Neoclassical Shred – Lick Of The Week


Love it or hate it, neoclassical shred guitar created a huge change in how people approached guitar soloing in the 80's and the ripples of that wave of virtuoso guitarists continue to be felt today.

There were players back in the seventies like Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple whose classical and baroque style guitar licks inspired the one guy who would take neoclassical shred guitar to it's highest pinnacle and continue to be the king of that style of playing some 30 years later. That man is none other than the great Yngwie Malmsteen.

Today's "Lick of the Week" is inspired by licks that not only Yngwie Malmsteen is know for, but also the legion of neoclassical style players that came after him.

To play this lick up to speed requires a pretty advanced technique but don't let that stop you if you don't have that kind of speed developed in your playing yet. At any tempo this lick is a great alternate picking workout!

Be sure to "Grab the TAB" from the link below to help you follow along with the video lesson more easily. 🙂

Neoclassic Shred Lick of the Week TAB PDF Download

Even if you are not a big fan of this style of guitar playing I still think this lick would be a great exercise for almost any style of player.

The strict alternate picking along with the awkward string skips and fast position shifts will help break new ground in your technique. That technique can then be used to play pretty much any style you want.

Try to stay as relaxed as possible when practicing this riff. Especially in the picking hand wrist and forearm. Total relaxation is the real secret to speed. Tension only creates resistance which will always slow you down and keep you from reaching the level of speed you may want to attain.

So in short, don't hurt yourself but have fun conquering this monster "Lick of the Week"!

Carl..

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Neoclassical Shred "Lick of the Week"

2 Comments

  1. keith a brooks on August 12, 2014 at 10:14 pm

    WOW!

  2. Marvin Martin on May 3, 2015 at 4:15 pm

    I really love your lesson man! thank you so much!

  3. Arpan Mondal on November 20, 2017 at 2:07 am

    Hey Carl,

    Nice lessons indeed.
    It’ll be the best if you can provide tabs for all of your lessons.

    Thanks!

    • Carl Brown on November 20, 2017 at 9:10 am

      I can’t provide TABS for something I don’t have the legal rights to do so which would be any song not in the public domain. Everything else should have a TAB link above the video.

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