How to Shred Guitar at Warp Speed
Sep 4th, 2009
I've been playing the guitar for a long time. I started when I was twelve - I'm 34 now - learning "Smoke on the Water"by Deep Purple. After a week of constantly practicing the chorus using bar chords untill my timing was perfect I realized that this was it! This was what I wanted to do with my life!
And so it went on year after year from Jimmy Hendrix and Led Zeppelin to Guns and Roses then Iron Maiden, Queen, Metallica, Van Halen, you name it! If the music had fast lead guitar I was there listening to it.
I had a natural talent for the guitar but I found that I had limits. I couldn't play all of the faster lead guitar that my heroes could on there recordings. The harder I tried to play these fast ideas the more impossible they became. Sometimes I would practice 8 hours straight and be no closer to reaching my goal of playing lightning fast. Does this sound familiar to anyone reading this?
This became even worse when I would attempt lead guitar by artists like Yngwie Malmsteen. I can play Yngwie Malmsteens song "I am a Viking" note for note perfect without even breaking a sweat now. But, back then this was impossible for me and not through lack of trying or ability.
For a few years I gave up trying to play as fast as Malmsteen. I started telling myself loser negative comments like "He's just born better and faster" or "I could never be that good so why bother" and "I'm just better at rythm guitar than lead" as well as "He probably started younger than me so I can never become that good as I started too late".
Luckily I did keep playing the guitar and worked on semi fast blues playing and a nice wide vibrato similar to Vai in the movie "Crossroads". I could always play fast on one string using ideas largely borrowed from Kirk Hammet of Metallica. Still, anything fast that involved string skipping scared the crap out of me especially around other people who would say "Wow that's really fast" while inside I would be embarrassed because I knew that I had only barely been able to play it or sometimes I would make mistakes and hope that no one noticed. In essence I felt like a fraud!
The thing is it didn't matter if other people noticed or not. I knew! I knew that I wasn't able to play fast solos properly and it pissed me off that I wasn't good enough.
Well that nightmare scenario is now very much in the past for me and I want to talk about the principles that increased my limits of guitar speed by alot!
A common and Major mistake that new players make is to try and play everything fast too soon. By doing this they develop bad timing habits which are a symptom of another common and Major mistake which is tensing the muscles in the picking and fretting hands. I can see how the problem develops in young players. Think about it; you're listening to loud adrenaline enhancing Rock and Metal that makes you want to jump around head banging and pumping your fist in the air, so it's only natural that this attitude flows over into guitar technique.
The solution for this is to be more like a wise tai chi master or budhist monk. You make all your movements fluid and relaxed. You only use the exact amount of energy required for any guitar technique. You step outside of the chaos of the music and let it flow out of you in an almost detached fashion. When I am blazing up and down the fretboard I think of nothing just “what is”.
This is why when I was younger I could never play really fast. I was super tense if anything. I would attempt to crush any failure by tensing up even more.
So start practicing any piece you want to learn very slowly in a relaxed way. Use a metronome to keep steady timing or use TAB sofware like Guitar Pro or Power Tab which have built in functions to play a piece of music at a slow pace. This is the time for you to do any serious thinking about your technique, how you hold the pick, using the most efficient energy conserving movements and hand positions. So take it slow at first and you will be playing lightning fast guitar in no time.
Thanks for reading this article. I will be be submitting more on the subject of guitar technique in the near future.
If you are interested in more information on my guitar teaching methods I do have an ebook available with MP3's titled Shred Lords – Neoclassical Guitar available at my website www.jameserceg.com. If you are serious about a career in music working as a professional guitar player I would recommend the Music Careers Mentoring Course run by Tom Hess at http://tomhess.net/.
thank you for posting this article! as a private teacher, I’ve found that you’re exactly right… most young players don’t have the patience to practice slowly enough to get that fluidity into their technique. No matter what you are playing, I always tell my students that they should learn the piece at no more than half tempo, and for faster passages, start out at even less than that. Also, thanks for tapping into that frustration that we all feel trying to get to a high level of technical ability… too many teachers/authors neglect that, and as a result, some young players give up hope, thinking that they are the only ones who feel this way. 2 thumbs up!
Thanks for your feedback Jacob. You are so right about the younger students lacking patience. It really is great to see them make improvements in their technique once they grasp the idea. Great to hear from a fellow teacher
Thanks for posting this, I’m a real beginner (played a bit for just over a year) and so it’s good to hear about someone else’s learning pains and then gains.
Cheers!
Yes it was definitely a struggle at times but it really pays off to stick with it.
Keep practicing Andrew and you will certainly reach your goal
Patience is definitely crucial, but unfortunately far too many beginners are scared of sounding bad in the early stages, which greatly hinders their progress. It’s crucial to constantly push past our comfort zone with new chords, progressions, and even genres.
Speaking of that, shredding is an amazing technique to build our skills! =)
Thanks for the post James,
Kyle
Thanks Kyle. Shredding will definitely push you to your limits speed wise. Even if your goal is to play slower Blues or Rock learning to shred at some point in the learning curve will increase a players comfort zone so they can improve in other areas such as showmanship and stage presence.
So many beginners seem to just be so anxious that they have a hard time realizing you have to start slow first. Patience and determination are the key to super speed
Starting off slow first will allow the student to speed up later on as they gain experience. It is just like learning how to ride a bike. You start with training wheels, and with experience are able to scale steep slopes like mountains. This metaphor applies to the speed of playing the guitar as well.
Hello! Ive been playing guitar for 7 years or so.In this time Ive changed my picking hand technique 3 times, I think. Right now, for the last year and a half Ive been playing Gilbert/Gambale style, but Im having problems playing fast, accurate etc.
I know practicing slow is the right way, but my right hand has problems playing beyond 120bpm. Thats 16th notes.
My practice sessions look like this: If I practice single string stuff (or any other lead chops), I start at 80bpm, whole notes. But no matter how much I try I cant get past the 120bpm barrier. I usually practice as slow as I can, chords also.
20days a month I spend between 4-8 hours practicing, no playing at all, just mechanics.
Is my progress that slow, because of the years I didnt focus on mechanics and just played with alot of gain to cover my really bad technique?
Im spending so much time practicing, my life suffers. I feel down, cause there is no progress.
Luke…. Ive been playing for over 10 years now and only just started shredding now!, i know what your going through i had the same deal for about 2 years straight and couldnt figure it out, i can already see just by what you have written that you are frustrated. you have to do almost exactly what James has said and approach your goal how a buddist would, sounds bit weird but think about it your going into you practice already thinking “i cant get past this speed”, before you start playing try and completely relax, any built up frustration or anger affects your playing. i only started playing fast when i stopped caring what people thought about my playing and i just took it nice and easy. i never picked up the guitar if i was pissed off or stressed because it hinders bad technique. you dont see buddist or people of that nature doing anything at a fast pace, its always slow and theraputic and positive.
Trust me if you approach guitar in this way you will see big improvements, you may even have to change something in your life to do so like your job or relationship,
thats what i did and im killing it now, pretty much need fire department on stand by ha ha soon you will too.
think positive!!!!!
Hey Ryan!
I know. Everything you wrote is true, but since Im the generation of fast food and computer games, Im used to get thing done in a day. Therefore I have had no patience…this is solved now.
Since the frustrations, Ive managed to set my mind to actually accept that guitar playing and perfection will come with time. Ive set a five year goal to achieve that, with the main focus on accuracy.
Im still practicing alot, but instead of thinking how much time I spend practicing and get no result, Im patient and wait. Rome wasnt built in a day and this is very true, when it comes to mastering art.
Also,my right hand has more and more stamina…and as I practice, I feel more and more comfortable with my instrument.
lol…After reading your post I thought about all the time I spent doing ALL the same exercises , scales , etc and then years later discovered that “LESS IS MORE”. Let me explain…for years I played Hendrix , Malmsteen, Vai and so forth until I hit an impasse, where nothing improved. Then I saw on You tube, JOE PASS…. There was the answer all along…as you play for so long you become ingrained in your “training”. You become like an athlete instead of an artist. We are making music , art not going for the Olympic gold medal in who can fit the most notes into a millisecond. Sure its still cool to shred but I watched so many on YouTube that cant put a song together to save their lives…I cant even remember their names! Going back to listening for quality instead of shear quantity turned me back on to listening for “the sweet notes” instead of machine gun sounding solos without a point…
Improvements only come/ came after inspiration not challenge to GO FASTER….
Dude- you are a buddhist monk. you need to put up this post where people can read it and actually improve. you nailed it. regards, ash