Tips and lessons for getting better at playing

Hey marinepeter, nice to talk to you. Shredding and tapping, two of the most sought out playing techniques, eh? When it comes to shredding, it is nothing but simply playing set patterns, at a high speed. Obviously you must be using alternate picking for shredding, but make sure that you use it strictly. What that means is, a down stroke should follow an up stroke, and an up stroke should follow a down stroke, in ALL circumstances. If you are not using pure alternate picking already, it might be difficult to adapt to it, but trust me, in the long run, it is going to make a difference in your playing. Lets look at it this way. When you walk (or run), you use your left leg and right leg, one after the other, in all circumstances, right? Why? Because it basically maximizes your efficiency. You will never walk like this in your entire life : left-right-left-right-right-left-left-right-left. Getting the point? As for your right left synchronization, its the good old suggestion of "going slow initially, and speeding up gradually". Lets take the walking example again, but this time, with a different perspective. Lets say your left hand is your left leg, and your right hand is your right leg. Now, when you walk, you place both your legs at the same speed. Its not as if you are placing your left foot faster than your right, right? Same way, your fretting and picking has to be synchronized with each other. Each time you pick should correspond to a note you fret. So what you can do here is, focus on accuracy first, forget about the speed. Get a pattern to practise, preferably a pattern you have difficulty playing fast. Go slow first, get the feel of it, and start increasing your speed with each repetition. Stop going any faster the moment your playing (ie picking and fretting) starts getting out of sync. This speed is your maximum speed for that particular pattern. Keep playing at that pattern for the next few days, until you feel you are comfortable with it, then again increase the speed bit by bit. This should get your synchronization right. I use the same method to increase the accuracy and speed of my students. As for tapping, try doing it on clean first, then go for overdrive/distortion. Because tapping on overdrive/distortion tends to sound noisy if your taps aren't spot on. Again, follow the same drill which I mentioned above for shredding. Slow first, then increase your speed. WARNING: "The slow initially, speed up gradually" method tends to be VERY boring. But then again,you do not have any other option whatsoever, right? Always remember 2 things : 1) Accuracy is more important than speed 2) Hard work and patience will always pay Happy playing, and do ask more questions, happy to help.