Shred guitar

Shred Guitar refers to a heavy metal guitar or fusion playing style where technical proficiency is used to maximize

Shred Guitar refers to a heavy metal guitar or fusion playing style where technical proficiency is used to maximize speed, often in a neoclassical framework. Beginning in the 1980s, shred guitar appeared in a heavy metal sub-genre known as neo-classical metal, since it often involved phrases and techniques from Baroque and Classical music.

Yngwie Malmsteen, heavily influenced by Al Di Meola and Ritchie Blackmore, is credited in having pioneered and laid down the basis of neo-classical shred guitar in heavy metal music, where the term shredding started to be associated to this style of playing. Before him, many electric guitar virtuosi in late-1960s contributed to the formation of the shred movement, while still lacking the technical emphasis and baroque influencies of modern shredding. It has been argued that jazz-rock guitarists like the aforementioned Al Di Meola and Allan Holdsworth can be seen as first players to record shredding in the modern sense of the word on various jazz-rock recordings since mid-1970s. In early 1980's Randy Rhoads was another important figure that pioneered shredding on heavy metal/hardrock records, starting in 1980 with Ozzy Osbourne's debut album Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Eddie Van Halen was also a very influential artist related to the shred guitar movement who helped popularize shredding by selling more than 10 million copies of Van Halen's debut album. It can also be argued that advances in technology in home recording and programmable bass/drum machines have led to a surge in the number of amateur guitarists releasing instrumental/shred albums on the internet, as they remove the high costs of studio recording and the need for a full band.