What’s the most insane guitar solo you’ve ever heard? One by Paul Gilbert? Yngwie? Eddie Van Halen?
If you’re going to play an insane solo like the guitar heroes, here’s what you need to start getting good at. These guys didn’t learn this stuff over night! Let’s get that straight up front. Shredding, especially shredding not just up and down scales, takes years to master. Not just that, but these guitar gurus are always pushing their own playing to the limit in their recordings. You can imagine the difficult road you have ahead of you.
32nd Note Legato Runs
At some point during the insane solo, most of our favorite guitarists will play abnormally fast, 32nd note legato runs. This will be the fastest, most impressive point to the lay person. We guitarists know shredding is much harder, although slower.
It’s important to develop legato techniques (all hammer-ons and pull-offs) along your 3-note-per-string scales and Pentatonic Scales. You’ll want to skip strings, do amazing finger stretches, and of course, full neck legato runs. Listen to Joe Satriani in particular and you’ll hear all kinds of crazy...