I'm going to learn how to shred

beed84

I might be approaching 35, but so what? I want to rip it up and figured I could get quite proficient if I put mind to it.

I have John Petrucci's Rock Discipline as a reference. Any other tips?

sweepy

From a physical point of view, make a point of fretting as lightly as you can get away with to generate a note without picking and pay a lot of attention to your picking hand, minimising picking action by practicing a hummingbird picking technique . These two pointers will help no end as I see and hear far too many players use unnecessary force and waste energy by sloppy technique

sharpjimbo

Fretting hand < Picking hand.

Look up Troy Grady's cracking the code on YouTube. His analysis of two way pick slanting is a must learn for developing accurate alternate picking when changing strings.

In terms of your right hand (assuming that you pick with your right hand) you'll need to get good at:

• Alternate picking (mentioned above, the difficult part is changing strings and maintaining up/down/up/down).
• Alternative picking (get's rid of the above changing string problem. Some folks like it more than others. I became obsessed with it after watching Frank Gambales "Monster Licks and Speed picking" in the 90s).
• Sweep picking. Start slowly, buy a metronome. Don't be that guy that can sweep pick at a million miles an hour and you can only hear the first and last note.

Did I mention buying a metronome? Buy a metronome.

Before any of the above, work on your vibrato. You can learn all the flashing tricks you want but if your vibrato sounds naff, everything else will also sound Naff.

Also check out Rick Graham on Youtube. His technique is considered by many to be really bloody nice.

When you say shred, what flavour of shred are we talking? Jason Becker or Guthrie Govan?

beed84

Thanks chaps. Your pointers are much appreciated 

I should mention that I tried in my early to mid-twenties but I didn't have the patience. However, after studying classical for the past six years I've learned to take it steady and sit still and focus; hopefully I can do that with my first love – electric. At least I know how to use a metronome now.

In terms of flavour, I very much admire Becker and Govan, but I also love John Petrucci, Malmsteen, Alex Hutchings, Mattias Eklundh and so on. I'm not intending to reach hyper-speed but I would like to churn out some fluid, melodic lines with at least some pace.

Vibetronic

Yeah, what has been said already. From my point of view, I'd concentrate on minimising movement and work on each aspect of technique separately. And try to keep really relaxed hands/wrists/arms whilst doing it With this sort of thing it's really about putting the hours in more than anything else; it's mechanical and repetition (the right way) will get you there. Once you have it down it's trying to use it musically that's the difficult part and @sharpjimbo 's point about vibrato is essential imo. 

Other tuitional stuff work looking up - the Paul Gilbert 'Intense Rock' stuff - it's on youtube; Chris Brooks has done some very good technique books (more sweepy stuff than picking) - and Rick Graham has some very good (but v.advanced) tuitional stuff for sale on his site. There are also some really nice classical pieces/etudes that sound nice in themselves but are also great technical exercises. Drop me a line if you want any of the above, I have loads of tabs and it's great fun 

Tenebrous

Might seem daft if you're not already doing it, but it's 100% true.

Winny_Pooh

Aside from what has already been said:
Put on 9s or a 9.5 set esp with 25.5 scale length guitars. 
Set up with less relief, lower action and start playing lighter. 
Find the correct right hand position where you get a combination of looseness and tightness in the string resistance that works with a stiffer pick.
Get a stiffer smaller pick.
Watch tension in your hands and shoulders.
Slow and precise, then speed up progressively what you can play.

mudslide73

Rick Graham.

Fishboy7

Get a Metronome, Then always practice technique with a clean tone, no od/dist

Also, be sure this is the style you want to play, right?   If the music doesn't turn you on, then whats the point?