Is shredding such a bad thing??

[slukather]

The purpose of being a good musician, IMO, is to communicate a message. Playing one thing over and over and over, regardless of the style, is comparable to speaking the same sentence over and over and over. After a while, it just loses it's meaning if you don't mix other sentences in with it.

Too many musicians of all styles think that they can speak the same sentence over and over, or perhaps just mix the same words up. They think the audience is supposed to hear something different and new even though the essence of what the audience hears never changes.

Hopefully this makes sense.

This is a great explaination.

Scott.

 

[phatduckk]

The purpose of being a good musician, IMO, is to communicate a message. Playing one thing over and over and over, regardless of the style, is comparable to speaking the same sentence over and over and over. After a while, it just loses it's meaning if you don't mix other sentences in with it.

Too many musicians of all styles think that they can speak the same sentence over and over, or perhaps just mix the same words up. They think the audience is supposed to hear something different and new even though the essence of what the audience hears never changes.

Hopefully this makes sense.

well put

 

[hbucker]

Thanks guys. Sometimes I wonder whether or not I make sense.

Or maybe I don't and you're just as crazy as I am...?

 

[Supreeth]

The purpose of being a good musician, IMO, is to communicate a message. Playing one thing over and over and over, regardless of the style, is comparable to speaking the same sentence over and over and over. After a while, it just loses it's meaning if you don't mix other sentences in with it.

Too many musicians of all styles think that they can speak the same sentence over and over, or perhaps just mix the same words up. They think the audience is supposed to hear something different and new even though the essence of what the audience hears never changes.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Well put. I am a fan of shred, but the repetitiveness among shredders tends to put me off (and that's not taking away anything from the great shredders) Here are some reasons I feel many great technical guitarists sound repetitive

1. Shred guitar has its roots in the violin especially with the use of sweep arppegios and quick runs. A guitar player can be extremely fast but he/she has to wake up to the reality that a guitar fretboard is much bigger when compared to the violin. Many violin pieces can only be approximated on the guitar (Paganini's Caprice #24 is a case in example.) I guess what I'm trying to say is that the guitar tends to put limits on what music can be played fast. You cannot play a lightning fast arpeggio that startes from the open E string (low) to the 24th fret of the high E string as fluidly as you can play on the violin. We guitarists have the space of four fingers (or 8 if you include two handed tapping) to play really fast in no matter how much or how fast we shift positions. It is VERY hard to be versatile when playing at really high speeds!

2. Guitarists tend to get stuck in areas that they are really good at, and it's hard to break out of this mode. It all has to do with the "comfort zone" of the guitarist.

Hope this makes sense guys. Any comments would be cool.

 

[tsl2000]

envy?

the only people that cut down shredding are people who cant do it.shredding is great,it shows real skill level,you know these guys spent time practicing.true,you can't do it all the time,but when strategically placed,it's awesome.

 

[MrHyde]

I can't shredd....well not anymore..... but I will again!!!.
I think that part of shredding apreciation comes if the listener is a guitar player or not, as a guitar player u can actually tell if that stuff u r hearing is praise worthy or not, if u are another simple common mortal ( non guitar player ) it depends on your musical tastes, I was at work the other day with my mp3 player and put paradigm shift to my boss and this smoking hot girl my boss plays guitar but he is into zep and that kind of stuff not used to fast playing, and the girl well....lets just say that she is blonde.... ( figuratibly speaking lol ), they both didn't understood a bit.... lets say that the didn't were used to listen to this stuff, my boss well he kinda liked it the girl.... well she was busting my balls and making fun of me ( like I cared.... ). My stand point? well, I think that shredding is pretty cool is u know how to make it fit in a particular passage melodical phrase or song, I think Petrucci said something like that in his video, something like u have to make whats right for the song, I mean not just throw a bunch of notes in the right key or the right chord.... u have to built the momentum, then shredding is tastefull and enjoyable, if not..... well u r gonna bore people after a couple of minutes....

I think Lucious said a good statement about shredding in his Starlicks vid, he said that when he was young we wanted to be the fastes guitar player in the word, and later he realized that is cool to have the technique but for the stuff he was playing with the band ( toto ) he was into a more melodic approach...or somthing like that...
I aggre with both Lucious and Petrucci, If u want and can play fast its totally awesome and is something that not everyone can do so it makes it cooler if u ask me BUT u have to play for the sake of the song, play with feeling and throw some flashy stuff here and there to spice it up and make things intersting, like Rossana's solo one of my all time favorites like Lucious said it starts pretty simple and it builts up to this more worked out finale, That what it all about I u ask me.....

 

[tsl2000]

well said

well said mr hyde,only guitar players appreciate certain types of playing....usually. i have friends that never really noticed certain things until i point them out,then they seem to apreciate them more.(shredding for example.)

 

[ripley]

well said mr hyde,only guitar players appreciate certain types of playing....usually. i have friends that never really noticed certain things until i point them out,then they seem to apreciate them more.(shredding for example.)

this is very true. a number of my friends have admitted over the years that I've turned them into closet shread guitar fans. usually the exact statement is, "I used to only listen to the words - I never really paid attention to the guitars before..."