar Shredding Exercises: Accuracy
The fastest guitar shredders in the world all possess an amazing sense of precision and accuracy in their playing.
This is due to – you guessed it – practice.
We cannot stress enough that in order to master these guitar shredding exercises, you need to start slowly and build up speed.
There are many practice methods that we can make use of in order to help develop our sense of accuracy, and we’ve got one of our favourites lined up below for you!
Pro Tip: A great practice regimen that we love is starting out with a metronome set to 80bpm. Play any line of music of your choosing at this speed, and focus on playing evenly.
When you’re playing evenly at this speed and feel comfortable to do so, increase the BPM (beats per minute) by 10.
If you find this speed is too fast for you, reduce it by 5BPM and start working your way into that tempo. Increase again by 10 when you’re comfortable, and dial back by 5 where needed.
This exercise helps our brain develop its sense of focus, and helps us get comfortable with long practice runs of the same piece of music.
Now, let’s have a quick chat about stretching before we begin.
A Note On Stretching Before Practice
If you’ve been reading any of our other guitar exercise articles, you’ll know that we talk briefly about stretching in every one of them.
It might seem like we’re beating a dead horse here, but that’s only because we want you to have healthy hands.
Focus on your arms, shoulders, hands, fingers and wrists when you stretch in order to maximize your practice time.
Check out this video from GuitarLessons365 on proper stretching protocol here.
Guitar Shredding Exercises I – Combining Techniques
One of the most crucial things that we can do as we progress in our guitar journey is to combine the skills we develop.
If you’re learning how to shred, odds are you’ve probably developed a pretty good sense of technique already.
This first drill takes us through the A harmonic minor scale. The defining note of this scale is the G# at the 6th fret on the D string.
Follow the playing directions carefully on this one:
Our second example of these guitar shredding exercises involves just as much up-and-down motion as the first, and in the same key.
This time, we begin from our high E string instead of the low E. This exercise lets us break out of traditional box shapes, taking us all the way down to the first fret before ascending back up the fretboard.
Make use of alternate picking to navigate the wave of this musical line.
Guitar Shredding Exercises II – Keeping A Tight Picking Hand (8th Note Triplets)
When we learn how to play with speed and accuracy, one of the first things we should take into account is the spread of our pick.
How wide do you pick when you pick a string? Do you anchor your pick to the next string, or do you keep it close to the string you just plucked?
Try alternate picking through these guitar shredding exercises.
Each string holds three notes, so the direction of your alternate picking pattern will change from string to string.
Pro Tip: These patterns are written in triplets – That means we play three notes per beat.
1 beat = 3 8th notes inside a triplet.
The easiest way to remember this is to count ‘Tri-P-Let’ out loud to get the feel of playing three notes per beat.
Double Pro Tip: For a different approach to these guitar shredding exercises, you can try palm muting.
Palm muting gives us a dampened and subdued sound, but it also helps tighten the sound of the guitar. This works especially well for those of us who use distortion pedals or drives.
Palm muting itself requires a tight form of guitar picking, and thus it is perfect to use with this drill.
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Guitar Shredding Exercises III – Sweep Picking
Sweep picking is an elusive skill that takes time to build up.
This technique goes against our traditional methods of alternate picking, and instead uses what we call ‘directional picking’ to blaze through an arpeggio of notes.
Play this one slowly and don’t alternate pick your notes:
When we descend this E minor arpeggio, we want to make sure that our pick faces the other direction so we transition smoothly from one direction to the other.
When you complete the first arpeggio above, flip your wrist ever so slightly so that it moves toward your chest.
This will greatly help your momentum when learning how to sweep pick through these guitar shredding exercises.
Now, we’re going to put these two patterns together and play them as one arpeggio.
Pro Tip: We’ve included a hammer-on and pull-off at the high E string to help you turn the arpeggio around at the top.
Hammer-on, then immediately pull off and begin descending the arpeggio according to the tab below.
Remember to flip your wrist when you hit the high E string!
Guitar Shredding Exercises IV – Two Strokes Per Note
We’re going to double-down on our picking in this last set of drills.
We’re going to return to A natural minor for this last exercise, picking twice per note. Give it a shot below!
Pro Tip: In all of these guitar shredding exercises, we want to make sure that we’re keeping our playing clean and even.
If you practice with distortion, listen for excess string noise. This can make our playing sound a lot messier if we aren’t careful.
We always recommend that you practice on a clean channel for absolute clarity first, then move to practicing with distortion after.
This will help to ensure your playing stays clean, smooth and sharp!
Where Do I Go From Here?
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How to shred guitar
How to Shred on Electric Guitar for Beginners
I’m guessing you’re here because you want superpowers!
But then you realized that they don’t exist and had to find something else.
So you found guitar!
And you realized if you learnt to shred, you could melt peoples faces and have all the girls (or boys) in town queueing up at your doorstep in love with you.
Now THAT, sounds like my kind of superpower.
So today I’ll be going over the steps that beginners should take to start learning to shred on the electric guitar.
What Does It Take To Shred?
You see all these people playing fast stuff in utter awe, so you say…
OMG! I need to learn to shred!
Then you go pick up your guitar, try to play fast and realize it just ain’t gonna happen.
So what are the actual steps that you need to take to get from where you are, to tearing up the fretboard like it’s that Big Mac you had for lunch?
Well, there are three main areas that you need to train up to start to shred on electric guitar like a pro:
And keeping everything squeaky clean whilst you’re at it.
I’ll be tackling each area with you in this post, so you can tick all those boxes so many times, you couldn’t even tell that there was a box there in the first place.
Oh yeah, I’ll also throw in a bunch of epic licks for you whilst I’m at it.
How to Build Finger Strength and Dexterity
Believe it or not, all you beginners can shred on electric guitar with just your fretting hand.
Sam, mate. You’re chatting absolute wack. You need two hands to play guitar, dumbass…
Errr that was rude. And by the way, I’m about to prove you wrong…
Well, technically I did use my picking hand once or twice but let’s not dwell on it…
Even at this point, having strong finger strength and dexterity can get you smoking some hot licks.
My favourite way to start building up this kind of strength, is to practice trills (continuous hammer-on and pull-offs) between each of your different fingers.
I nabbed this from a video Steve Vai did for Guitar World, and it’s as simple as doing this:
Do that for as long as you can physically go.
Pay attention to each note and make sure it sounds out as clearly as possible without tensing your fingers.
They’re gonna start to burn like a well-timed insult in no time. Then once you can’t go any further, start trilling with your index and ring finger.
Then when that burns, shift to index and pinkie.
After that, start trilling with your middle and ring finger, etc.
The trick is to practice with every combination of fingers possible and make each trill sound just as strong between different fingers, all over the neck.
The best thing about this is that once you have some strong sounding trills, it’s really easy to practice and requires no concentration at all.
When you’re next binge-watching High School Musical, you can be doing this exercise and building up finger strength as easy as pie.
Then once you’ve done some trills for a while, you’ll be ready to start getting used to some common 3-note patterns:
You will see those all the time in legato licks.
And of course, you know what to do. Play ’em till they burn!
Get all those notes to sound clear and even, and make you’ve practised them on lower strings and frets as well as higher ones.
Then you’ll be ready to fry some bigger fish, like this bad boy I flashed earlier:
This lick is an A minor scale ascending legato run, using sextuplets.
That means 6 notes per metronome beat. Try saying Trip-e-let Trip-e-let – emphasizing each vowel – between each metronome beat, and you’ll get the sextuplet feel.
Three note per string sextuplets are every shredders’ favourite thing, so it’s important you get nice and cosy with licks like that one.
Sit down with a metronome at a slow speed and build it up.
Even just by practising it 10-15 minutes a day, by the end of the week you’re gonna be laughing back on your old, slow, feeble, weak former self.
How to Build Picking Speed
Great! By now you can hopefully play your first shred lick on electric guitar, no longer beginners now, ‘ey?
So let’s look into scrubbing up our picking skills.
My No.1 tip for giving yourself the capability to pick ultra-fast, is to make the picking motion from your elbow.
Trust me, you’ll be able to pick longer, faster, harder. All the pros do it: Zakk Wylde, James Hetfield, Mick Thomson – it’s the done thing.
So do it now! (That was a pretty good Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, am I right?)
This is probably new to you and feels weird as stale jelly, so slow down and make sure no tension creeps in.
Or even place your wrist on the bridge or pinkie on the guitar body as an anchor point for stability.
But it’s no fun practising to a metronome to build up speed without a goal.
So find a song you like with some rapid rhythm picking and work your way up to playing it.
If you like Metallica, then Spit Out the Bone, Damage Inc. or Fight Fire with Fire are all songs with fast but reachable picking speeds.
And if you don’t like Metallica, then you could always challenge yourself with All Out Life by Slipknot or practically any Slayer song – although they would take much longer to play.
It doesn’t matter what you choose, as long as you are activating your picking speed which we can apply to electric guitar shred licks later.
Faster licks = more face melt.
Becoming Picking Intelligent
Guitar is extremely bothersome…
All that speed you’ve built up can only be used on one string!
Because as soon as you change string in a fast lick, you have to hop over the string you’ve just played to the one you want to play.
And that slows you down like a tortoise without legs.
Ugh! How frickin’ annoying!
You slant your pick downwards to a 45°-ish angle, and finish each string on an upstroke.
Normally, alternate picking is a side to side motion.
And string changing is an up and down movement – this contrast in direction prevents you from going as fast as you otherwise could do.
But if you angle your pick to 45° downwards, you go side to side and up and down at the same time, so string changes stop being a problem.
And the reason this only works on an upstroke is that once you do an upstroke with your pick slanting downwards, your pick is then hovering free in the air.
This makes change to the next string easy as you don’t have to hop over anything.
But if you finish each string on a downstroke, you get stuck in the ditch between two strings – which you then have to spend time hopping out of.
So one of the ways to make sure that you leave every string on an upstroke instead, is to ensure that you pick an even amount of notes on each string.
E.g. 2 notes per string – downstroke, upstroke. 4 notes – down, up, down, up. 6 notes – down, up, down, up, down, up.
But 5 notes – down, up, down, up, down = stuck in the string ditch.
It’s quite a complex mechanic, but is essential to rapid shred on electric guitar.
I have completely nicked this idea from Troy Grady, who basically discovered this was a thing and is now hailed by every single shredder ever as God’s gift to this earth.
I recommend watching that video if I’ve managed to confuse you beyond repair.
All you need to remember is to tilt your pick downwards and leave each string on an upstroke. After that, you’ll be the fastest picker in town.
So here’s a killer lick you can use to practice some epic downward pick slanting runs:
Yup, that’s the same lick Troy plays in the video above. Why? Because I’m unoriginal looking out for you guys and think it’s an awesome lick.
It’ll take some time to build up speed, but MAN will it sound good.
Combining Picking and Legato Together
Boom! Now you’ve all got the chops to shred on electric guitar like you never even were a beginner.
So let’s start putting all that to more use.
One of my favourite things to do is to combine picking and legato into the same lick.
The mix between legato and picking gives a fantastic sound AND makes fast stuff much easier to play.
This means it doesn’t take much effort to fling a lick or two into your improvisation and get some ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd.
So here are a couple of my favourite licks that combine the techniques:
Just sounds so darn liquid and smooth!
Have a go, and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is compared to the previous licks.
But this next lick has got to be one of my favourites of all time:
It’s pentatonic time, baby!
This lick got such a cool cascading effect to do it, and those little pull-offs allow you to hit much higher speeds.
And starting the lick on the major 2nd instead of the minor 3rd gives a much fresher feel than a full pentatonic lick.
And here’s my third and final monster scale lick before we get into some snazzy arpeggio stuff:
Mm mmmm, me loves a bit of string skipping.
Use Arpeggios To Get Cool Sounds
I love scales as much as I love custard, and that’s saying something.
But I love arpeggios even more.
Fewer shredders use them, and you can create some seriously epic sounds.
Just check this bad boy out:
Em7 Arpeggio
Those slides will take some practice but BOY it’s cool.
And that lick is so flexible. Try it descending, on different strings, in major, with suspended 2nd or 4ths, that lick can do it all.
I’ll give you one more epic Em9 arpeggio lick to pay around with, and then I’ll get into showing you how to write your own.
So ladies and gentlemen…
Em9 Arpeggio – That’s a 1/2 step bend at the end by the way
Kind of like an inverse of the pentatonic lick from earlier with an extra slide on top and a cool, jazzy sound.
They are just a few licks that I’ve come up with, but what if you passionately despise all of my licks and want to write some of your own?
Look no further…
Writing Your Own Licks
If you want to start writing your own killer licks, then fundamentally you need to know the minor scale shapes and/or arpeggio shapes.
Within these scales, we tend to use 3 note per string patterns in groups of 6 or 4, as you have seen in the licks above.
So it’s as simple as creating a short 6 or 4 note pattern and then repeating this all the way down or up the scale legato, picking or both. Whichever you prefer.
But when that starts to become a bit boring, you can even begin to add extra slides or variations to the pattern to stop everything sounding quite so robotic.
So here’s an example of a legato + picking lick from earlier that I customized to sound a wee bit more interesting:
I’ve added some slides, some hybrid picking and finished on a different part of the fretboard.
This allows for some cool phrasing that if played with a pick would be too difficult to achieve. It’s just a nifty way to alter the pattern a bit.
Hybrid picking is basically fingerpicking notes with the other fingers on your picking hand whilst playing with a pick at the same time.
E.g. In the 3rd sextuplet group, I’ll play the 14th fret on the D string with my pick, and pluck the notes on the g string with my middle finger.
You could even try writing licks in odd groupings like 5s, 7s or 9s.
When you’re counting these to a metronome click you’ll want to break them up into 2s, 3s and 4s…
E.g. I’d count fives like – *Click 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, *Click. Sevens like – *Click 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3 *Click. Nines like – *Click 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 *Click.
But as long as you know the notes you can play, you can create pretty much anything.
So feel free to use, abuse and customize these licks as much as you like.
“Shredding is just playing fast at the end of the day, so it doesn’t matter how you do it” – Sam Olverson, Literally Just Now
Wrapping It Up
There have it. Boys and girls… that is how you learn to shred.
Now make use of this new superpower and go change the world…
Or just play some hot licks in your bedroom for personal satisfaction.
The latter is more my cup of tea. Not that I like tea, but whatever…
Make sure you use this shredding power wisely in your solos, and that you don’t overuse it.
Otherwise, it has the adverse affect and peoples’ faces will be melted so much that they just stop melting due to boredom.
Think of shredding like cinnamon… Cinnamon can make pastries absolutely delicious. But too much cinnamon makes them dry and lifeless.
I’ll leave you to ponder on that deep intellectual thought…