shredding and scales

Well I am confuse about shreding. First I thought it was a power chord being alternately pick. Second a friend told me its a very fast solo and the third is a muted sweeping. Could anyone tell me which is which...

Second thing is I just discovered that G major scale have the same notes as E minor. the only difference is their root notes(JUst by moving the root note 1 1/2 step down. Is this applicable to all other scales.?

shredding is a style of playing not a technique really, it uses lots of techniques (most of which i cant do yet) like tapping, arpeggios, etc.

you may be able to use the teqniques you said in shred but shred is more a style, like yngwie malmsteen he plays shred/neoclassical, steve vai plays shred.

in a way it is like fast solo'ing but more a whole song with techniques spaced out & more structured rather than a 40 second long solo, which a lot of guitarists try to get every technique under the sun into & lose a lot of the structure & drive.

go to this page and watch the video's of this guy he is playing a type of shred, he is very good, i recommend the quest clip, its amazing, its very technical yet very structured & rhythmical

Originally Posted by: joe scaleneSecond thing is I just discovered that G major scale have the same notes as E minor. the only difference is their root notes(JUst by moving the root note 1 1/2 step down. Is this applicable to all other scales.?

Yeah. Usually the harmonic (or melodic) minor scale is used instead. Just because the E minor scale can sound too much like G major. Both the HM and MM scales have a tonality that sets for a different and more minor quality.

If you take any major scale it's the exact same scale as the minor scale of the note three semitones(frets) down.

Does that mean if a song is based on the Gmajor you can use the E minor?

Originally Posted by: joe scaleneDoes that mean if a song is based on the Gmajor you can use the E minor?

Sure , but you have to know which note you choose to be the root.

or you can stick an extra note on top of the scale and transform it into the dorian scale of the note above the scale you are playing.

i.e. Add a "D" to a C pentatonic scale and you have a D dorian in stead which fits a C (i) (iv) (v) progression perfectly

Hold on a mo, Im not sure this is correct, I need to think about this a bit more

Originally Posted by: joe scaleneDoes that mean if a song is based on the Gmajor you can use the E minor?

Yeah it's called bimodality. But you have to make sure that the harmony is G (using a cadence in G) major, and the solo uses E as it's root. And that there not one in the same...

Or you can just go Chromatic and find the harmonies and runs that sound best, ya never know, you might find 'H'! :D