zooey Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Don't know if anyone here is into this sort of thing, but there's a contest to make a short video of a guitar solo over backing tracks they provide. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1875968385964183/ There's some amazing riffing there already. Honestly, seems like every kid on every block has just crazy tapping and picking technique. Would be nice to hear something that wasn't quite so concerned about hitting the maximum number of notes in that amount of time though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Don't know if anyone here is into this sort of thing, but there's a contest to make a short video of a guitar solo over backing tracks they provide. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1875968385964183/ Would be nice to hear something that wasn't quite so concerned about hitting the maximum number of notes in that amount of time though... Fear not...I hear next month they're having another contest for hipster, skinny jeans-wearing, coffee house dwellers with "substance". Acoustic only. Tearful renditions of anything by James Taylor get 3 bonus points towards your final score. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Don't know if anyone here is into this sort of thing, but there's a contest to make a short video of a guitar solo over backing tracks they provide. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1875968385964183/ There's some amazing riffing there already. Honestly, seems like every kid on every block has just crazy tapping and picking technique. Would be nice to hear something that wasn't quite so concerned about hitting the maximum number of notes in that amount of time though... One of the great things about playing fast is it's the only way to get an emergent pattern that sounds completely different from the pattern you are actually playing. So in that sense, playing fast isn't about hitting the maximum amount of notes in the shortest time for it's own sake, but to achieve that secondary pattern that can seem like magic, to the player at least, when it happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zooey Posted September 13, 2016 Author Share Posted September 13, 2016 I didn't mean to be (quite) so dismissive of the musical value of having that sort of technique available to you, I sometimes wish I could do that stuff too. But listening to a bunch of it in a row, a million guys (all guys so far I think) with that same sensibility, it just starts to feel pretty hollow, like a copout covering up bigger insecurities. The universally applied massive distortion doesn't help either, though maybe it's required to fit with that backing track. Maybe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Yeah, I know what you mean. For example, I can listen to approximately five minutes of Mr. Malmsteen before my head is in danger of exploding. It's just too much fast playing for it's own sake. And sadly, you seem correct about that kind of guitar playing being dominated by males. Just the way it is I guess. I wonder if anyone has done research into why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Yeah, I know what you mean. For example, I can listen to approximately five minutes of Mr. Malmsteen before my head is in danger of exploding. It's just too much fast playing for it's own sake. And sadly, you seem correct about that kind of guitar playing being dominated by males. Just the way it is I guess. I wonder if anyone has done research into why. I think she gives most of us a run for our money... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ48cguV004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdanan0121 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 And sadly, you seem correct about that kind of guitar playing being dominated by males. Just the way it is I guess. I wonder if anyone has done research into why. The female shredders are a growing minority. In the past 3-5 years I have seen videos of more than I thought there would be, and I still see some I have never even heard of. For the longest time, when I heard a female say they play guitar... what they mean is they stream a few chords and sing a la la la. My hope is that is starting to change. I see there are women who are not at all satisfied with that definition of "play guitar." There is even a little girl (I can't remember her name right now) but she is like 7, or 8 years old and can play John Petrucci solos, FREAKING John Petrucci! EDIT: She was 14. It was other songs when she was younger, but still extremely impressive. Wait, is there some sort of rule for posting videos here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glideman Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 I would probably get laughed out of the contest within 30 seconds... LoL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillBee Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 I like the shredster skills but I need some improve in there. Sweeping through the arps does get a bit numbing on the ears after a while. Never google up the 6 year Korean girl nailing a acoustic classical number. Oooooomph! The slap of reality stings. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 I like the shredster skills but I need some improve in there. Sweeping through the arps does get a bit numbing on the ears after a while. Never google up the 6 year Korean girl nailing a acoustic classical number. Oooooomph! The slap of reality stings. :D Well let's face it...any guitar player who says he/she wouldn't like to be able to play faster is lying. However, having technical ability does not necessarily make one "musical". They're 2 different skills sets...it's left brain/right brain stuff. Players who have both are few and far between. SRV had vibrato technique that was a little weird, almost awkward when you watch it close-up, but nobody's gonna accuse him of not being a soulful, melodic player. By the same token there are a million players out there who could run rings around him technically, but sound like a typewriter... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duncann Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 could be simply because generally women (ooh well, some of them) are smarter than men? Haha. I think you're right about that, but are you suggesting that us male guitar players engage in activities simply because we don't know any better? You're right about that too. But at least we might be getting closer: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocco_Crocco Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 I'm entering my cat Zippo... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdanan0121 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 could be simply because generally women (ooh well, some of them) are smarter than men? Oh, they like to think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachdanan0121 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 personally I always thought the contrary: they let us think that we males are smarter than them.. always been a winning strategy.. ah ah Still falls under "Oh, they like to think so." Personally I find neither "smarter." Men are just more obvious in their "seemingly stupid" because for many generations they could afford to be more belligerent. Women only recently have the luxury of not having to hide it. Both have average, or less (the majority), and diamonds. (the few) Generally speaking of course. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 IQ is gender-neutral, and we all fall somewhere on a continuum between Einstein and a bag of rocks. The Einsteins are generally gainfully employed in some research field that most of us have never heard of, and the bags of rocks run for office. The top of the bell curve sits right at 100...most people hover somewhere within 10% of that number. If you fall WAY over on the right side of the curve, you can read "A Brief History of Time" without passing out in a puddle of drool, and you actually understand things like general relativity and string theory...way to the left, and you've probably got one finger permanently lodged 2 knuckles deep in a nostril, and you're watching Dr. Phil. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hideout Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Well let's face it...any guitar player who says he/she wouldn't like to be able to play faster is lying. However, having technical ability does not necessarily make one "musical". They're 2 different skills sets...it's left brain/right brain stuff. Players who have both are few and far between. SRV had vibrato technique that was a little weird, almost awkward when you watch it close-up, but nobody's gonna accuse him of not being a soulful, melodic player. By the same token there are a million players out there who could run rings around him technically, but sound like a typewriter... Ha ha. So true! I'm a big fan of SRV's sense of feel, timing and his ability to play so far back behind the beat yet never lose pulse - ever. That is extremely difficult to do. A perfect example is his rhythm playing on "Life By The Drop" - incomparable! i also appreciated his willingness to play pieces that are not strictly "Blues" but... like a lot of Blues based guitar players, he would stay within the Blues scale far too strictly for my liking. There are chord progressions that allow you to do that but there are equally plenty that don't. I don't know if he recognized this but stuck to the Blues scale anyway or just didn't know any better. Lots of players do this and it's not pleasant to my ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillBee Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 SRV just had that mojo, even on the Bowie stuff that cat rocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Ha ha. So true! I'm a big fan of SRV's sense of feel, timing and his ability to play so far back behind the beat yet never lose pulse - ever. That is extremely difficult to do. A perfect example is his rhythm playing on "Life By The Drop" - incomparable! Yeah, I've always found it difficult to emulate his phrasing for that reason....sometimes some of the "warp speed" stuff is easier to pull off. At least all the notes land right where they're "supposed" to, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verne-Bunsen Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 ...like a lot of Blues based guitar players, he would stay within the Blues scale far too strictly for my liking. There are chord progressions that allow you to do that but there are equally plenty that don't. I don't know if he recognized this but stuck to the Blues scale anyway or just didn't know any better. Lots of players do this and it's not pleasant to my ears. I can totally relate to this. Minor pentatonic plus a b5 can take you far, but if the song calls for something more structured then sticking to it sounds a bit haphazard and unguided, without direction. On the flip side, playing something overly complex or sophisticated can sound really out of place on top of a simple blues. The example that always jumps out at me is Van Halen doing Ice Cream Man. The song is a simple catchy blues, but the first part if the solo comes along and sounds like a Van Halen solo and just seems to me to be a bad fit for the material. The second half of the solo still cooks, but is simpler and fits much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillBee Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Nico, IMO Guthrie is in a level by himself. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisinon2 Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 here is an example of very high level guitar technique used in a way that I don't find boring at all, but instead very intriguing and interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfNUY8IrJi8 Well Guthrie Govan is from another planet. Definitely one of the aforementioned "exceptions" to the rule...that guy is more at home in weird, syncopated time signatures than most people are at playing straight 4/4, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zooey Posted September 14, 2016 Author Share Posted September 14, 2016 Don't know the band, but that's Guthrie Govan, who's pretty much awesome. Totally not the formulaic riffing you hear in some places. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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