# Shred Thread



## TheSixthWheel (Apr 30, 2009)

Ok, I used the search function (although not extensively) and came up with nothing, so here goes. I pm'd Metal Ken (mod of this area of the forum) something like this:

This section of the forum could do with a competition. There's some amazing guitarists amongst the new members that this site is getting everyday. I feel it would benefit the site and at least get more traffic to the "Music Theory, Lessons & Techniques" section.

I'm thinking about a once a month shred comp and have it organised in a similar manner to GOTM. On the first day of each new month (or mid month, depending on what's easiest), for a single week people could nominate a lead guitar exercise or segment of a notorious solo or 'betcha can't play this' video, or whatever...it could even be text based, people post their ideas and everyone votes for their favourite to work on. Or hell, one of you mods could just choose an appropriate topic/technique and post it up regardless of any voting system.
Could have a different technique in mind each time the comp rolls round, with some crazy shred licks ala Shawn Lane/Guthrie Govan/Greg Howe/Jeff Loomis or more melodic exercises along the lines of Cynic/Opeth segments.

Then people would have the rest of the month to learn it as cleanly as possible and post up a vid. The winner gets the satisfaction of winning the "Shred Thread" for that month. If it appears that one or a couple of people keep winning it through sheer virtuosity, then so be it. Maybe we'd get some great competition between people like Doug Steel, Chris Letchford, Eric Clemenzi (dunno if he's even around) even Dave Weiner if he finds the time.

I think it'd be fun to have something like that which anyone with a guitar, two hands and half a brain can compete in, and not just have the GOTM competition going to Lee or anyone else each time a new Sherman arrives

What are you thoughts? 

Cheers, Nick.


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## DDDorian (Apr 30, 2009)

It's a neat idea People have tried similar things in the past and they've never taken off, though, so I'm not exactly confident Hopefully you'll all prove me wrong and we can make this a regular thing.


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## Cadavuh (Apr 30, 2009)

That sounds like an amazing idea! Although I dont think Christ Letchford is much of a technical virtuoso from what ive seen .


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## troyguitar (Apr 30, 2009)

I probably wouldn't stand a chance since I'm mostly a sloppy/improv shredder, but I would give something a go since I'll have some free time starting tomorrow.


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## Maniacal (Apr 30, 2009)

This sounds like a great idea. I need a good reason to actually play some shred again.


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 30, 2009)

let's do it... but let me get a digital camera first...


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## Scar Symmetry (Apr 30, 2009)

I put foward Necrophagist works as the first challenge


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## Maniacal (Apr 30, 2009)

Yeah Necrophagist sounds like a good one. Maybe Stabwound?


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## Scar Symmetry (Apr 30, 2009)

Stabwound gets my vote


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## Konfyouzd (Apr 30, 2009)

Only Ash Remains!!!!


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## Excalibur (Apr 30, 2009)

Can't we pick something that more people would like D:?


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## ShadyDavey (Apr 30, 2009)

How about......everyone nominates one particular piece of music (excercise, solo excerpt, whatever) and its all voted on by the participants....here's the thing that requires some co-operation: Everyone agrees that no matter what the outcome they'll play the piece.

I guess that means that not only do you need to nominate a piece, you need an accurate tab for everyone to learn it from, and an independant panel of judges (Mods?) to announce the winner.


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## Demeyes (Apr 30, 2009)

How about something more compositional based instead of cover material? Maybe pick a technique and try and write a piece incorporating it. Then we can vote on the end results of people ideas? I think that could maybe push more of a musical aspect into the thing instead of several people doing the exact same material.
I'm not much of a shredder but I could give some of this a go if I work on it!


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## Maniacal (Apr 30, 2009)

a Caprice?



Demeyes said:


> How about something more compositional based instead of cover material? Maybe pick a technique and try and write a piece incorporating it. Then we can vote on the end results of people ideas? I think that could maybe push more of a musical aspect into the thing instead of several people doing the exact same material.
> I'm not much of a shredder but I could give some of this a go if I work on it!



I like that idea.

What technique?


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## ShadyDavey (Apr 30, 2009)

How about doublestops? Lots of ways to make that cool


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## Maniacal (Apr 30, 2009)

Double stops only?

That sounds difficult to do well, I am up for that.


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## Scar Symmetry (Apr 30, 2009)

Johnny is going to own us all


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## Demeyes (Apr 30, 2009)

Maniacal said:


> a Caprice?
> 
> I like that idea.
> 
> What technique?



I'd say we could pick something simple first and give people a time frame, then let the winner pick the next? Nothing too strict but maybe have something like you have to incorporate certain runs/arpeggios? I don't know really, just spewing out ideas! 

Double-stop shred? Now there's an interseting one!


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## Maniacal (Apr 30, 2009)

How about something really obvious to begin with, like an arpeggio Etude?

Any key, any tempo, any style of arpeggio playing....


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## guitarplayerone (Apr 30, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> Stabwound gets my vote



is really not that hard to play


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## Cadavuh (Apr 30, 2009)

Maniacal said:


> How about something really obvious to begin with, like an arpeggio Etude?
> 
> Any key, any tempo, any style of arpeggio playing....




+1 to this.


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## El Caco (May 1, 2009)

I love the idea, if only there could be levels. I'd suggest "God", "Mortal" and "Those that suck as bad as s7eve" or we could just call that one "Apprentice" or "Beginner" 

I'd doubt there would be enough interest for three categories though and I suck so bad I have no idea what type of exercise the Apprentice class would attempt.


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## DDDorian (May 1, 2009)

I do think styles/techniques/etc are the way to go - I mean, does anyone _really_ wanna watch 54387584397543 renditions of "Stabwound" or whatever? I sure as hell don't. Then again, I doubt I'll be competing, so...


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## Scar Symmetry (May 1, 2009)

guitarplayerone said:


> is really not that hard to play



that's why it gets my vote


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## Harry (May 1, 2009)

It would make more sense I think to do stuff in standard tuning. I don't even own a guitar for alternate tunings other than drop A on my 7, not everyone is going to have guitars to accommodate to different tunings and/or have one that is set up for lower tunings to play Necrophagist or more so, play stuff in C standard or whatever. Even harder for people that only own one 7 string that is a trem model, it's just too much hassle to have to set it up each time you tune to something different.
Better yet, is not have to make everyone use the same tuning, but for those of us who might have a guitar that is set up to G# standard perhaps and doesn't own any other 7 seven strings (or in my case, the only 7 I own is in B standard or drop A) and set certain challenges where you just use what tuning you want and feel most comfortable with, with your string gauges and amp settings that is set for that tuning.


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## Scar Symmetry (May 1, 2009)

well why don't people just transpose the tabs so that they're playing the same notes in a different tuning? that makes much more sense to me.


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## ShadyDavey (May 1, 2009)

There are a lot of techniques/challenges which could be equally applicable to instruments regardless of tuning and that would completely eliminate the need to transpose tabs (which would essentially still yield 100 renditions of Stabwound).


+1 on an Arpeggio etude simply for the sake of having a starting point without all the discussion thats going to prevent the idea from working


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## TheSixthWheel (May 9, 2009)

Ok, I'm going to bump this thread with a challenge. 

So far there's been a few decent suggestions, but we've gotta keep this rolling. I'm gonna throw this one up here just to see who's interested. Anyone who supports this idea, show us what you've got and give it a go. I'm not gonna win anything here, but this one's still fun to play. Let me know if you guys think it's appropriate.

This awesome riff is taken from Cynic's album Traced In Air, the song is "Evolutionary Sleeper". This part starts at around 15 seconds in.







Get it as clean as you can, and post a soundclip or youtube vid of you playing it.
Let's go people!

EDIT - I should also mention that this section was lifted straight off a tab sourced directly from Ultimate-Guitar, apologies if it's well wrong. Sounds pretty damn close to me.


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## freepower (May 9, 2009)

Love the tags on this thread. I might be up for an occasional composition + technique challenge (double stops hell yes), but not just learning exercises or songs. I could just buy rock discipline or download a GP file, y'know. 

Still, keep me posted if theres some composition going down.


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## Maniacal (May 13, 2009)

Whats going on with this?

Can we decide on something. I need an excuse to play.


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## Excalibur (May 13, 2009)

I've got more hot licks than Larry Conklin's ass after sitting on a bullet ant nest.


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## silentrage (May 13, 2009)

^ Oh crap, I pick up my hat off the ring, dust it off, and put it on.


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## CrushingAnvil (May 14, 2009)

Whats the point in a shred comp if you're just covering wank solos which you didn't write? I'd enter, but not If I had to learn some pretentious harmonic minor snot...


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## Maniacal (May 14, 2009)

So lets say do an arpeggio etude...

Whatever key you want, whatever techniques.............................


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## freepower (May 14, 2009)

Arp etude it is. Could we have tuxguitar/guitar pro uploads of the finished products? That way we could all get the groupings etc as they were intended without laborious transcription, and we can include backing etc.


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## Excalibur (May 14, 2009)

freepower said:


> Arp etude it is. Could we have tuxguitar/guitar pro uploads of the finished products? That way we could all get the groupings etc as they were intended without laborious transcription, and we can include backing etc.


z0mg, I'm banned again


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## Scar Symmetry (May 14, 2009)

I'm down with arp etudes 

damn I'm going to have to work on my sweeps!

+1 on Guitar Pro.


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## Excalibur (May 14, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> I'm down with arp etudes
> 
> damn I'm going to have to work on my sweeps!
> 
> +1 on Guitar Pro.


Pull a Morse, and alternate pick them


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## Scar Symmetry (May 15, 2009)

TheSixthWheel said:


> Ok, I'm going to bump this thread with a challenge.
> 
> So far there's been a few decent suggestions, but we've gotta keep this rolling. I'm gonna throw this one up here just to see who's interested. Anyone who supports this idea, show us what you've got and give it a go. I'm not gonna win anything here, but this one's still fun to play. Let me know if you guys think it's appropriate.
> 
> ...



yeah sounds correct to me man, I'd be up for making a video of this, nothing too hard...


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## OrsusMetal (May 15, 2009)

Maniacal said:


> Whats going on with this?
> 
> Can we decide on something. I need an excuse to play.


 
I know you're a super shredder (hence the book release), but do you really need an excuse to play? Guitar is fun!  At least I have never lost any interest in it.

I am up for doing this Cynic tab posted above, or really anything else that is brought up. I'll start work on Evolutionary Sleeper soon.


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## Maniacal (May 15, 2009)

I am a busy man, I work all the time. If I have a reason to play guitar then I will. I do love playing I just dont get time to play anymore.


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## Scar Symmetry (May 15, 2009)

Maniacal said:


> I am a busy man, I work all the time. If I have a reason to play guitar then I will. I do love playing I just dont get time to play anymore.



yeah, same.

the only time I get to play guitar is Sunday, when I either have band practise or a chillout day. I had a shred last night and this morning but I just get frustrated at the lack of strength in my pinky and the co-ordination between my fingers.

I do loads of finger strengthening excersizes but progress is very sparse.

I'll upload a vid of Evolutionary Sleeper next week, where should I post it, in this thread? or is someone going to make a seperate dedicated thread?


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## drmosh (May 20, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> yeah, same.
> I just get frustrated at the lack of strength in my pinky and the co-ordination between my fingers.



I am frustrated at my pinky strength at the moment too, doing all sorts of pretty boring exercises to get it back to strength.
And in doing so I am not practising any right-left hand coordinating so my fast stuff is sounding really off.
bah


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