Blues or Shred?

Ive decided to start furthering my knowledge of my playing technique and take lessons of a different style of music than im really used to playing, and i was wondering what everyone here would think would help me out more with my overall playing. Blues, or Shred? Im personally very slightly leaning towards the Blues and than later learning more about shredding but i was wondering what all you people think about it.

It really all depends on the style of music you prefer to listen to. For me...personally...I'd take blues lessons over shred lessons any day. Of course if I had the option of jazz lessons I'd take those. To me it seems like there are enough shredders these days and not enough blues players. Of course I'll admit i'm not actively searching for new blues musicians.

Id take blues. Shred is to impersonal IMO.

I assume since you posed this question as you did that you're equally interested in each style. My advice, then, would be not to learn one at the detriment of the other. This is purely a question of where you want your playing to take you.

Man I would take shred lessons any day. People say shred is impersonal, that's very untrue, check out Jason Becker for a start. What's more, if you learn to play shred, then you will have the tools to play ANYTHING. It covers all techniques in a strictly musical framework and generally spans the entire fretboard. Learn shred and apply your technical ability to blues. Just my advice.

Originally Posted by: SuperhumanMan I would take shred lessons any day. People say shred is impersonal, that's very untrue, check out Jason Becker for a start. What's more, if you learn to play shred, then you will have the tools to play ANYTHING. It covers all techniques in a strictly musical framework and generally spans the entire fretboard. Learn shred and apply your technical ability to blues. Just my advice.

yup what he said!! :cool:

Well look at my name, guess what style i play?!! (for the stupid people who couldn't look up above this post ,its blues_man.) I like playin the blues, i just seem to like to jamming and playing it more than shredding. That's just me though, I play some shred just to impress retarded people who think speed is skill. dont get me wrong, i dont hate shredding. I just get more of a kick out of playing blues than shredding.

blues players can shred just look at SRV, Jimi page hendrix clapton slash gary m .... yes they are not as fast as satriani but not all the shreders are good playing blues or anything with feeling and good taste i.e Malmsten michael angelo.

[font=trebuchet ms]I used to burn up the board, but I just didn't find it very satisfying. Eventually, I was secure enough about my skills that I could kick back and play bluesy, jazzy stuff just for the pure joy of it. Any more, it ain't worth a thing if it don't have that swing! I can listen all night to a master working within the limits imposed by that I IV V format, and never feel that I might have missed something by some frantic shredmeister.

Yeah, I'm an old fart, but I've done some crazy scenes along the way to here, and it was well worth the trip. Blues is where it's at for me. I think anyone who works hard enough on their technique can shred. But there's something very special about someone who can really play the Blues.[/font] :cool:

IMO, learn blues first so you know all the phrasing and stuff. Once you get better with the blues, the skill to shred will come naturally as you'll get more and more accurate with your fingering.

Shredding with no knowledge of phrasing will get you nowhere. See, you get to play about 100 notes a second, but which notes? You'll end up going up & down scales which is pointless to do & boring to hear.

Just remember, shredding will come naturally as you'll get more experience (usually after a month or two). Learning to phrase and play soulfully takes a lot more practice (years, likely).

Originally Posted by: kevinadiIMO, learn blues first so you know all the phrasing and stuff. Once you get better with the blues, the skill to shred will come naturally as you'll get more and more accurate with your fingering.

Shredding with no knowledge of phrasing will get you nowhere. See, you get to play about 100 notes a second, but which notes? You'll end up going up & down scales which is pointless to do & boring to hear.

Just remember, shredding will come naturally as you'll get more experience (usually after a month or two). Learning to phrase and play soulfully takes a lot more practice (years, likely).

Thats the whole point. If you learn shred properly and can think outside of the box you won't be just playing scales up and down, that's what good shred is all about. That's why I mentioned Jason Becker as an example. Allthough plenty of guys have copied him, few have been able to add the soul to their skills the way he did. That's why he is such an inspiration to all of the great players that followed. By learning, I obviously mean be learning to play intelligently. TO my ear, the vaste amount of blues players just fiddle around a boring pentatonic which ends up sounding the same all the time BUT I do admit, there are the "Beckers" of the blues world too who can make their music shine. I hate when people say shred is for ignorant people and speed is stupid, that's ridiculous. There is a lot of skill involved and with the right mind behind the fingers it can be every bit as emotive as blues.

this is a very heated argument.

i dont very much lean eather side, because each is very important and each can help you with the other.

blues can help you feel out the notes and improvise more
shredding can help you get different sounds out of your guitar and help you know scales.

so both are very important. do them both.

I plan on learning both at some point or another, but what im really looking for is an opinion about what you think a bettewr foundation style of playing would be. But at the moment, im starting to lean more and more towards the blues.

In my experience, Blues is something that comes a little more naturally, while shred takes diligant practice. For instance, for awhile I wanted to play lickety split shred style, but when in doubt, my fingers would pull some blues lick. But then that was my 1st style to learn too, so...I dunno. I kinda agree with trying to learn shred 1st, if not both styles simultaneously. They both have their virtuosos and their wankers.

Its good to know to shred, actually I recomend to learn how to shred. Any guitarist should know how to do basic sweeps, legato runs, and alternate pick. It always adds spice in your playing.

Yet, that doesnt mean you have to abuse it and call youself a shredder.

There has been alot of discussing about this issue and alot of people bag people about shredding. I dont blame them, because sometimes,shredding does get redundent. But learning how to play fast is nothing bad, infact its always good to learn new things.

Therefore, shredding itself is nothing to be frowned upon, but rather encouraged. But alot of people may abuse it and subsitute it for other aspects of guitar which causes heat and contraversy.

It seems that in general people, myself included, have generalized the term "blues" and "shred" into:

blues: slow playing, lots of feeling.

shred: fast playing, lots of technique.

Seeing that this seems to be the case, this just seems wrong. Everybody that plays anything resembling a musical instrument would need both to master it. You can't play with feeling if you have zero technique, no matter how slow.

My suggestion is to ignore the terms "blues" or "shred". It's useless and as you can see, confuse you. Just learn the techniques, learn the music theories, and let other people worry about the classification of what you're doing. If the technique you want to learn is in "shred" territory, then so be it. If the scale you like is in "blues", then by all means learn it. Don't be over concerned if what you end up doing is actually "jazz".

The faster I can play, the less I play fast. :confused:

Originally Posted by: crazyguyThe faster I can play, the less I play fast. :confused:

Try tilting your head a little to the right.....a little more.....more. Ok play it again. :D

:cool: blues is playing with feel whereas shredding is about technique although I suppose out of technique could come emtion. the question is whether you can say more with one well placed note than 100?

Its hard to defend just one side, Because both style and technique is important and essential to learn. IF you really want to be a complete and a versatile guitarist, you must have a knowledge of their components and the theory behind them..coz the mixture of both is needed to produce excellent and catchy guitar sound.

I think it just depend on your personal taste and priorities whether your inclined to be a blues man or a shredder. But you cant ignore the knowledge behind each style. The best way is to learn whats important in each style and incorporate them to what type of music you want.

For example if your a blues man learn shred techniques like the basic sweeps, alternate picking, tapping, etc to polish the techniques that youve already acquired and learned in blues. Same as if your a shredder, you can learn the phrasing, bends and different scale patterns which sound good if you mix it with speed.

In the end it really doesnt matter if its blues or shred, whats important is to produce quality guitar music, make it sound good and improve our guitar playing like the guitar masters did. Page, Hendrix, SRV, Vai, Van Halen, Malmsteen and the rest. ;)