"Instructional" shred videos

I have lost probably days of my life to instructional shred videos. However, I am into them purely for entertainment. In an instructional video, a guitarist typically plays a lick at actual speed, then plays it at a slower speed for the edification of mere mortals. But mere mortals usually don’t stand a chance of duplicating even the slower speeds — hence, my abstract pleasure in watching a guitarist sit there without a band and wiggle his/her fingers really, really quickly. Here are three such recent joys for me.

. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRs86UB7FOc

. . .

The first is by Dreaming Dead‘s Elizabeth Elliott. Here, she’s doing more of a commercial endorsement (for Fernandes guitars) than straight-up instruction, but there’s still that fish-out-of-water, dry, awkward atmosphere I love about these videos. Just from her seemingly effortless playing, you can tell she’s quite the shredzilla.

. . .

. . .

The second is by Revocation‘s David Davidson, perhaps metal’s top shredder right now. Even before he moves a finger, he already looks like a shredder with that Jackson Warrior axe. But once those fingers start moving, look out! Basically all instructional value goes out the window. Try taking this stuff to your guitar teacher! He’s doing some crazy string skipping stuff in odd meters, and pulling it off with pizzazz. Part 2 of the “lesson” is here.

. . .

. . .

Finally, there’s Abbath of Immortal. These “lessons” also necessitate quotation marks because you will learn absolutely nothing from them except that he is very goofy. Actually, he’s a formidable guitar player, but he has no idea how to communicate his knowledge. (He admits this in part 2.) I love these videos (parts 2 and 3 are here and here) and can always depend on them for a laugh.