Slash talks about ‘shredders’ and shares some important advice for them to improve their style.
In a recent interview with Guitar World, Slash said he admires these social media shredders for their amazing skills and the crazy things they do on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube:
“They’re really amazing and doing all kinds of crazy sh*t, and a lot of it is interesting or entertaining to watch for a minute. It doesn’t necessarily stick with you, but it’s b*tchin’.”
However, he also pointed out that these shredders need to add an emotional touch to their music to make it truly memorable:
“It always seems so planned out and articulated. Whereas sometimes the natural sort of passing tones that you do as you’re playing produce these really interesting things, when you’re not thinking about what scale it is or what technique you’re using. I think I tend to like that more.”
So, Slash thinks impressive techniques alone aren’t enough.
Slash Reveals How Your Guitar Playing Can Stand Out
He explained that for guitar playing to stand out, it should mix new technical skills with old-school styles. He believes that music should have an emotional context and that techniques should fit naturally into a song. Slash said:
“Techniques are cool, but they’re only great if they fit into the music in an emotional context, or if it’s a fluid part of a melodic run, like it just came naturally.”
Slash also talked about how social media shredders influenced the music scene. He noted that they inspired many young people to start playing guitar and that some of them can even outperform seasoned professionals. Still, says mentioned that some people think these players lack some of the traditional skills needed to succeed as working musicians.
During the interview, Slash also gave an example of how to blend technique with emotion. He talked about a B.B. King song where King plays a lick and adds a diminished scale to make it sound natural and perfect in the solo. Slash pointed out that this kind of playing doesn’t feel planned or overly thought out, and this is what makes it special.