Breaking out of a certain style...

[kgbrad]

Ok, so lately I've been playing a lot of pentatonic, blues-ish stuff and although I have been using it to help build up my speed and accuracy, I would really like to get away from the blues style for a little bit to work on shredding. The trouble is, it's hard for me to get away from a certain way of playing once I start. Any advice?

[thepatient]

start listening to different styles of music

[toki]

well what i do is when im in a bluesy mood i put on some early Aerosmith to inspire me

when im in a shredder mood either Iron Maiden
or... some Aerosmith ;D

Aerosmtih has some blues and some shred if u listen to alot of their not so popular tracks like Nobody's Fault

[blackorchidx]

i think your problem would be more that shredding is very difficult and its easy to go back to what you know.
a common issue with players is to sound good than to play bad (sounds silly when phrased that way)

what i mean is that when you are practicing a diminished sextuplet lick of doom and it just sounds horrid, you would rather sound cool by playing pentantonics or blues because its a familiar mindset

[Blue]

Try some Paul Gilbert stuff because he plays pentatonic and blues at insane speed, so you'll practice more technique but still use the scales you know. He also mixes it nice with harmonic minor. Shawn Lane has some crazy stuff also but that is harder.

If you want to learn something else you'll need to learn the scales. Checkout other musicans and find whats inspire you.

[shapiro]

Two words. Eric Johnson.

[toki]

tow dudes
Joe Perry and Brad Whitford
one of them does wicked solo's while the other is as blue as the sky (lol thats a stupid medaphor)
then they switch roles