Customer Reviews

Shred Guitar: A Complete System for the Rock Guitar Improviser (Contemporary Guitar Series)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all, let me say I have been playing the guitar and bass guitar for around 2 and 1/2 years now. I played piano for 3 and 1/2 (way back when I was a teenager some 30 years ago), so I already had a good musical foundation on which to build. I don't have a lot of free time, and chose to go the self-taught route with my guitar journey. Consequently I own around 50-60 instructional guitar and bass books (many with CDS) and DVDs, on different genres, including Jazz and Blues. Being an 80's kind of dude (not that I still like the spandex and make-up), I always wanted to be able to shred. This book, Shred Guitar, has been a great help in my quest.
First, in my opinion, it was excellently written. The author came across as being very skilled and knowledgable, as well as personable and witty. Compared to other books I own, the book has so much more clarity, and contains plenty of good, solid music theory and examples. It is my favorite of my hard rock/heavy metal instructional material, hence my reason for writing this review.
The recordings on the CD make for great music. The guitar used on the tracks has a lot of delay and distortion, but for Rock, I loved the tone. Of course, one should learn to play the examples without the effects, then once they are later added, the songs will be so much more easier to play well. I routinely play the CD in my car to I can really absorb what the tracks are about and train my ear. I also do it because I just enjoy the music on the tracks.
One reviewer complained about the speed of the some of the tracks. I too had a little trouble at first going from the slowed-down versions of some of the examples to the full-speed recording. Also, many tracks did not have slow versions. But now, after several months, my ear and mind are trained to where it is no problem. I can play them in my head at any speed, once I have heard them a few times. That being said, I don't think this book is one for absolute beginners. You will need a little experience before you can really take advantage of this book; however, if you go slowly enough through the book, it can get you there.
Thanks to this Book/CD guitar course, my arpeggio /sweep picking skill has really advanced, although I have not had the time to really perfect it. I plan to use the many examples to really concentrate on it later after I have mastered some other more pressing musical concepts.
Also my finger speed has increased, leading to my new-found ability to better play fast, melodic solos. I can also improvise better, and am able to utilize in my solos some of the various fast alternate picking/legato runs the book teaches.
The only weak point in this guitar course for me is that I am not a big fan of the Blues tracks, mainly because I never was a big fan of many of the Blues-based 80's metal songs such "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison and Motley Crue's version of "Smokin' in the Boy's Room" (however, the Blues tracks still have definite instructional value). I like the more straight-ahead rock like the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and Iron Maiden's "The Trooper." There are plenty of these types of examples in the book. And, once you master some of the applicable examples, you will be able to play these songs, and many other genres of heavy metal/hard rock music, with ease.

Highly recommended for intermediate guitaristists of all stripes. Simply put, a great guide to improvisation posing as a book on heavy metal guitar technique. The Practical Guide to Music Theory and Scale Dictionary at the back of the book are both excellent reference guides. Emphasize the word "practical" here: Hanson gives great examples and analysis throughout, always showing what works where. Advancing guitarists working through the material will suddenly find themselves understanding chord, scale, and mode relationships--and have a lot more ideas to work with at jam sessions and band practice. If only Hanson would write a book on jazz guitar comping!

This book and its accompanying CD are superb. The 10 progressions take you through different modes/scales and offer several ideas and examples for soloing. All along, the theory behind the soling ideas and chord progressions is explained in detail. The advice about how to practice must be followed to fully benefit from the lessons, but then again, "no pain, no gain." Probably a better for fit for an intermediate player, but still extremely useful for any guitarist. Highly recommended, especially at the amazon.com discount price.

I've been playing for like 5 years now, 20 previous to that on Bass. This dude doesn't play ONE Exercise at NORMAL tempo until like exercise 12 or so.
The CD is almost worthless because of his heavy distortion, even delay !!!
Finally he plays something "Slow" and I can make it out.. I read music but even his "progressions' don't sound like what you hear on the CD.. #2 specifically..Slow blues #1 I heard but again its friggin fast ! I can get it but its not what you'd expect. Even his exercises, he holds the last note in the exercise but that not noted in the book. Your just supposed to know that.. I'm going to finish the book but I'd never recommend it to anyone...I seriously would prefer my money back..

Referring to the "SLOW DOWN" review, yes, I understand what you are saying about the examples on the CD. Most are played as 160 bpm. I cannot play 16th notes that fast either. What I did was to create a guitar pro tab file from the tablature in the book and then exported the MIDI to "Band in a box". This way I can control the tempo and transpose into other keys and practice it until I can get the licks up to 160 (it's been a week and around 110 bpm).

If, for anything else, the book is great (so far) in conveying the sounds of the different modes for a key. It has also been good for me in that I have kept myself to a decent practice schedule because the material is interesting and licks sound better and better the faster you are able to play them. I'm enjoying the book very much.

Unlike many of the other guitar books out there, this book contains both an exercise and theory section. Both are very clear and informative.
The book is organized well into comapct lessons that build on each other. If you put the time into it, this book will deliver. I am halfway through now, and have already noticed improvement in my skills. The play-along tracks are great, and the lessons are the type that you can revisit over and over to get more nuggets of info. Nevertheless, this book may be frustrating to someone who is just getting started on the guitar. I would recommend that you pick this up if you are an intermediate player looking for a challenge.

Hanson more than delivers what he promises. Shred Guitar is appropriate for all levels of players from beginning to far advanced, although some background and chord knowledge would be a good prerequisite. He provides a catalog of licks spanning neo-classical to bluesy to Eric Johnson-type melodic. The accompanying CD not only clearly illustrates the riffs and good vibrato technique, but gives you something to shoot for. It also features tracks for each section you can play the licks over. It's a systematic methodology for mastering the guitar, and also provides music theory for rock musicians. But if you just want to shred, and learn and practice even half these licks to a good speed, your dreams will be rewarded. Fans of virtuoso technique like that of Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, and Eric Johnson, this is what you've been looking for.

I've played for 20 years and have never really been able to shred. I studied briefly with Paul when I was at GIT, but my focus was on jazz/fusion. If you just grab a few of the licks from each chapter you'll have tons of true shred vocabulary to work with. I wish the cd had a sample solo of him playing over the changes with a sampling of the transcribes licks, but he does play the licks with the actual progression taking place in the background track, so that gives you some context. if you can play pretty well already and have decent technique you will absorb all of this like a sponge and really show off at the next gig.

Don't let the title mislead you, this book is not only for shreders but for everyone interested in blues/rock/metal soloing.
What you get are 10 progressions in different modes and styles and many cool sounding licks which you could play over them. It's up to you to combine these (and your own) licks into real solos. The material is meant to be gone through in 10 weeks - you spend 1 week on each progression and then move on to the next. I really like this idea, since it forces me to practice new stuff every once in a while instead of playing the same thing over and over again.
The second part of the book is basically a crash course in scales, chords and harmony for those who also want to understand why & how the licks work over their corresponding progressions. It's very short and thus will also come in handy when you need a quick referrence.
In part 3 you'll find plenty of scale charts with all traditional scales and some exotic ones - again, great for referrence.
One note of caution: the book is designed for upper intermediate / advanced players who have basic techniques down cold.
If you are new to lead guitar, you may want to check out some books on the basics of soloing and improvisation like Troy Stetina's Metal Lead Guitar Book Vol. 1 - BK+CD or Blues You Can Use [BLUES YOU CAN USE -OS] by John Ganapes, depending on the style you're interested in.

This books does exactly as what it's titled. It contains tracks to which to shred. It lays down the foundation for improvising very fast guitar solos to various background tracks. The tracks are great, but very fast. Not a beginner book, or even an intermediate book in my opinion. I'd get Troy Stetina's Lead Mechanics for Speed Guitar first to learn the technique before getting this one.