Shredding or songwritting?

Shredding is just a tool. You cannot build a house with ONLY a hammer, but you there are points in the building process where a hammer is pretty darn handy. Same with shredding. It has it's use and it's place, but it has to be used in combination with other tools to create a good quality song. You don't need to shred in every song, but that's a style choice. Metallica put out a record without any solos and people lost their minds, yet nobody cares that 90% of pop hits don't have guitar solos.
 
Music. Guitar solos fall inside the framework of the song. Not the other way around. Songwriters create the music guitar solos can solo on. It's not even a chicken or the egg question.

I once knew a shredder who had albums out and stuff. He wrote songs around whatever lick or mode he was shredding - practicing. I always thought that kind of writing was kind of stupid. I've never done that and never will. Needless to say he wasn't a very good writer. Bad actually. Songs exist on their own terms.

Sure you can write an etude that can show off your skills, but I think it should be a great piece of music first, all on its own. But you know, that's just me.
 
Sidivan said:
Shredding is just a tool. You cannot build a house with ONLY a hammer, but you there are points in the building process where a hammer is pretty darn handy. Same with shredding. It has it's use and it's place, but it has to be used in combination with other tools to create a good quality song. You don't need to shred in every song, but that's a style choice. Metallica put out a record without any solos and people lost their minds, yet nobody cares that 90% of pop hits don't have guitar solos.
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I'd say, if we're going with tool analogies, shredding is more like a biscuit joiner.
 
The older I get the less interested I am in shredding. Pointlessly fast playing feels childish and annoying to me now, no matter how physically difficult it might be. I was raised on a steady diet of 80's hair metal too, as a kid I thought it was awesome. I ranked my favorite guitarists on how fast they could solo above all else. I couldn't for the life of me understand how bands like the Stones or U2 could be so popular.. I mean, in my first year even I could play faster than those guys.

Funny how you grow up and different things matter.
 
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