[quote]demonthrall wrote:The point is that the masses speak loudly. YOU might like some of those “skill heads”, but they are not the greatest. If so, show me the album sales, and the money that follows. Guys like Petrucci, Malmsteen are only known to people who play guitar.
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That’s a wholly disgusting way of determining who’s a better guitar player.
As for skill versus …emotionality… why is it so hard for people(the emotional playing proponents) to acknowledge that there are technically skilled players who still make fantastically emotional music? The argument that being technically proficient somehow means a player can only play fast, sterile, wanking solos is weak.
I’ll take technically proficient playing AND awesome song-writing over sloppy, emotional(euphemism for slow?) playing any day.
[quote]demonthrall wrote:The point is that the masses speak loudly. YOU might like some of those “skill heads”, but they are not the greatest. If so, show me the album sales, and the money that follows. Guys like Petrucci, Malmsteen are only known to people who play guitar.
[/quote]
That’s a wholly disgusting way of determining who’s a better guitar player.
As for skill versus …emotionality… why is it so hard for people(the emotional playing proponents) to acknowledge that there are technically skilled players who still make fantastically emotional music? The argument that being technically proficient somehow means a player can only play fast, sterile, wanking solos is weak.
I’ll take technically proficient playing AND awesome song-writing over sloppy, emotional(euphemism for slow?) playing any day.[/quote]
guys, theres more to making music that dropping a super locrian digital pattern over a minor 7 flat 5 in 32nd’s at 180bpm. While its really cool to shred, it numbs out your audience. I’ve been on both sides and seen it for myself. A solo should compliment a song, a song with in a song. Its not ment to be a time for guitarists to get their gun off. No disrespect to Vai and guys like him, but I couldn’t handle more than 15 minutes of him live. And I usually stand 5 feet from my mesa boogie stack at 65%. Any higher and the low end gets a little muddy. Anyways…ever tried to hum a Vai solo?
Where do you get this idea?
Yngwie Malmsteen and co have studied many forms of music. Classical, Jazz, Baroque, Blues, etc.
Just because they prefer one style doesn’t mean they aren’t diverse.[/quote]
Baroque is a sub-genre of classical. Not a genre in itself. Look it up.
Malmsteen still hasn’t learned to put pauses in his solos. Which is why there is little variation in his music, whatever the style. All shredders suffer from the same weakness: if they pause during a solo, they’re fucked. They certainly can’t use pauses as an expressive device as fully as slower players. Clapton realized that, so did Satch, which is why they changed their playing styles.
People subconsiously pick up on the lack of variety because the tempo hardly varies.
Interesting points here about Yngwie. I think after the first 8 or 9 years of his career he started to become a clone of himself.
I still say the best version was during the Alcatrazz album. His solos were shorter, the chord progressions were more interesting and he actually broke things up and let his riffs breathe. His playing was bursting with feeling in those days and actually complimented the music. And unlike most shredders his sound had some vintage roots such as high action, single-coils and old Marshalls.
It’s easy to forget what he used to be. I think the adulation from fans and trying to top himself technically over the years inflated his ego and killed his syle.
Satriani, Marty Friedman, John Petrucci. Not so taken with Vai.
Vinnie Moore’s the Maze is a good example of fast, but not soulless.
And one no-one else has mentioned yet: Mario Parga. Good enough to have a song on Guitar Hero (Valse Diabolique), but not well known in the US. He also does fast and melodic - e.g. The Magician from 1:35 onwards:
A short solo
His best “emotion” track is a slow one - Winds of Limbo, but I can’t find a YouTube link for it.
