In this tutorial series of lessons we will look at a further methods of building speed. We will also apply these advanced skills to playing licks over a backing track. We will take many of the ideas and skills we learned in previous speed building tutorials, expand them and put them into practice.

After getting a handle on fast licks, the next problem students have is playing the idea in time. This means that although a student can kind of get the notes of a fast lick happening, they can't yet get it to sound right or make sense rhythmically.

Again, remember, it is important to realize that playing fast, "shredding", should not be merely a flailing, spastic, haphazard jumble of notes or "stuff" you play as fast as you can. It should be a musical idea; just played faster than usual.

So we are going to learn some new fast licks, but we are also going to aim at playing them in time, at the right time, over a chord progression in a major key. The licks in this tutorial are based on my own major key shredding style. Among the techniques covered are: major scale use, mixolydian mode use, fast scalar sequence passages, fast major arpeggios, pedal point.

This tutorial assumes you have the skills presented in these earlier tutorials on speed building technique and visualizing the scale patterns being used. If you haven't worked through them yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. If you have successfully worked through them, then let's shred!

This tutorial is one in a series on building and using speed (very fast playing).

Speedy Ideas Series 1: Building Speed

Speedy Ideas Series 2: Major Scale Pattern

Speedy Ideas Series 3: Minor Scale Pattern

Speedy Ideas Series 4: Advanced Minor Shredding

There are also these tutorials on visualizing and playing these patterns all over the fretboard.

Visualizing Fretboard Scale Patterns Series 1

Visualizing Major Scale Patterns Series 2

Visualizing Minor Scale Patterns Series 3