stupid question to shredders...

I am wondering, can people who shred like yngwie/vai/satriani/ or whoever, people even on this board...can they take a speed lick, practice it for a bit and have it mastered? sorry for the dumb question, im just curious...

Well, that's the idea. You take a lick, and after a while, you have it down so well that you can play it totally fast, without really thinking about it.
People who shred have worked so much that this process is really short, and they can master a lick and play it fast almost immediately.

well I'm not a shredder yet but once i master conected arpeggios i will be but dude it depends on how much time u put in. I 've had this weird abilty to "see" tunes - i can picture the stuff in my head so that when i want to pick up a song by ear it taks a few minutes. But that comes with hrs of practice over a few years. Don't worry in a few years time u'll be laughing at yngwi and vai and satch cause u'll be better ;). If it makes u feel better - a friend of mine named Will can play almost any song by vai and satch and he was playing yngwi last year ... and he's only 14! i gave him lessons at one point but he got so good thats i got embarassed to teach him anything else. I'm aiming to be at his level by the age of 19 at least - a good 1 and a half years from now.

lol, well ive been playing for almost 7 years now, and im 18. I can play the freebird solo pretty well, but im working on crossroads solo. I am having a lot of trouble speeding up the arpeggios, and after that when he goes into the main lick, my speed is minimal. I was just wondering because i would like to be that fast one day, thanks..

well, mungy, that does not make ME feel much better. playing yngwie and vai at an age of 14 is just too hilarous to be true!! I´ve been playing for olmost 5 years now, and im faar away from playing anything like yngwie or even vai. guess i have to doo some more practice =)

Yeah. There was a guitar licks contest here a while back, any age competition. There were 20 contestants. In the end a 16 year old kid won. I couldnt believe how good he was. He beat 30 and 40 year old men who were tearing it up. I contacted him shortly after and he said that he has been playing for almost 3 years! i couldnt believe it. anyways, i guess with enough practice, that type of speed is reachable.

ahahaha k bro my bad.... i'll try to be more sensitive next time. Some ppl have the knack for shredding. i've been playing electric for a year and i'm waaay better on an acoustic - but hey i'm only 17. theres a king shredder on this board he's the 18 year old. Thh crossraods solo isn't easy. I always mess up at the ending bit (we're taliking about the part when the little kid plays the fast stuff and vai throws a fit and chucks geetar on the ground rite? and he starts hopping (victory dance)around after he pisses vai off yeah? ) well the endings way past the 15 fret and its easy to mess up there. check dis out i've been playing for 6 years now and i'm like the blink 182 geetarist compared to the 18 yr old shredder here. man!

Who cares any way ... i'll put up a post regarding nu metal and shredding ... i've cracked it.

anyways don't look at us as overbearing status symbols -- just play for the sake of playing not getting better overnight. That Will guy i was talking about hates his geetar now. He's never had the experiance of writting his own song or his own solo's and he's stuck with all this knowlege he doesn't know where to go. He's what we call the synthetic drone - he lacks creativity - look at him now (well u can't he lives in my block) - any wayz ... play what u feel like playing and u'll get where u want to go.

thats what happens alot of times to kids who practice only because they want to 'get better', they don't realize that getting better is not just picking up the guitar, and robotically playing a fast guitar lick.

with me, i dont have a "MUST PRACTICE" rule, but out of both curiosity and creativity and enjoyment i pick it up and play, several hours a day. im no speed king, although it would be nice, im content where im at.

Im no song king either, im what you would call the anti-synth drone, i make my own stuff up, i have probably 2 sets worth of songs made (most arent completed yet...like i need to get lyrics, or start writing lyrics soon...)

but hey, creativity is king in the land of Guitar, and there ARE people who are without it.

edit-
*** i do know my theory though, so its not like i just make up crap that i dont know whats goin on***

What's this crossroads thing anyway, some film I ought to see I guess.. ?

A film that has a guitar duel featuring steve VAI. The tune of the duel is the 5th caprice by Paganini arranged for the guitar.

the problem with all those kids is that they burn their desire to play..
many of them quit guitar playing after some time because they play too much in the beginning..
thats why we have only few good shreders around the world.. anyone will be able to play fast enough after some practice but to be realy insane sherder you have to have the desire for playing all the time..

Im not sure where exactly my comments fit in here but.. I wouldnt be suprised at a 14 year old beating 30s 40s in competitions, even if he'd only been playing for under three years.
I started learning guitar 1 and 3/4 years ago, within the first few months i could play songs like sweet child o mine. Such an eachievement people on the net (mite have been this forum infact) didnt believe me. Sweet child mightnt a masterpiece but the soloing is very fast and requires a really good technique. Is that good? I honestly dont know! Mind you, I know sum people who have strummed guitar for 10 years only to know a few chords and never to venture of into scales and riffing.
Im not trying to imply Im great, nor do I think it but I just dont get whats up with some people. I probably couldnt play Malnsteen, then again I havent tried. Ive heard his stuff and it sounds good as elevator music(joke) but I dont wana learn it.
Also, is freebird noted as a hard song to play? Its one of my fave skynyrd songs but i dont think its particularly fast! The outro is repetitive and slow in comparison to Paradise City by Guns n Roses. Paradise City is far better, better riffs in the solo, faster, not repetitve, why cant people admit guns were amazing! Why do people use freebird as an example? did they invent the cliche riffs used then and now in todays rock guitar?
Later

Ps. I play for a couple of hours everyday, not missed a single day actually, do people like me really get bored eventually? quicker than less frequent players?

Well, in my opinion, The solo to freebird is pretty hard. I mean, if you can play it, good, but if you can play it perfectly then that is impressive. No, its not the fastest solo, or has the hardest licks, but it does entail different techniques (fast picking, hammer ons, pull offs, string skipping, etc.). Anywhoo, thats my greatest accomplishment on guitar, is learning that solo. But, maybe its not that impressive after all.

I looked over it again, the solo, and Im sure the other solos you can play are harder. I dont play free bird solo note for note, it defeats the purpose, i just learned the scale and the "special moves" used in it. How long have you been playing? what other songs can you play?

I've been a "shredder" shortly after I started playing in 1980, and am now at a point where I can pick out imperfections in a players playing... Be it Vai, Satch, or Yngwie(not hard to do in his case). I'm not bragging...my point is - dont make this the only goal you set for yourself and your playing - someday "shredding" will not give you the goosebumps it once did. Rhythm guitar and composition are more intresting to me these days.

Yeah the beauty of famous musicians is that the local band that played in your pub/club can be just as good players, often better. Rock is about personality, thats why rock stars are idolized!

I know that shredding is not the only goal i should set. There are probably 100 different things that i need to learn and relearn. But, playing fast is what has been interesting me lately (hehe, the past couple of years really). I do know that it is not as important as other stuff, but it would be nice to have it under your belt ;)

late

Originally posted by Cavefish X
I can pick out imperfections in a players playing... Be it Vai, Satch, or Yngwie(not hard to do in his case).

Interesting......tell me more :confused: I always thought Yngwie was a technically excellent player even though he's a bit repetitive and I only listen to a few select tracks.....where does he go wrong?

My philosophy is : "If you cant play fast cleanly, dont try to play fast at all."
Yngwie technique isnt what it used to be. Listen to the first rising force cd. You'll hear clean and accurate picking. Then got to a more recent disc like Alchemy and you'll hear what I'm refering to. Yngwie himself admitted that he is one of the most inconsistent pickers around. If you have a tape machine that can slow down 50% you can really hear what I'm taking about. Some (not all) of Yngwies soloing sounds like a theres a lump of mashed potatoes on his strings. Whereas someone like Vinnie Moore or Al DiMeola, even at %50 speed, its still clean(meaning you can hear each note individually).
Locally, when I hear anybody trying to play sweep arpeggios most of the time all I hear is the first note, a bunch of garbage, then the highest note. Its easy to get your pick hand moving as fast as possible with your fret hand jerkin and spazing out all over the neck. There has to be a synchronization between the two. Playing fast is one thing, but to play fast and clean is another....AMEN

Well, The red rocker (Sammy Hagar) once said that what was important in a lick is the starting note and the last one. It's my approach too. I'm a sloppy player, I can play real fast (in another thread, people put me at the same level as Gilbert and Buckethead) but it's never quite clean, and I like it, it's my blues side that's taking over...