Originally Posted by: SuperhumanSeriously, if you like 'shred' music, do yourself a huge favour and get "Perpetual Burn" by Jason Becker (Marty Friedman plays some amazing guest solos too) and "Defying Gravity" by Vinnie Moore - listen to how they put solos together from soulful slow sections and dramatic themes to all out crazy runs and arpeggiated sequences. I only started improving after I really started listening closely to great players. I now try to work a solo out in my head before I start playing because if keeps me from playing the same robotic patterns and runs that I used to practice when I started playing. Using this approach, I now find that writing solos takes longer but the little time I get to play is way more productive. Hope that helps!

A great way to go about it - and pay particularly close attention to people like Marty Friedman, as Superhuman mentioned, and Joe Satriani. The mark of a good "shredder", IMO, is the ability to use dazzling techniques in such a way that they feel like a natural progression in the melody, and few players do this like Satriani and Friedman.