Shredding

Shredding, shred, or shredder may refer to:

Equipment

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Shred guitar

Shred guitar or shredding is a virtuoso lead guitar solo playing style for the electric guitar, based on various fast playing techniques. Music critics have stated that shred guitar is associated with "sweep-picked arpeggios, diminished and harmonic minor scales, finger-tapping and whammy-bar abuse", while others contend that it is a fairly subjective cultural term used by guitarists and enthusiasts of guitar music. It is commonly used with reference to Heavy metal guitar playing, where it is associated with rapid tapping solos, fast scale and arpeggio runs and special effects such as whammy bar "dive bombs". Metal guitarists playing in a "shred" style use the electric guitar with a guitar amplifier and a range of electronic effects such as distortion, which create a more sustained guitar tone and facilitate guitar feedback effects. The term is sometimes used with reference to virtuoso playing outside the metal idiom, particularly in bluegrass and jazz fusion.

History

In 1969, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin composed 'Heartbreaker'; his solo introduced many techniques mixed together (very fast note playing with hammer-ons and pull-offs), including pieces of classical music when playing live. Steve Vai commented about it in a September 1998 Guitar World interview:

Shredding (tree-pruning technique)

Shredding is a traditional European method of tree pruning by which all side branches are removed repeatedly leaving the main trunk and top growth. In the Middle Ages the practice was common throughout Europe, but it is now rare, found mainly in central and Eastern Europe.

The purpose of shredding is to allow harvest of firewood and animal fodder while preserving a tall main trunk which may be harvested for timber at a later date.

It was formerly practiced in Britain although Oliver Rackham notes that "The medieval practice of shredding - cropping the side-branches of a tree leaving a tuft at the top - vanished from Britain long ago. Only at Haresfield (Gloucestershire) have I seen a few ancient ashes that may once have been shredded"

Another name for cutting side branches off trees, used mainly in Northern England, is snagging.

Other similar woodland management techniques include pollarding and coppicing.

See also

References