Is Shredding REALLY what guitar is for?

Well everyone? A bit of a debate going on here... it'd be interesting to here your views! :D

It all comes down to taste. Music is all about feeling. Shredding can achieve that just as effectively as 3 chord chart pop songs, if that excites you. It is and always will be a matter of taste.

However one could argue shredding requires a lot of skill to play, and a good (all round) guitarist should be able to do it. But I'm not convinced it's the epitome of difficulty when it comes to guitarplaying :)

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Sid

I appreciate a good shred in a solo but get tired of it after a while.

I mean I have trouble with a guy shredding like hell for 5 minutes. Malmsteen as that tendencie and it does get on my never sometimes.

Blues, for me, should not be about shredding. It's more about emotions. When I can feel the pain or feeling of someone transposed into a solo, that's what I like.

The problem is most people rate a guitarist by his ability to shred. It think it's a shame. I can shred but I have difficulties making a emotional solo. For me, less is more in a solo. Use less notes but make every note mean something.

Hope I'm not too abstract.

couldn't have put it better myself!! in my opinion a guitarist should be rated on his ability to convay a emotion theough his instrument, be it through a emotive solo or a melodic chord sequence. these things are more important to me that a good teqnique but then again that is only my opinion and i might be wrong. each to his own....

When Mike STERN ( a really hot jazz guitarist) was hired by Miles DAVIS (a really dead jazz trumpetist), he started playing jazz bebop lines to fit in the mold he thought he was hired for... Miles told him: 'c'mon, let it scream, all those jazz guys wish they could do it!'
Well, I know about emotions, tone and stuff, but dang, when you can rip it and shred a song to pieces, AAAAAAAAAAAArgh, it's pretty cool...