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.