Shred guitar
A virtuoso instrumental style, descended from hard rock and metal, that foregrounds extreme speed, tapping and sweeping.
Shred is less a genre than a performance standard: the guitar takes the role of a soloing voice throughout a piece, and technique itself becomes the subject. Its vocabulary is built from three-note-per-string scale patterns, two-handed tapping, sweep arpeggios, wide bends and a clean, articulate high-gain tone that lets every note be heard. Detractors complain about note-counting, but the underlying discipline of synchronised hands is the reason so many young players are drawn to it.
Example: An instrumental piece whose central feature is a very fast tapped passage across several octaves is shred guitar.
See also
Related
- PageTapping
- PageSweep picking
- PageAlternate picking
- PageAmericana
- PageBebop
- PageBluegrass
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley