Talk:Shredding (guitar playing technique)

also see: Diamond Dimebag Darrell Abbott and Pantera off their 1990 Cowboys From Hell release, the last song: The Art of Shredding

Someone changed Joe Becker to Jason Becker - I think Joe Becker was actually meant, but Jason isn't wrong either. Maybe put both names? --Inza 23:19, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

shred

you guys should seriously mention Joe Satriani. I mean come on!

Satriani isn't a shredder. dimebag isn't a shredder. jason becker <---definitely a shredder. those guys are great...they just don't shred. Overkill has a song called SHRED. they are not shredding.

yeh but you've got to take into account the term 'shred' has been used so widely without being defined for so long, that it's impossible to describe it as one specified thing now. when explaining shred you have to explain this in the article and give examples of the differing opinions on what constitutes shred. I think this is done reasonably well in the page 'Shred Guitar', and I think if pages were merged, a lot of content should be drawn from that.

A guitar virtuoso is not a shredder.

A virtuoso is a person that posseses a masterly skill or technique in the arts.

As far as I am aware, speed is not considered an art.

Al Di Meola and Roy Buchanan for example never sacrificed the melody for the sake of speed - as shredders do!

NOTE BY A GUITARIST:

as a guitarist (studying classical at the college level, currently a Junior with upper division status), a shredder is a guitarist who plays virtuosticlly. melodically or not. it takes a very serious amount of skill and dedication or pure prodigal gift to play at speed. not all guitar virtuosos shred, but those guitarists who can and do shred, with rythmic precision, are virtuosos. so, put bluntly, shredders do not necessarily sacrifice melody for the sake of speed. i am a shredder, i don't always shred melodically and i don't always sacrifice melody for the sake of speed. balance and appropiateness

besides, shredding is a technique, just as proper and inherently benefical in a player's technical repertoire as any other. if it can be done with the instrument, you will be an incomplete instrumentalist until you can do it, and do it consistently.

and you are right, speed is not considered an art. But, playing the guitar is. and there are emotions, sounds, etc, that can be achieved on the guitar only through the use of controlled speed, just as on the violin, piano, drums or any other instrument for that matter (consider the vocal and instrumental crescendos, melismas, etc, typical of some Classical Era music, which most certainly are not melodic much of the time, though there are ones that are. in fact, a lot of the vocal excursions were improvised by the performer to showcase his/her vocal agility and range. there are many cases, for example, where vocalists would even require that an aria have a place for them to perform a signature piece of vocal agility that that particular singer was known by, even if it did not fit the music). your statement also betrays an out-of-context idea of what shredding actually is - you've isolated a single aspect of the technique (the speed) and made it out to be the whole technique. i will tell you that it isn't all there is to it.

and consider reading a dictionary sometime:

Definition of Virtuoso according to Merriam-Webster:
1 : an experimenter or investigator especially in the arts and sciences : SAVANT
2 : one skilled in or having a taste for the fine arts
3 : one who excels in the technique of an art; especially : a highly skilled musical performer (as on the violin)
4 : a person who has great skill at some endeavor <a computer virtuoso> <a virtuoso at public relations>

note the heavy emphasis on skill and great skill in the definitions here. last i checked, it takes some skill to shred at all, let alone shred well. and take a good look at the 4th, it says "some endeavor". not art, but endeavor. attempting to play fast on the guitar, successfully or not, sounds like an endeavor.

also, just because Di Meola, Roy Buchanan and the like don't, doesn't mean they are not shredders. and when you can tell me that they never, ever, play with great speed without being melodic (which you will never be able to do unless you spend every moment of your life with them, right down to the nearest 100th of a second), do not assume that they don't do it.

basically. Shredders don't!

Note by another guitarist to the above guitarist:

---

We all know what virtuoso means. How about checking in your dictionary for the term "shredder".. oh! oups! not there huh? How about checking in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dictionary - I'm sure you'll find it there.

1) If we had all known what virtuoso meant, there would be nothing to discuss 2)The term "shredder" is guitar-scene specific jargon so of course is not going to be in a regular day-to-day dictionary and 3)if you find a copy of that dictionary, let me know where, i'd be glad to look it up there as it is a dictionary. 4) and who is "We" and who are you to say that "we" all know what virtuoso means? i mean, did you take some kind of infallible study of all of "We" and "We's" opinions on the matter? or are you assuming that because you are aware of the definition of virtuoso that that must mean that everyone must be aware of it as well? And btw, if you checked out a guitar-jargon type of dictionary i can assure you the term "shredder" will be there.