Good Shredding vs Bad Shredding

Herman Li from Dragon Force

Say what you like about shredding, the guys who can pull this kind of technical guitar playing are incredibly talented, not to mention dedicated (imagine just how many hours it takes to refine your playing to this level). However in terms of musicality many of these players leave a lot to be desired. To illustrate this point and show you some examples of good and bad shredding I thought I would post a few videos below.

Good Shredding

Lets start off with some good shredding examples...

Victor de Andres: sultans of shred

Dragon Force with the awesome Through the Fire and Flames. Now this is quality shredding! Melodic and technically superb.

George Lynch with one of my favourite shred instrumentals from the eighties

Bad Shredding

Examples of pointless shredding.

Yngwie Malmsteen doing his thing. Quite good but it just all sounds the same too me.

Glenn Proudfoot from Prazsky Vyber. Just ridiculous! Apparently this guy lists Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan as big influences. Huh?

Vinnie Vincent demonstrating guitar shredding. This is enough to put you off shredding for life. My ears hurt already!