Paul Gilbert is a completely hilarious human being. His enthusiasm and energy are on par with a hyperactive 12 year old, and if you want to learn how to shred...this is the encyclopedia. I will be spending years with this. Of course, that's mostly because shredding is a low priority skillset for me.
As a teacher, Gilbert is hit or miss. I have heard many a mammal lament that his precision and casual speed are actively discouraging as hell. Personally, I find it inspirational. It's important to set the bar high if you want to be any f'ing good, right?
Surely hair metal is a rock bottom moment in the collapse of the Western World, but it was also a meritocracy. Shred represented the bleeding horizon of showoff guitar techniques: maximum flash with minimum effort. While it's easy to sneer at the conventions and excesses of the format, remember that it's also COMPLETELY AWESOME. The whole spectrum of sweeping arpeggios, alternate picking, cascading tapping, pentatonic modes, it's all worth interacting with as a player.
#ProTip Thanks to digital video you can slow down playback to get a more comprehensible sense of the high speed contortions involved with Malmsteen pyrotechnics.
VERDICT: 10/10 For what it is, it's the best there is. Paul Gilbert outlines the whole vocabulary for a generation of guitar players.
