While building up speed is an important part of being able to play shred guitar, an equally important, and often overlooked side of shred playing is fretboard dexterity: the ability to use all four fingers of the fretting hand to execute fast passages without having to compensate for a weak or unused finger. In the upper echelons of fast but accurate shred guitar mechanics you’ll find the likes of Allan Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Jason Becker and a few select others. What distinguishes these players is their mastery of fretboard dexterity i.e. the use of all four fingers in equal proportion and with equal strength.
In Shred Guitar Mechanics, we’ll look at how to achieve this dexterity through the exploration of four-note-per-string (4NPS) scales. This is not a scale theory book; what we’re concerned with here are the mechanics of this aspect of speed playing and how to develop them. 4NPS scales are the perfect vehicle to explore these mechanics and apply them to your playing, especially if you’ve already gotten your 3NPS or CAGED patterns down, and are looking for that extra something to take your shred playing to the next level.