Shredding Bach: Guitar Book & Online Video/Audio

This book does something rare: it treats Bach's compositions with genuine respect while making them accessible to electric guitar players who care about technique and musicality, not novelty. The arrangements preserve Bach's voice-leading and harmonic integrity while repositioning the music for the physical capabilities and sonic character of the guitar. Schauss's inclusion of multiple playback speeds in the online audio removes the excuses for slow progress and lets serious students internalize the material at their own pace.

Exhilarating and demanding. Bach's keyboard-driven compositions unfold across the fretboard with unexpected jumps and rapid position shifts, demanding both your technical chops and your musical intelligence. The interplay between the strict counterpoint of the original and the raw intensity of the shred approach creates a unique tension that feels fresh and unconventional.

Electric guitarists with intermediate to advanced technique who want to develop speed, precision, and musicality without abandoning rock and metal aesthetics. Players who have already mastered basic shred vocabulary (alternate picking, tapping basics) and are ready to apply those techniques to genuinely complex musical material. This book rewards players who view Bach not as a historical exercise but as a creative challenge.

• Start with the slower tempo recordings to isolate the fretting-hand movements and clean up your legato. Once the muscle memory locks in, bump the speed up incrementally rather than jumping straight to full tempo.
• Apply sweep picking to the scalar passages first, where the motion feels most natural. This prepares your right hand to navigate more complex polyphonic passages later in the book.
• Watch the online video lessons before tackling the written examples. Seeing how Schauss handles the fingering patterns and pick approach will save you hours of trial and error.
• Balance Bach's structural clarity with the energy of the shred approach. These pieces demand both precision and intensity; neither one without the other will ring true.

Assign this to advanced guitar students as a summer technical challenge or as part of a year-long curriculum focused on expanding beyond genre boundaries. Feature arrangements from this book in a showcase concert that pairs classical and contemporary music, positioning it as a bridge between musical worlds. Use it as a reference for students preparing for auditions or competitions that value technical mastery combined with interpretive depth.

• Sweep picking across multiple strings and registers
• Right-hand legato and hammer-on/pull-off clarity at high speeds
• Rapid alternate picking with clean note separation
• Tapping technique for scalar and arpeggio passages
• Reading and executing complex polyphonic lines on a single instrument
• Translating keyboard-based voice-leading to fretboard navigation