Shred licks suggestions?

[Zeetwig]

Hello shredders ^^

I have been playing guitar for maybe 1.5 years, composing original material, and I've got to the point where moderate riffing and soloing is no problem

But now I want to advance a bit further, and add some shred elements to my songs In order to make my own music I'll need some tips and tricks of how to come up with shred licks, or even better, tabs on some normal licks that can be applied to any note/root note and any key

If anyone have the time and feel like helping an fellow enthusiastic guitar player I would really appreciate if someone could link to a page with licks or write some licks right here in the forum

I'm looking for licks like minor and major (and maybe sus and 7) chords (that can be applied to any note on the neck). Some sweeps over 3-6 strings (minor major etc) would be very nice too ^^ Tapping licks are also appreciated

Thanks in advance!

[shredfreak]

Best way imho to actually advance your playing is by learning the modes & the basic chord shapes that go along with it. (Aolean, Locrian, Lydian, ...)

You can pretty much apply the basic 3 note per string ideas to it that you literally find anywhere.

The main thing to keep track of is how your licks or shredbits sound over the chords, wich is what most people seem to neglect nowadays.

Another approach is to literally fill up the blank spaces in the pentatonic scale (chromatics). Main purpose would be to find all the cool sounding outside notes and remove all the ones that sound like crap.

so basicly for A minor pentatonic

This:
|-5-----8-|
|-5-----8-|
|-5---7---|
|-5---7---|
|-5---7---|
|-5-----8-|

Changes into this:
|-5-6-7-8-|
|-5-6-7-8-|
|-5-6-7---|
|-5-6-7---|
|-5-6-7---|
|-5-6-7-8-|

Then it's up to you basicly to decide wich notes are going to stay, and wich gets deleted. Apart from knowing the reason why a note is a horrible choice, you pretty much need to hear it so that it actually makes sense.

[Zeetwig]

Wow thanks for the answer! I had almost forgotten this thread xP

Btw if I may ask, do you think the best way to learn to play shred-ish is to:
1. learn fast alternative picking and economic picking then just apply it all over the neck, in difference modes, scales and chords etc, and then combine it with some not-too-hard tapping
2. learn to sweep pick and string skip-pick every conceivable chord as well as customized chords from different scales etc

Or both :P

[Drew]

I'd start with 1, really. "Shredding" is no different from taking any sort of a solo, blues, rock, or jazz - the only difference is you rely a little more on technique than, say, your average Eric Clapton solo. So, rather than learning "licks" I'd just learn your scales all over the neck and then spend a lot of time practicing technique so your picking and legato flow smoothly.

[Zeetwig]

I think you're right actually. I see all these guys in progressive metal bands like Born of Osiris etc, and they sweep perfectly fluently all over the neck at wicked speeds I cannot help feeling very very noobish when I see and listen to this

But on the other hand, other progressive metal bands, like Symphony X and Dream Theater shred a lot, and it's almost exclusively fast alt picking and scale runs up and down and all over the place

[Seanbabs]

Originally Posted by Zeetwig

I think you're right actually. I see all these guys in progressive metal bands like Born of Osiris etc, and they sweep perfectly fluently all over the neck at wicked speeds I cannot help feeling very very noobish when I see and listen to this

But on the other hand, other progressive metal bands, like Symphony X and Dream Theater shred a lot, and it's almost exclusively fast alt picking and scale runs up and down and all over the place

I don't think this is a true statement at all. Opinions on Born of Osiris aside(lol), Michael Romeo uses tapping techniques more than any other guitarist I can think of, maybe Reb Beach is up there. He also uses massive amounts of economy picking. Petrucci is pretty ace with all techniques.

Really, for this kind of thing, taking lessons from the right teacher can make a world of difference. Otherwise, there are lots of places you can go online to look up licks. ultimat-guitar.com has just about every tab you can think of.

[Zeetwig]

Ok well it was sort of an exaggeration about them just alt picking all the time, sorry about that :/

What I meant was that there are bands that sound like they sweep all the time, and then bands that sound like they alt/economy pick (+ tap) all the time, and since I find sweeps much harder to play than alt/economy picking I thought that perhaps I should focus on alt/economy picking, and not practice sweeps to death

This goes quite well together with what Shredfreak said, as alt/economy picking + 2-3 note/string work well nicely, IMO at least

So what I meant with my last post was: "perhaps I should go for the above explained "technique" rather than just try to get good at sweeping, or what do you think?"

[Seanbabs]

Sweeping is probably the easiest way to shred, but it might be the most difficult technique to develop. Really, I would put together a practice schedule that works on all the techniques, so you have all the tools at your disposal.

Just realize that it will take quite some time, and go slow and make sure you are doing everything correctly. I am at the point where I can sweep and alternate pick alright, but I constantly am practicing more and more, because you can always get better.

Let me know if you need any help with something specifically.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Seanbabs

because you can always get better.

Speak for yourself, noob.

SPEED = EMOTION

[Zeetwig]

I agree that sweeping is the easiest way to make your playing sound very shreddy, since you play a succession of notes with greater intervals than if you play scales/3 notes per string with alt/eco picking, but I wouldn't say it's the easiest way to shred, since the technique is rather... technical, so to speak

I think that alt/eco picking runs is something that I can work out on my own, but something I would very much like some help on is learning new sweep patterns. In fact the only one I know is this one

|----------6-10-6-------------|
|--------8---------8-----------|
|------7-------------7---------|
|--5-8-----------------8------ |
|5-----------------------10-5-|
|------------------------------|

(sorry for bad tabbing)
If you want to help me with this then that would be awesome!