Ah, shred guitar. Once the exclusive province of only the most pretentious and esteemed hair metal gods, the entire school of playing went almost entirely underground with the advent of grunge, alt-rock, college rock and an entire generation of guitar players who found ways to get the point across without melting anyone's face off.
Long buried in secret, the techniques of shredheads became shrouded in mystery - veritable forbidden black arts etched into evil spellbooks. As the 1990s and early 2000s went on, guitar-playing shifted into a predominantly rhythmic pursuit, with the gunslinger relegated to second-tier status.
With time, musicians raised on that school of music found themselves weaponless in the fight to utterly destroy the audience the way all those old guitar gods did. Their methods, it seemed, were lost to time – things to be whispered about in secret meetings of Iron Maiden fans and Dungeons and Dragons freaks who blasted Alcatrazz records late into the night. The modern axeman was really just another bass player. So what happens if an aspiring guitarist wants to expand his or her bag of tricks? To whom can they turn for guidance? Luckily for that Satch-in-training, the program is as simple as these five easy pieces:
Technique: Artificial harmonics (aka "squealies")
Example: Zakk Wylde's opening riff in "Crazy Babies" by Ozzy Osbourne; pretty much any song by Black Label Society.
What It's Good For and Why You Need It: Like a semi-annoying audio expletive screamed at a damagingly high pitch, the artificial harmonic is shred and metal's answer to the exclamation point. A large majority of riffs in heavy music rely employ a rest on the eighth beat of a given measure and risk losing whatever momentum the previous seven beats have built up. The artificial harmonic gives guitarists a way to shift gears while staying thematically (and musically) in line with their chosen scale.
How To Do It: Unlike natural harmonics, in which the fretting finger lightly touches the string, artificial harmonics demand you still depress the string as normal. However, instead of picking the string, you'll instead pinch it between either the pick and the tip of your middle finger, or use your pinky to scoop directly behind the pick as it hits the string. You can change the pitch of the emitted squeal with fret-hand vibrato and also by moving your picking/pinching hand closer to and further from the bridge.
Technique: Chromatic runs
Example: Anything by Buckethead
What It's Good For and Why You Need It: You know that sound certain guitar solos have where so many increasing or decreasing notes are created at an insanely fast speed you'd swear the instrument was going to explode? Those are created by performing runs up and down the neck, and those are the shredder's all-purpose weapon. Advanced players will actually employ relevant scales to these runs, but most get away by employing simple brute force and all available notes.
How To Do It: As fast as you can, fret and pick your way up the neck. The most economical way is to alternate up- and downstrokes while you fret, although using only one type of picking motion can create some very abrasive and intense sounds in their own right. Keep in mind that while this is the easiest trick to learn, this is also the most difficult to master.
Technique: Tapping
Example: Kirk Hammet's outro solo from "One" by Metallica; the insanely fast part of Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption"; Randy Rhoads' solo in "Crazy Train."
What It's Good For and Why You Need It: In shred terms, this is the equivalent of turning things up to 11. By turning each finger on the picking hand into its own separate plucking device, the guitarist can suddenly create immediate note shifts of up to a 24-fret distance immeasurable faster than if they were to pick the same pattern.
How To Do It: If you use a pick, tuck it away for a moment, either in a pocket or (if you're really hardcore) between your lips. With either of your index or middle fingers, strike any fretted string behind a higher fret up the neck, then release as quickly as possible. What you're basically doing is a reverse trill with a wider interval, making this the quickest way to play not just fast but also furious.
Technique: Muted pull-off riffs
Example: OSI's "Free" as written and played by Jim Matheos.
What It's Good For and Why You Need It: More fluid and less noisy than regular pick-driven riffs, pull-off riffs work in the same fashion as tapping, except with different hands and limited fretting. By changing the nature of riff-playing, you're also changing the sound and in turn the range of what's possible in both your playing and your writing.
How To Do It: As an example, hit the eighth fret of your low E and pick the string, then release your fretting finger without picking the string again. The technique is simple but, again like tapping, widens the available intervals while adding an extremely fluid bend to the change in pitch.
Technique: Sweeps
Example: John Petrucci in "Under a Glass Moon" by Dream Theater (first seen at the 0:23 mark of the guitar solo section, and again at the 0:37 mark)
What It's Good For and Why You Need It: For sheer shock and awe, nothing beats sweeps. Their strange sound will perplex the casual listener, and the associated level of difficulty will blow other guitarists' minds.
How To Do It: You'll have to momentarily change the entire way you play the instrument to pull these off. Rather than the standard picking motion, you'll actually drag the pick over the strings you're aiming to hit. At the same time, you'll need to let your fretting fingers "walk" through the fretboard pattern. So where a normal motion would be like pulling the instrument into your body, sweeping actually demand you use your hands to push the notes out of the instrument.
Of everything available in the shredders' toolbox, sweeps are the most difficult technique to pull off but ultimately still only marginally useful. This may be why no one uses them, and may in fact be symbolic of why this entire school of playing was once left for dead.
To adopt these elements of shredding might then less be called reinvention, and more of a reanimation; to the ears of the faithful, however, that dead music will never sound more alive than it does in high-octane 128th-note bursts.
