QuickAdvice: Suck Less At Shred - Plus, Win A Free Copy

There are people that play guitar well, either through natural talent, or years of expensive lessons. There are also guitarists with delusions of grandeur that think they could become the next Jimi Hendrix if only they could afford the high cost of lessons. Delude no further, this app is for you.

When you first open the app, you are greeted with 10 videos and four theory lessons. Of course, the first thing you will want to do is start shedding, so you will go straight to the first video. Here your tutor, Scott, will show you a C Major scale. Not only does he tell you which fret to use, he tells you which fingers should play each note, how you should pick each string, and how you can alternate the notes on the scale to play a shredding solo. He also mentions that C Major and A Minor share the same key signature, so you basically just got two lessons in one.

Each video shows another scale, focusing on the key of C Major and A Minor. But, before you spend all of your time watching the videos, you may want to check out the theory lessons Scott has so painstakingly written for you. You can check out the Tab section for each scale taught with a little summary of how Scott feels about the scale and some useful tips on how to practice them. Scott also goes into detail about picking technique in the Picking section. This will be very useful information to read early on, so you don’t learn bad habits that you have a hard time breaking in the future. In the Theory section, you will see a grid of all of the notes on the fret board of your guitar (memorize it), and a grid of the various keys, their notes in a scale, and their Relative Minor. The Warm Up section, which Scott points out is his least favorite part of practicing, but recognizes its importance, is where you will find some suggested fingering combinations to help you get your fingers ready for shredding.

I went into this with pretty low expectations. I was only intrigued because of the clever name. I’ve tried out a few guitar lesson apps and been disappointed with the lack of information or the over-complicated nature of the information provided. Suck Less at Shred has plenty of music theory to back up the practical lessons you will learn. I fancy myself an adequate guitarist and spent two years in college as a music major before finding out that thrash metal was not one of the options to take for the performance focus of the major. So, I feel that I can confidently say that this app is amazing. Scott does a great job of teaching the technical aspects of scales, while making it fun and interesting. What you get for only $0.99 amounts to the same lessons you would get paying $25 (or more) per week to someone with the same knowledge of music.

If you want to learn how to play guitar, I’ve got a free copy of Stop Sucking At Guitar for you. If you already know how to play guitar, but want to learn how to blast wailing solos at your neighbors, I’ve got a free copy of Suck Less At Shred for you. Just leave a comment below. Please mention which app you want. I will hold a separate contest for each. Yes, you can enter both contests, but you have to leave a separate comment for each one. Contest ends Monday, June 6, at 11:59 p.m. CST.