I cannot get my shredding up to speed. I can slowly tear, but not shred yet. Any advice? What does it take?

12 hours a day for 10 years?
Metronome or no?

Tell me how you did it.

Most musicians will tell you that the way to play fast is to practice playing slow. And yes, 10 hours a day won't hurt either! As a drummer I can tell you that playing slow and precise is very important. Timing is also extremely important, so yes, play with a metronome, click track, backing track, whatever you can get. I am also a guitarist and I can definitely tell you that the same is true for playing guitar. The better your form and technique is, the better player you will be, and as a result of all that, you will gain speed as well. Sorry buddy, there are no short cuts.

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Like Hollis Prince said,there are no short cuts in playing fast,you'll find that just about every shredder ever interviewed said that they started off slowly-with a metronome usually-and gradually built up speed.As a car repair ad used to say"First you get good-then you get fast."Personally I'd spend more time on technique than speed as to my ears most of these 40 notes a second guys sound alike to me anyway.

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When I first started to work on shredding I always thought it was fretboard fingers that I needed to work on I was wrong the main thing is your picking control. I always use a heavy pick. What I do to build up speed is on the D string I will do 8-9-11 fret and with your pick hand start slow down up down up and slowly increase speed just keep working at it. It wont happen over night. Once you get a this down then you can work on adding more.

I've been playing bluegrass for about 25 years and just now getting into electric.

A lot of bluegrass is really fast.

One thing I learned early on, it's better to slow it down a little bit and play it clean than it is to go faster than your skill level and have a train wreck.

Practice speed a number of ways. One thing I did and still do for a warm up is start with open high E string (do not move your fretting hand, just your fingers) on the down stroke, on the up stroke, use index finger on fret 1, down stroke middle finger fret 2, upstroke ring finger fret 3, down stroke pinkie finger on fret 4 , now move your hand so your index finger is on fret 5 and repeat all the way up the neck, then back down the neck, when you hit the e string open, move to the B string and repeat until you go all the way up and down the neck on the low E string. Over time, you'll get really fast at this drill and should be able to play it as 1/8 notes up and down the neck at over 200bpm and faster.

However, when you're playing in front of an audience, don't attempt to play a tune any faster than you're comfortable. 99% of the people in the audience won't know the difference, but 100% will notice a train wreck if you crash and burn.

Some flatpicking stuff in bluegrass, I'll play at 250bpm at home and slow it down to 180bpm when I'm out in front of people just to be sure I play it clean.

Never been into shredding, I assume that's playing fast up and down the neck??? Remember, I'm a bluegrass player and frustrated blues man. Other than style differences, a note is a note is a note and fundamental picking techniques are the same.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

No need for 10 hours a day, your body and brain only have the potential to increase a certain amount each day. You will get just as fast doing exercises for 30 min. to an hour each day and you won't burn yourself out. Start with simple chromatic runs all along the neck, work at this until you reach 112 (4/4) with a metronome. There are lots of free metronomes on the web. If you're not playing clean slow down, that is very important. Now work on your major and pentatonic scales and get them up to speed. Also, this is a good time to work on double and triple picking and variations on the chromatic scale. For example, skipping strings, moving your position three or four frets or more, and making up your own exercises that challenge your weaknesses. Do this for an hour a day and you will be shredding all over the place.

When you want to play fast you must relax and use a medium to light touch, if you tense up you will slow down. Pay very close attention to your technique and let each note come through. Play clean through an amp. You can set the amp to hear your mistakes, no reverb, turn the treble up a little and so on.

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Thanks for all the great tips, everyone!

So, I guess it is hard for me to know at what point to try to push myself to go faster.

Should I be deciding to just push faster a little from time to time, or just not try to push and let it happen without even trying to push?

I notice when I try to push faster I get tense and that messes things up.

That is what a metronome is for. Keep turning up the speed until you start screwing up, then back off until you can play it clean with focus and effort. Practice at that pace until it feels easy then turn up the speed a little at a time. Repeat.

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Ask the ShredDemon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKf3OXIEPmM

It´s all about muscle memory, repeating a lick over and over again your hands and fingers do the thing on their own. You will build up speed as soon as your fingers learned the patterns.
It isn´t really important how fast you play when learning, that´s why it is best to learn playing/learning slow and clean.

Cheers,
Robin

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That guy's speed is amazing. I would like to hear it clean though, to hear how much the effects add to the over all perception of speed. Also, I wonder if these guys can start slowly and play up to that speed or if they have normal/fast then jump to overdrive. You see some of them change their grip and then jump into hyper-drive.

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Sorry to say but that's just noise.

Jeff

It´s over the top, no question.
But David is absolutely amazing and he is playing in a very melodical way.
Here´s a video from him showing some licks to learn, starting slow and half and full speed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nCvlcIIu3I

Cheers,
Robin

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Why not spend all that time learning how to play things that sound good?

Instead of wasting all that time learning how to cram all those notes that mean nothing into a single measure.

I just cannot comprehend how anyone can stand listening to that for more than 3 seconds. It's actually anoying to the human ear.

Well, you don´t have to. The thread is about shredding so it does make sense.
I am not into shredding and I really like more of that oldschool Hardrock and Heavy stuff but guitar shredding is part of learning other ways to play a guitar, like Blues or Jazz.

Peace,
Robin

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I'm not sure if I would compare it with blues or jazz. It's just a technique that can be used to enhance some music or ruin it, in some cases.
What if someone posted a solo called "Demonic Bends" and the entire song was one long bend after another. That would be about the same idea as what we have here. Phrasing and dynamics are so much more important, however playing fast (shredding) does have its place. To do it nonstop is just silly.

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