I’ve always been obsessed with speed and this has caused an occasional existential crisis as a guitarist.  Clean, consistent, reliable speed is hard to develop and maintain.  Sometimes I’d like to give up.

Another source of crisis is hearing disparaging comments about shredding by guitarists who claim that shredders are on the wrong track by being concerned with speed or that their playing is unmusical.  I’ve heard every insult imaginable directed at shredders from other guitarists.  Guitarists who, quite frankly, suck.  That’s right, I’m in the mood to give back today.  I believe that Al Dimeola stated something to the effect that those who don’t like playing fast are jealous because they can’t (I’m taking a broad liberty interpreting something I read in a Guitar Player interview).  I agree.  I’ve studied the guitar for a long time and not just heavy metal shredding, which I’ve always liked.  I’ve studied classical, jazz, and everything in between.  I’ve concluded that guitarists should play fast and should work hard to perfect clean speed.

My conclusion is not merely based on aesthetics.  There are reasons based on the physics of the instrument that require speed.  The physics has to do with attack, sustain and decay, the stiffness/elasticity of the body, strings and other components of the guitar system.  How you initiate the movement of the string determines the harmonics present in the initial sound.  For an acoustic guitar the physics of the top and the rest of the body will alter the frequency distribution driven by the string.  After being plucked the sound eventually decays.  What might not be common knowledge is that higher harmonics decay faster than the lower harmonics.  After some time only the fundamental remains.

Stringed instruments that are bowed (i.e. the violin family of instruments) are constantly being driven, having energy put into the string to maintain movement.  The nature of the bow-string connection determines the harmonic content of the sound and is replenished in time.  This is similar to woodwind and brass instruments having air pumped in them.  For the guitar and other stringed instruments that are plucked or hammered the sound cannot be sustained.  To help create the illusion of a sustained sound guitarists have developed tremolo techniques.  This is basically what Eddie Van Halen does in Eruption when speed picking the melody to violin Etude No. 2 by Kreutzer.  Classical and Flamenco guitarists invest quite a bit of time developing good tremolo technique, and so do the rest of us (at least I think we should).  Speed sounds awesome, speed creates feeling.  Speed is the right thing to do.  Guitars need to be played fast, they were made to be played fast!