I can Shred but i have no clue wtf iam doing.

[Mac Teague]

Hey i have been Playing guitar self taught, and i have figured out how to shred almost instinctively but i have no clue if i am using a scale or any technique. i just kinda play what i hear in my head. i need some advice on how to i guess pay better attention to what i am playing because i have no clue what i’m playing. i just know it sounds cool.

 

[idssdi]

Slow it down and learn theory usually works. Also being aware of all the different techniques is kind of useful

 

[Jak Angelescu]

This can actually work. Dimebag Darrell had a masterclass where he said, “I don’t really know what I’m doing. I think it’s a pentatonic scale. At least that’s what I was told. But I don’t spend much time on learning scales, theory and all that other stuff.”
Then you have Marty Friedman say in a video, “I like to play a chord, let it ring out and find little notes that sound good in a sequence over that chord (plays a double harmonic minor). I mean I’m sure that’s a scale with a name, but I don’t know what it is. It sounds good.”
Slash, “I took a couple of private lessons then quit. Theory and all that other stuff came off more like math problems to me than music.”
So yes. This CAN be done. But I think ultimately you should have a good ear as to whether or not it actually sounds good. If your ear isn’t really adept and it sounds like a drunken carousel falling apart, then you should reconsider your approach.
Do you have any clips you can post of this “shredding”? Maybe we can help

 

[Jackson Harsin]

I agree with all of the above, while music theory is interesting and gives a player a ton of shortcuts to the notes they may want to play at a given time, music can be an extremely instinctive thing and nobody has ever said that music theory is required. When you start to play enough different songs, you should start to be able to hear each note on the fretboard without playing it and this can allow you to improvise without knowing theory at all!

 

[Ed Seith]

That was, and largely still is, me. I have only a cursory and circumstantial understanding of basic theory, and I’ve been playing for over 30 years. In the last couple, I’ve been drawn to theory more for expansion of ideas and getting more, different stuff under my fingers and into my muscle memory. I can’t say it’s helped yet, but I still think it’s a worthwhile endeavor.