Zakk Wylde has been one of my favourite guitarists since the first time I heard him back in about ‘97. His style of pure speed shredding mesmerized me. For those of you who are new to Zakk, he started as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist in 1988, he had a side band Pride and Glory in the early 90’s, and then formed Black Label Society after that. His style is unique and is nobody’s but his own. Obviously he is famous for a few things like his use of pinch harmonics and “chickin-pickin”. But he still preaches the basics: Start off slow and build up speed.

Zakk Wylde - Pentatonic Hardcore

The following video is probably Zakk Wylde’s most famous. I believe it was originally distributed by the magazine Young Guitar. The instructional video is an hour long and has Zakk going through many different basic and advanced skills including Pentatonic scales, chickin-pickin licks, vibrato, pinch harmonics, alternate picking and much more. If you follow this video and practise it every day for about 3 years, maybe you will be able to shred like him.

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Although I mostly listen to hard-hitting metal bands, every once and a while I like to kick back and listen to some mellow tunes. When Crosby Still’s and Nash won’t cut it I like to slap in something from these artists. If you play guitar, or even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ll be able to appreciate the acoustic talent these players have.

One of my favorite acoustic albums is Friday Night in San Francisco, which is a live jam session with John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia, and Al DiMeola. It really has some great guitar playing.

Check out these guitarists for some great acoustic music:

Jesse Cook
Strunz and Farah
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
James Taylor
Al DiMeola
John McLaughlin
Paco De Lucia

If you are not familiar with John McLaughlin or Paco De Lucia I really suggest you watch this video on Google Videos. They both play their own flavor of flamenco classical guitar and it really is amazing to hear them jam. I own a live CD from these two that also has Al DiMeola and I always put it on when I have just had a little too much Metal. It is basically acoustic shredding.

I have been seeing lately that a lot of people have been finding this site by searching for Alexi Laiho Guitar Lessons or Alexi Laiho Instructional Video. Since I don’t really have anything directly related to that on this site I thought I might post some videos I found on Google Video.

Alexi Laiho Interview and Instructional Video

This first is pretty sweet it’s both an interview and a practical lesson. Alexi talks about a lot of important stuff like practicing with a metronome, starting slow and building speed, how he writes a solo, and his musical influences.

At about the half way point he does do some hands on stuff on his guitar. He starts off playing it quickly and then slows it right down so you can learn it. He shows off some sweep picking licks with some tapping thrown in and then some chord phrases. At the end of the video he goes through 5 or 6 licks from some of his songs as well.

Continue reading Alexi Laiho Guitar Lessons and Instructional Videos

I have found two more impressive shredding videos on Google Video. Both are the same player and he has some very impressive skills. The first thing that I notice is he is very precise. You find a lot with videos on Google, Yahoo, or YouTube most people who film themselves shredding are playing much faster than their technical ability allows them to. As a result it looks and sounds impressive to the untrained ear, but once you see a guy like this play you realize the others were not as good as they seemed.

This should be today’s (and every other day’s lesson): start slow and build up your speed. If you can not play each note cleanly, slow down until you can and slowly build up your speed.

This guy though, is very good. The musician is Chris Feener and the first video is titled Neoclassical Shred.

The second video from the same player is called Petrucci Shred. He plays licks from Flight of the Bumblebee and Into the Acid Rain Unison.

Basically his skills give me something to aspire to. I have just started practicing from John Petrucci’s instructional video, so hopefully I can build up my speed and ability and one day shred like this.