Shred guitar

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Shred Guitar refers to a heavy metal guitar or fusion playing style where technical proficiency is used to maximize speed, often in a neoclassical framework. Beginning in the 1980s, shred guitar appeared in a heavy metal sub-genre known as neo-classical metal, since it often involved phrases and techniques from Baroque and Classical music.

1 History
2 Connotations
3 Musical styles
4 Resurgence in popularity
5 External links

[edit] History

Yngwie Malmsteen, heavily influenced by Al Di Meola and Ritchie Blackmore, is credited in having pioneered and laid down the basis of neo-classical shred guitar in heavy metal music, where the term shredding started to be associated to this style of playing. Before him, many electric guitar virtuosi in late-1960s contributed to the formation of the shred movement, while still lacking the technical emphasis and baroque influencies of modern shredding. It has been argued that jazz-rock guitarists like the aforementioned Al Di Meola and Allan Holdsworth can be seen as first players to record shredding in the modern sense of the word on various jazz-rock recordings since mid-1970s. In early 1980's Randy Rhoads was another important figure that pioneered shredding on heavy metal/hardrock records, starting in 1980 with Ozzy Osbourne's debut album Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Eddie Van Halen was also a very influential artist related to the shred guitar movement who helped popularize shredding by selling more than 10 million copies of Van Halen's debut album. It can also be argued that advances in technology in home recording and programmable bass/drum machines have led to a surge in the number of amateur guitarists releasing instrumental/shred albums on the internet, as they remove the high costs of studio recording and the need for a full band.

[edit] Connotations

Occasionally, the term "shredding" is used with a negative connotation; in this context, it refers to playing with blinding speed and technicality at the sacrifice of feeling or musicality. This is a common complaint in not only shred guitar music but in virtuostic music in general.. This view of shredding was most prominent in the 1990s due to the popularity of 'stripped down' or minimalist forms of rock music.

[edit] Musical styles

Progressive rock, Death metal, Progressive metal, Thrash metal, and Jazz rock have adapted the style successfully. In general, however, the phrase "shred guitar" has been traditionally associated with heavy metal guitarists. This association has become less common now that modern (evolved) forms of metal have adopted shred guitar; shred guitar is now most commonly seen in the power metal, progressive metal and death metal genres.

[edit] Techniques

Guitar playing techniques commonly involved in shredding are:

The most basic and probably most common form of shredding involves ascending and descending a two- or three-octave scale or mode at a fast tempo. This "lick" can be played by picking all of the notes (alternate-picking), or just the first and/or second note of a string (legato). This format is very versatile, and is easy to incorporate other patterns or licks into. Sweep-picking is commonly used to play arpeggios across the fret board. Tapping is also often used to play arpeggios, but is not limited to just that.

[edit] Bass shredding

Shredding on upright bass and bass guitar is much more rarely seen due to the mainly supporting role of bass and the difficulty of the techniques involved. Stanley Clarke is considered to be the first bass shredder, using a similar technique on both upright and bass guitar: Clarke-style shredding is done by continuously raking three or four picking fingers across two or three strings while barring the strings in use and sliding up, then down the neck. Another technique, more similar to guitar shredding, is very rapidly ascending then descending a two- or three-octave scale, but playing each note. An example of modern bass shredding is some of the "show-off" works by Manowar bass player Joey DeMaio, such as his cover of "Flight of the Bumblebee", titled "Sting of the Bumblebee" as well as various filling segments from live shows. Another example a bass shred musician is Billy Sheehan. He is known to incorporate many techniques used for guitar into his playing bass. Bass shredding is generally considered to be more difficult than guitar shredding because of the bigger scale length of the bass and the strength required to pluck and fret decent sounding notes.

[edit] Gear

In terms of shred gear, the first shredders used Stratocaster-style electric solidbodies (like Ibanez, Jackson, or Ernie Ball) with locking tremolo systems (these guitars are commonly referred to as 'superstrats'). However, a vast majority of today's shredders prefer the Flying V and King V-style guitars (like Jackson, B.C. Rich, and ESP over the Strat-style guitars, mainly because of the ease of use of the 24th fret (and, in many cases, the ability to even have the 24th fret, as most Stratocasters have pickup layouts which would disable this feature). Universally, they also use mainly high-gain vacuum tube amplifiers. Various shredders will even use guitars with seven, eight (such as in the case of Rusty Cooley) or 12 strings (see Jimmy Page's 12/6-string double neck Gibson EDS-1275) to add more range of notes as well as to better display their virtuosity.

[edit] Resurgence in popularity

In recent years shred guitar has seen a resurgence in popularity. Modern shredders such as Francesco Fareri and Rusty Cooley have managed to gain notoriety on the internet, leading to wider audiences through publications in guitar orientated magazines. Modern bands such as DragonForce have helped bring technical guitar playing to the mainstream, and even acts like The Darkness, while not playing shred, contributed to the trend by making a guitar-heavy sound widely acceptable again, in what used to be a dance- and electronic- dominated culture. A style deemed 'uncool' or excessive in the 1990s is now commonplace in most emerging modern metal bands, in particular bands of the power metal genre are keen to incorporate shred guitar solos into their music. Melodic shredder Mike Campese has also been gaining notoriety for his strong sense of melody and his great technical ability.

The increase in availability of free guitar tuition on the internet (through websites like Shredaholic and 'The Shred Zone') has made it more accessible for learning guitarists to develop the high degree of technical ability required for shred guitar, which in turn has also helped boost the popularity of the genre. Also web sites like 'TruthInShredding' which feature current and undiscovered guitar players often help aspiring instrumental artists trying to get heard. Podcasts such as Bieber Labs even feature music with permission of the artists.