You’re a guitar enthusiast, captivated by the lightning-fast licks of guitar legends like Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, and Steve Vai. The desire to Shred The Guitar yourself burns within you, and you’re eager to embark on this exhilarating journey.
Believe me, I understand that feeling completely. I vividly remember the frustration when I first started playing, yearning to create music that was far beyond my current abilities. It can feel like a monumental climb, but the summit is within reach.
And the incredible news is – you absolutely can get there!
After dedicating nearly two decades to the guitar, honing my skills and pushing my technical boundaries, I can confidently say that I’ve reached a level where I can shred the guitar with proficiency. Through my own experiences and years of teaching aspiring guitarists, I’ve identified three fundamental pillars that are crucial to becoming a true guitar shredder. Let’s dive into each of these areas and explore the path to unleashing your inner guitar virtuoso.
1) Mastering Guitar Technique: The Foundation of Shredding
To shred the guitar, a high level of technical proficiency isn’t just recommended – it’s absolutely mandatory. Shredding, by its very definition, involves playing a rapidfire barrage of notes with incredible speed and precision. Your lead guitar technique can be systematically developed by focusing on these key areas:
Linear Picking: The Engine of Speed
Linear picking forms the bedrock of fast guitar playing. It’s the art of efficiently and accurately picking notes on a single string. When you practice exercises like 3 note per string scale patterns, you are directly training your linear picking technique, building the speed and stamina required to shred the guitar.
Synchronizing Picking-Finger Timing for Flawless Linear Picking
A common hurdle for guitarists venturing into faster techniques is the synchronization between the picking hand and the fretting hand. Often, the pick might feel like it’s running ahead, leaving the fingers struggling to keep pace. Or, you might experience moments where the pick and fingers seem slightly out of sync, disrupting the flow.
Thankfully, this synchronization issue is easily addressed with a simple yet effective practice technique.
Let’s take a fundamental scale segment as an example:
Imagine you’re encountering that familiar feeling of your picking and fretting hands not quite working in perfect harmony.
A powerful solution is to double up each note within the exercise, as illustrated below:
You can adapt the note durations to your current skill level, playing them as quavers (eighth notes) or semiquavers (sixteenth notes).
Consistent practice with this doubled-note exercise will yield remarkable improvements in hand synchronization. Apply this technique to any exercise where you notice hand coordination issues, and with dedicated practice, this problem will gradually fade away, paving the way for you to shred the guitar with precision and control.
Sweep Picking and String Transitions: Gliding Across Strings
While sweep picking is often hailed as the ultimate technique for intermediate guitarists aiming to shred the guitar, its foundational element – smooth string transitions – is often overlooked. Mastering string transitions is not just a stepping stone to sweep picking; it’s a critical skill in its own right for any guitarist wanting to achieve fluidity and speed.
Sweep picking essentially evolves from the ability to seamlessly transition the pick across strings. This fundamental technique is then expanded upon, incorporating legato, tapping, and other advanced techniques to create the dazzling runs characteristic of shred guitar.
Practicing string transitions doesn’t need to be complex. A series of two-string arpeggio exercises is an incredibly effective way to quickly develop proficiency in this area. By focusing on smooth, efficient pick movement between strings, you’ll be laying the groundwork for not only sweep picking but also for more fluid and expressive lead guitar playing overall, bringing you closer to your goal of being able to shred the guitar.
Note Ornamentation: Injecting Soul into Speed
It’s often said that it’s not just what you play, but how you play it. This is especially true when it comes to shredding the guitar. While speed and technical prowess are essential, they are only part of the equation. Truly captivating guitar playing hinges on the effective use of note ornamentation.
When listeners are drawn to a great guitar player, they are subconsciously responding to two key aspects of their playing:
- Timing: The rhythmic precision and groove.
- Note Ornamentation: The expressive techniques used to shape and color the notes.
No matter how fast you can play, if your note ornamentation is lacking, your playing will likely sound sterile and unengaging. Note ornamentation encompasses a range of techniques that add character and emotion to your playing, including:
- Vibrato: Adding a pulsating warmth and sustain to notes.
- String Bending: Expressively manipulating pitch for soulful cries and wails.
- Slides: Smoothly gliding between notes for fluidity and connection.
- Legato: Creating smooth, connected phrases using hammer-ons and pull-offs.
- Staccato: Playing notes with a detached, crisp articulation.
Masterful use of these techniques will instantly elevate your playing, transforming it from mere technical exercises into emotionally resonant musical expressions. This is the secret to making people not just impressed by your speed, but truly captivated by your artistry when you shred the guitar.
Defining Excellent Note Ornamentation: Key Qualities
What exactly constitutes “good” note ornamentation? Here’s a breakdown of the essential elements:
A) Seamless Transitions Between Combined Techniques
Can you fluidly move from a slide directly into a vibrato? Can you transition smoothly from a pre-bend to a full bend on another fret? The ability to execute smooth transitions between various ornamentation techniques is paramount. This fluidity creates a polished and professional sound when you shred the guitar.
B) Unwavering Accuracy: The Cornerstone of Expression
The greater the precision you have in controlling each aspect of your ornamentation, the more impactful and expressive your playing will become.
When executing slides, can you consistently slide up 12 frets and land precisely on the intended note, every time? When applying vibrato, are you consciously controlling the pitch, contour (shape of the vibrato), and timing simultaneously?
There’s a surprising depth to master in note ornamentation. However, the beauty is that every single element of control in your playing can be systematically trained and refined through focused practice. Accuracy is key to making your shredding both technically impressive and musically compelling.
C) Strategic Timing of Techniques: Adding Dynamic Emphasis
Effective note ornamentation isn’t about cramming techniques together as rapidly as possible. It’s about using them strategically to create emphasis and emotional impact at specific moments in your solos.
For example, instead of simply bending a note and immediately applying vibrato, consider bending a note up to the perfect pitch, holding it with sustained tension, and then unleashing a bent-note vibrato precisely on a chord change. This creates dramatic emphasis and musical punctuation.
The timing of your ornamentation techniques is crucial for shaping your musical phrases and conveying emotion when you shred the guitar.
D) Combining Techniques: The Secret to Killer Sounds
This aspect, in reality, should be the starting point. The first step towards achieving exceptional note ornamentation is learning to combine techniques seamlessly.
You don’t just bend a note; you slide into the bend. You don’t simply perform a bent-note vibrato; you initiate with a bend, incorporate a slight “dip” in pitch, then transition into your bent-note vibrato.
Combining ornamentation techniques is the secret sauce to creating truly captivating and distinctive sounds in your guitar playing. This is the pathway to making listeners fall in love with not just your speed, but the soul and artistry you bring to your guitar shredding.
2) Music Theory Skills: Navigating the Musical Landscape
The ability to play a torrent of notes at lightning speed is undoubtedly impressive. However, equally crucial, and often overlooked, is knowing which notes to play at any given moment. No matter how fast you can shred the guitar, if you’re playing scales and notes that clash with the underlying harmony, the result will sound dissonant and musically jarring.
The theoretical foundation of guitar soloing can be distilled into three fundamental and easily applicable principles:
The First Rule of Guitar Soloing: Harmony Reigns Supreme
The underlying harmony, the chords and chord progressions, dictates the notes that are musically appropriate and effective to use in your solos. It also shapes how you can use those notes.
This first rule is more than just a technique; it’s a fundamental mindset shift. It’s about understanding and accepting that your soloing is always in dialogue with the harmonic foundation of the music.
The Second Rule of Guitar Soloing: Chord Tones are Your Melodic Anchors
Chord tones – the notes that make up the chords being played – are your melodic home base. They always sound harmonically consonant and provide the melodic framework for your solos. When you’re thinking about note choices, chord tones should be your primary reference point.
This is where a basic understanding of music theory becomes essential. If chord theory is new to you, I highly recommend exploring resources like this article on the music theory of chords.
To bring this back to the guitar fretboard, arpeggios are the practical way to access chord tones. Arpeggios are essentially the notes of a chord played individually, in sequence. By learning your arpeggio shapes across the fretboard, you gain immediate access to all the chord tones for any chord progression. This is incredibly powerful for crafting harmonically grounded solos when you shred the guitar.
This is a key reason why it’s so vital to learn scale and arpeggio patterns on the guitar rather than relying solely on tablature. Tablature can show you what to play, but patterns teach you why and how to apply musical concepts to the fretboard.
A solid foundational exercise for soloing is to practice improvising over a simple chord progression using only arpeggios. As the chords change, you switch to the corresponding arpeggio. This technique, known as “chord tone soloing,” is invaluable for training your ear to recognize consonant notes and for building a strong harmonic foundation for your shredding the guitar.
Exercise: Try soloing over a simple chord progression (e.g., Am – G – C – F) using arpeggios for each chord. Focus on making it sound musical and interesting – avoid simply running up and down the arpeggio patterns. Experiment with skipping around within the patterns, moving between different arpeggio shapes, and incorporating interesting rhythms.
The Third Rule of Guitar Soloing: Introducing Dissonance with Non-Chord Tones
While chord tones provide harmonic stability and consonance, relying solely on them can lead to predictable and, at times, less exciting solos. This is where non-chord tones come into play.
Non-chord tones are notes that are not part of the underlying chord. They introduce dissonance – harmonic tension – into your solos. Dissonance, when used tastefully and strategically, adds spice, color, and emotional depth to your playing.
While consonant chord tones always sound “good” in relation to the chord, dissonant non-chord tones require more careful handling. Played in the wrong context, they can sound jarring and unpleasant. However, in the right context, dissonance can be incredibly powerful and evocative.
You can find examples of effective non-chord tone usage in the melodic techniques section of this lesson on how to improve your improvising on guitar.
Generally speaking, your use of dissonance will sound musically effective if:
- Resolution: You move from a dissonant non-chord tone to a consonant chord tone. This creates a sense of tension and release.
- Enclosure: You “sandwich” a dissonant non-chord tone between two consonant chord tones. This creates a brief moment of tension within a consonant framework.
These are general guidelines to get you started with incorporating dissonance. There’s much more depth to explore in this area, which we can delve into another time!
It may seem like a lot to consciously manage in your mind while soloing, but with consistent practice and ear training, your note choices will become increasingly intuitive and driven by musical emotion rather than a purely analytical process. This is crucial for truly expressive guitar shredding.
Getting Started with Harmonically Sound Notes
The simplest and most effective starting point for using harmonically appropriate notes in your solos, especially when you’re learning to shred the guitar, is to master the minor pentatonic scale. The minor pentatonic scale is a versatile scale that is primarily composed of chord tones from minor chords, with the addition of a couple of strategically placed non-chord tones that are relatively easy to use effectively. It’s remarkably easy to make the minor pentatonic scale sound good in a variety of musical contexts.
For a beginner-friendly introduction to using this scale in improvisation, check out my beginners guide to improvising on guitar.
You can also combine the minor pentatonic scale with arpeggio patterns to create more sophisticated and harmonically rich solos. Explore this guide on how to integrate scales and arpeggios in your guitar playing for exercises and techniques to seamlessly blend scales and arpeggios in your shredding the guitar.
3) Essential Character Traits for Guitar Shredding Success
So far, we’ve focused heavily on the musical and technical requirements to shred the guitar. But what about you as an individual? What personal character traits are essential to cultivate in order to achieve your shredding aspirations?
The Indispensable Power of Discipline
No discipline, no skills. It’s a fundamental equation.
If you’re not willing to commit to consistent practice, day after day, for a sustained period of time (often years), you simply won’t acquire the complex skills necessary to shred the guitar at a high level.
The good news is that effective practice doesn’t have to be grueling or time-consuming. When you focus on practicing the right things, with targeted exercises and a structured approach, progress can be made with focused practice sessions of just 20-30 minutes per day.
However, it takes discipline to consistently sit down and dedicate that time to focused practice, even when motivation wanes or life gets busy. Reaching advanced levels of guitar skill is directly dependent on the daily investment of your practice time. We’ll delve deeper into the specifics of effective practice strategies another time.
The Unwavering Resolve of Perseverance
You must persevere. The journey to shred the guitar is not always linear and consistently upward.
There will inevitably be days when you lack motivation and simply don’t feel like practicing. There will be days when your playing sounds worse than usual, despite your efforts. There will be periods when life demands your attention, and finding time for guitar practice feels like an impossible juggling act.
But… you have to persevere through these challenges. The path to mastery is rarely smooth.
It will likely take longer than you initially anticipate to reach your shredding goals. But, perseverance is the only way forward. If you truly want to shred the guitar, there is no substitute for unwavering persistence.
If you give up when faced with challenges, you will never reach the level of skill you aspire to achieve. Perseverance is the fuel that will power you through the inevitable plateaus and setbacks on your guitar journey.
Cultivating Laser-Like Attention to Detail
Attention to detail is not just beneficial for guitar shredding; it’s absolutely essential.
If your musical aspirations are limited to playing a few basic Rolling Stones riffs or simple Nirvana songs, a certain level of sloppiness can be tolerated. You can often “get by” with less-than-perfect technique, occasional missed notes, and a somewhat imprecise sense of rhythm. It’s not necessarily a critical issue for those styles.
However, if you aspire to shred the guitar at a high level, you must cultivate a laser-like attention to detail in every aspect of your playing and practice.
This level of detail extends to every facet of your technique:
- Picking Hand Precision: Positioning your thumb on the pick with millimeter accuracy for optimal control and efficiency.
- Fretting Hand Accuracy: Positioning your fingers precisely on the strings, every single time, to ensure clean notes and avoid buzzing.
- Rhythmic Precision: Playing accurately on a millisecond timescale, developing impeccable timing and rhythmic feel.
- Consistent Technique: Maintaining control over every single element of your playing, from pick attack to finger pressure.
This level of meticulousness might initially sound overwhelming. However, when you consider that you have a significant timeframe – often several years – to train and refine your guitar playing, you actually have ample time to systematically address and master each detail. Breaking down the process into manageable steps and focusing on incremental improvement makes the seemingly daunting task of mastering detail achievable.
Nurturing an Inquisitive Mind and Asking “Why?”
Modern culture, unfortunately, often discourages deep inquiry and critical thinking. But if you are serious about developing your guitar playing and learning to shred the guitar, cultivating an inquisitive mind and asking “why?” is paramount.
If something in your playing doesn’t sound quite right, there is always a reason why. There is a specific aspect of your technique, approach, or understanding that is contributing to that less-than-desirable sound. And the empowering truth is that there are a limited number of variables that are typically responsible – all of which you can learn to identify and control.
You must develop the ability to critically analyze your own playing, to identify what you are doing incorrectly, and to systematically figure out how to correct it.
Here are examples of the types of questions you should be consistently asking yourself when you identify an issue in your guitar playing:
- Left Hand Mechanics: Is there something inefficient or incorrect in my left-hand technique (fretting, finger placement, pressure)?
- Right Hand Mechanics: Is my right-hand technique (picking motion, pick angle, pick depth) contributing to the problem?
- Rhythmic Understanding: Am I accurately internalizing and executing the rhythmic subdivisions and time feel of the music? Is my brain struggling to process the rhythmic information correctly?
- Theory Knowledge Gaps: Is my understanding of music theory insufficient to support the musical ideas I’m trying to express?
- Theory Application: Do I possess the theoretical knowledge, but my hands are not yet trained to apply it at the desired speed or fluency?
Whatever guitar playing challenge you encounter, remember that there is always a root cause, and you have the capacity to figure it out.
If you want to become a truly exceptional guitar shredder, you have to develop this problem-solving mindset.
Approach your practice like a scientist: Formulate a hypothesis about what might be causing the issue. Test your hypothesis through focused practice and experimentation. If your initial hypothesis doesn’t yield the desired results, refine your thinking, formulate a new hypothesis, and test again. Through this iterative process of inquiry and experimentation, you will eventually unravel the solution.
Seeking guidance from a qualified guitar teacher can be invaluable in accelerating this problem-solving process. However, a great teacher should be viewed as a guide to enhancing your critical thinking, not a substitute for it. The ultimate responsibility for analyzing and improving your playing rests with you.
Even when your playing is technically accurate, but you’re still not achieving the sounds you envision, continue to ask “why?”:
- Note Ornamentation Deficiencies: Do I need to refine and expand my repertoire of note ornamentation techniques to add more expression and character?
- Phrasing and Dynamics: Do I need to work on my musical phrasing and dynamic control to shape my solos more effectively?
- Scale and Harmonic Vocabulary: Do I need to learn new scales, arpeggios, or harmonic concepts to expand my musical palette?
- Improvisational Skills: Do I need to dedicate more focused practice to developing my [improvisation on guitar]({{ }}) abilities?
- Music Theory Toolbox: Are there specific music theory tools or concepts that I need to learn to unlock new musical possibilities?
“What If I Don’t Naturally Possess These Character Traits?”
It’s important to acknowledge that not everyone naturally embodies these character traits. You might be reading this and thinking, “What if I don’t inherently possess discipline, perseverance, attention to detail, or an inquisitive mind?”
Firstly, you might be further along in developing these traits than you realize. The very act of reading an article like this, seeking knowledge and solutions, demonstrates a degree of inquisitiveness and a desire for improvement.
Secondly, and more importantly, just because you don’t fully possess these character traits now doesn’t mean you can’t cultivate them in the future. Personal growth and development are always possible. It takes conscious effort and consistent work, but these traits can be developed.
I know from my own experience that I didn’t naturally possess all of these traits at the outset of my guitar journey. They are qualities that I have had to continuously work on refining and strengthening over time.
You can actively train these character traits into your personality. It requires consistent self-awareness and conscious effort. Expect to encounter setbacks and moments of discouragement along the way. But with persistent effort, you can gradually reshape your mindset and habits.
You can cultivate these traits by consciously applying them to your guitar playing and, more broadly, to your approach to life in general. Make a conscious effort to fix problems, figure things out, ask questions, and actively seek answers in all areas of your life. When you catch yourself engaging in intellectually passive behavior or avoiding challenges, gently redirect yourself and set your mind to work.
As a personal example, I recall analyzing a piece of music by Bach a few months ago. I encountered a single sharp note within the score. It took me two full days of focused analysis to fully understand why that sharp was present in that specific musical context. But that dedication to figuring it out, to asking “why?” and persevering until I found the answer, is precisely the type of inquisitive mindset that fuels growth, not just in music but in all areas of life.
Take the time to truly figure things out. Embrace the challenges, ask the tough questions, and never stop seeking deeper understanding. This is the path to not only shredding the guitar but also to personal mastery and growth.
Conclusion
This has been a comprehensive overview of what it truly takes to shred the guitar. Developing the necessary technique, music theory knowledge, and character traits is a journey that unfolds over years of dedicated practice and focused effort. Reflect on the points we’ve discussed. Which areas resonate most strongly with you right now? Which aspects of your playing will you prioritize working on first as you continue your quest to unleash your inner guitar virtuoso and shred the guitar?
