Shredding :)

A7X

I was wondering whats peoples opinion on shredding or the lengthend guitar solo? Im not a big fan of full instrumental guitar stuff but i do love the likes of satriani and gilbert but i much prefer where songs are complimented with a great guitar solo rather than the song being about the guitar! I find it gets boring. Currently my favourite guitarist would have to be synyster gates, but anyway whats everyones opinion on it?

A7X

lol I thought people would have a good bit to say on this.

Voodu Child

There hasnt been any replies probably because you phrased your question funny. 'Shredding' and 'guitar solo' are two different things. You used Satriani as an example, but he's certainly not a shredder, not even close.

Doctor J

What is a Synyster Gate?

A7X

voodoo_child wrote: »

There hasnt been any replies probably because you phrased your question funny. 'Shredding' and 'guitar solo' are two different things. You used Satriani as an example, but he's certainly not a shredder, not even close.

well it really depends on what you yourself consider shredding to be. Some people consider it to be just playing mindlessly fast with no melodic feeling whilst it has developed into just playing fast really. And I would consider satriani to be a shredder, but certainly not a mindless shredder like rusty cooley *shudders*. I really dont think shredding and a guitar solo are totally different! Like you can have a shredding guitar solo within a song which would be considered to be just a guitar solo ya know?

-=al=-

I wouldnt really call Joe a a shredder either, + i hate that term!

maybe a bit more so back in the day but even at that he always had that little something extra when he was playing fast

Voodu Child

Satch doesnt really play 'fast' in a technical sense, and his fast passages mostly don't have that mechanical/metronomic vibe that is associated with shredding. His playing is pretty bluesy tbh, he doesnt really have any fast alternate picking going on, or predictable ascending/descending runs. Its mostly all just kind of off-the-cuff and groovy.

Someone like Michael Angelo Batio is a shredder in the most used sense of the word. Lots of boring alternate picking passages, where he just locks his wrist into a fast tempo and away he goes. And its very structured/predictable - ie, this is the bar where i'll do some sweeping, this is the bar where i'll do some alternate picking, etc.

Joe's not like that at all tbh. More of a noodler than a shredder :pac:

Niall0

I think a good solo can add alot to a song , like the proverbial icing on the cake . (You need a good cake first though !).

Long guitar solos can be good, but sometimes they are kinda self indulgent. It all depends on the song really.

nyarlothothep

Rusty Cooley is pretty rad, lol at 3.40, its sega rally music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtLUz34iofM

-=al=-

as impressive as it was, i got bored pretty fast watching that

fast stuff doesnt impress me at all anymore, maybe im gettin old :pac:

darrenw5094

Satch is one of the more melodic guitar legends around....sure he can string a clatter of notes together at lightning speed, legato style, smooth as anyone, even Vai. But he can come up with melodies in his improvsed solos and play with a lot of feel too. Probably comes from his blues influences.

Shredding gives you one extra option when you are in a solo, but there is a lot more to it than that. Tedious excercises needed to do that, as in legato and sweep picking, so you will need time, hard work and patience.

Sometimes a 'tasty' phrase or solo can be a lot more interesting than the shred. I know of a guy living near me who can shred like a hawk. During a gig, his first solo was a shredder. Amazing. His next one also a shredder. V good. The one after that, another shred fest. Even the solo in the Proclaimers was a ......yawn......another fricken shred. All he can play is shredding.

As for Synyster Gates.....what is the big deal with this guy. One big guitar mag labeled him as the best new guitarist on the planet. Not in the same class.......and i mean CLASS as Satriani/Petrucci/Vai/Gilbert/Wylde/EVH/Slash

A7X

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Satch is one of the more melodic guitar legends around....sure he can string a clatter of notes together at lightning speed, legato style, smooth as anyone, even Vai. But he can come up with melodies in his improvsed solos and play with a lot of feel too. Probably comes from his blues influences.

Shredding gives you one extra option when you are in a solo, but there is a lot more to it than that. Tedious excercises needed to do that, as in legato and sweep picking, so you will need time, hard work and patience.

Sometimes a 'tasty' phrase or solo can be a lot more interesting than the shred. I know of a guy living near me who can shred like a hawk. During a gig, his first solo was a shredder. Amazing. His next one also a shredder. V good. The one after that, another shred fest. Even the solo in the Proclaimers was a ......yawn......another fricken shred. All he can play is shredding.

As for Synyster Gates.....what is the big deal with this guy. One big guitar mag labeled him as the best new guitarist on the planet. Not in the same class.......and i mean CLASS as Satriani/Petrucci/Vai/Gilbert/Wylde/EVH/Slash

I totally agree! Im sorry for labeling Satch as a shredder but to be honest it was the only label i cud put him in! But I thought I made it clear that he wasnt a total mindless shredder like its very obvious that he isnt lol I love satch's lagato, Its amazing! I usually throw lagato in more so than alternate picked runs as it feels more real! Although its hard to make ur legato sound fluid, alot of practice is needed! lol I'm only nearly half way there

Yeah Im a firm believer in bringin out the fast stuff only to spice up a solo not to make it the solo.

Also Synyster Gates is knowhere near any of those guitarist status but theres no denying he is a very good guitaris! I love the sound of his solo's! He uses alot of major 7th scales and chromatic stuff which really makes tehm sound intersting! But hes not just all fast stuff likie I believe that one of his best solo's is off "sieze The day" and its not a fast solo! Theres alot of feel in it! Although in their earlier stuff he was all speed and his solo werent that good.

darrenw5094

You just made a mistake with Satch.

For me the best all rounder has to be Vai. Check out 'Live At The Astoria'
Feel, melodies, posing, shredding, 2 hand tapping, sweeps, face pulling, legato, Hendrix rhytyms and the rest.

A7X

darrenw5094 wrote: »

You just made a mistake with Satch.

For me the best all rounder has to be Vai. Check out 'Live At The Astoria'
Feel, melodies, posing, shredding, 2 hand tapping, sweeps, face pulling, legato, Hendrix rhytyms and the rest.

Yup but tbh i think many ppl wud lable him as tht! I dunno where i heard this before but i was wondering is it true that vai has no natural sense of rythm? I find that really hard to believe and frankly i think its a load of me arse

darrenw5094

Never heard that before....no sense of rhytym....probably from guys that are jealous and might not be as good as him.....:D

A7X

darrenw5094 wrote: »

Never heard that before....no sense of rhytym....probably from guys that are jealous and might not be as good as him.....:D

Ha I'd think you'd be spot on with that remark

-=al=-

Both Steve and Joe and genius' my fav all time guitarists hands down Steve is a little bit more daring and left wing than Joe, but each one has they're own thing thats amazing. They're both just in a league of their own

MattKid

Someone recently brought this country shredder to my attention.

J.D Simo

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PTtYkhj9Ffk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4WNO4tchUk&fmt=18

Doctor J

There have been some great guitarists who combine technical proficiency with excellent melodic sense. For example, Marty Friedman's work on Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction are as good as it gets, in my opinion. Tommy T Baron from Coroner was an unbelievable guitarist too, effortless skill but wonderfully musical too, his solos were musical passages rather than pointless guitar wankery, check out their Mental Vortex album for his best work. James Murphy, who played with Death, Obiturary, Disincarnate and Testament, among others, brought fantastic melodic work to some pretty extreme music, check out Spititual healing by Death or Cause Of Death, especially, by Obituary to hear what a bit of imagination can do. Vernon Reid from Living Colour is one of my favourite guitarists, when he lets rip it is a thing of beauty, but very unique.

There are countless fast players, impressive technique but **** all imagination or melodic sense, it's the guys with musical skill who are the interesting ones.

MattKid

Nuno Bettencourt is one of my favourite players too, he can shred in a musical fashion and put elements of blues, funk etc into the solos

Fusion251

WTF? Why hasn't anyone mentioned Yngwie Malmsteen? Now HE'S a shredder! And a very boring one at that, although you have to admire someone who's spent all that time practicing for the sake of playing really fast! I have to say Vai and Sach are prob my favorites too, their techniques are both outstanding and they come up with some great tunes and ideas and are amazing to watch live!

I have a story on Malmsteen, apparently on a flight to Tokyo a woman accidentally spilled a drink on her and he went nuts and threatened to kill her and said something like "you've unleashed the f*&king fury" hahahah

Fusion

-=al=-

thats where the focking fury thing came from!


theres an mp3 of the whole incident somewhere online, aint heard it in years, its pretty funny, google it or somethin

slavetothegrind

Meh, i get lessons with Fusion there and he's always modal this, dorian that. sweeppicking this, i'm faster than buckethead that, you can't play that thing the frets aren't even scalloped!!!!.....:rolleyes::D

....when i turn up of course!.........:o

Paolo_M

Going back to Joe Satriani for a minute.
I must admit that I'm not a huge fan but I'll say this; the guy has an incredible ear!!
I meet the guy at Vox R&D who worked with him developing the Satchurator (yeah, yeah, now I'm just name dropping!!). He was saying that during prototyping that Joe was able to pick out specific clipping in the sound that no-one on the team could pick out, and they've some really good guys. At first they thought he was the "typical eccentric musician" but everything he had descibed was verifyed, only by using a signal sim and oscilloscope!!
And no, the guy wasn't just trying to sell his pedal, in fact we hardly talked about the pedal itself at all, but I does sound good.
So there you go, my claim to fame is that I spoke to a guy who worked with the Satch!!:D

-=al=-

aparently the satchurater is a litle muddy among other things...

its not my thing really, gime a tubescreamer anyday, but some hardcore fans who have it with almost joes exact set up, the js1200 the peavy amps the delay settings and pedal settings exact same yada yada as joes.... are a litle disapointed with it

Pyr0

Doctor J wrote: »

There have been some great guitarists who combine technical proficiency with excellent melodic sense. For example, Marty Friedman's work on Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction are as good as it gets, in my opinion. James Murphy, who played with Death, Obiturary, Disincarnate and Testament, among others, brought fantastic melodic work to some pretty extreme music, check out Spititual healing by Death or Cause Of Death, especially, by Obituary to hear what a bit of imagination can do.

There are countless fast players, impressive technique but **** all imagination or melodic sense, it's the guys with musical skill who are the interesting ones.

I have to agree with everything said here, Marty Friedman's solo work on Rust in Rust in Peace made the album way more enjoyable for me personally. James Murphy too is an amazing guitarist, Spiritual Healing is the Death album I turn to for a mix of shredding and melodic playing all in one (Pretty much all solo work on any Death album is top notch :P).

I can't really listen to Malmsteen for more than ten minutes, it all gets a bit predictable after awhile but I have to admit I can listen to the likes of Black Star over and over again.

A nice mix of shredding and melodic/slow playing when needed and being able to pull it off out of context in some cases is what makes a great guitarist in my eyes/ears :P

-=al=-

its a pity he misses playing half the his classic songs live anymore due to kicking the air, throwing picks and swinging that guitar around him

He's good im small doses, u cant take what he does away from him, its pretty damn good

Stev_o

Shredding can be good but after many many many hours of listening to metal songs all their sub genres it becomes tedious just hearing the same scales being used over and over and over again.


Tbh id take a solo thats has alot of feeling and melody in it then a 1000bpm solo any day. Some of the solos on In Flames Clayman album are brilliant for their melody content, i listen to the solo on Another Day in Quicksand more then the full song i think its just a perfect solo.

fguihen

ive been going through a lot of malmsteen vids on youtube, and after looking at about 20 vids, he comes off as the most arrogant pr1ck. There are tons of exceptional musicians that dont have an ego complex like him. He tries to explain some riff or technique, but gives up half way simply saying that its extreemly complex and difficult, as if any viewers dont have the aptitude to understand his magical music.

sure he's fast but he's thats all he has. his playing is so sterile, no feeling.

you can say im jellious if you wish, but id much rather be a decent blues musician than play this stuff. it may appeal to some but its tripe to me. funny thing is i think Vai and Satch are terriffic. they dont depend on speed, they use it, at times to deliver the feeling intended. thats the difference.

shredding can be used successfully, in small dose's and defo not all the time.

Stev_o

[QUOTE=fguihen;57054252
you can say im jellious if you wish, but id much rather be a decent blues musician than play this stuff. it may appeal to some but its tripe to me. funny thing is i think Vai and Satch are terriffic. they dont depend on speed, they use it, at times to deliver the feeling intended. thats the difference.

shredding can be used successfully, in small dose's and defo not all the time.[/QUOTE]

Exactly Always with me, always with you beats anything Ywengie did

darrenw5094

It's one thing being able to shred like some of the best do.....but coming up with a great melody solo on the spot, like Satriani does, is special too.....