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how come nobody can play the guitar anymore?


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I think that WE as parents are responsible for passing the torch to our own children. My 16 yr. old son is a pretty talented musican and listens to 70's Progressive rock due to being exposed to it his whole life by me. He doesn't listen to or like the modern alternative rock that exists right now. He's had 4 yrs of classical guitar training and tries to cop guitar licks from bands like Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Kansas, Journey, etc........ He writes and records his

own original music in which he plays all the instruments. I think he has a real mature melodic feel to his music,and feel it's because his exposure to the melodic progressive rock that he was raised on. Here's a link to his own music

 

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=453803

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Originally posted by paulskirocks

i think some of the best players out there are sitting in a bedroom jamming to their own spirit...

 

 

Bedroom jamming is derided, but in essence it's the most pure form of musicianship.

 

It's selfish, it's done for pure enjoyment. Which, IMO, is the idealistic way...

 

..and that gets weaned away as the person goes out in the World and gets beat down. The bureaucratic process these days is so much longer, there purity goes away.

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Mentioned several times in this post ...and now once again.

I've seen him with the Boss years ago do the trampoline flip while still playing and also locally a few years back with his own 3-man band.

Man can play. Writes solid songs as well.

If you haven't heard him he's definitely worth a listen. Has his own web site where he sells his own CDs. Has just put a new one out. :cool:

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I'm glad to see less shredding these days - IMO it usually contributes more to the player's ego than to the song. I have a lot more respect for players with the discipline and maturity to play as a supporting member of a band than guys who just want to wait their turn and then let it rip.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

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The guitar is still praised around the world,apparently - getting to know some of the content on http://www.guitar9.com, proves to me that there are still unlimited number of talented musicians out there.

Mostly instrumental (and still quite some shredders) albums, so I guess these things are not ratet as "radio-friendly" and so it would not reach the masses out there like all the current popular music...but, that's what the majority of us wants so...ratings/sales/money...

But then again, sometimes it is refreshing with some of the new stuff. "New-punk" (or whatever it is called), like Green Day and similar gets a lot of negative comments from "old-school-shredders". In some way I agree, but on the other hand if you are in the right mood and just sit down and listen, it can actually be quite catchy stuff.. easy arrangments/melodies/rythms which sometimes fits in perfectly for your mood :-)

Being a norwegian, I would like you guys to check this guy :
http://www.guitar9.com/guitarmusic9/extrastrongstring.html

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soron, i'm listening right now... one thing i like is metal guitar without the screaming vocals.... a little different than what is happening over here...

on a side note, it sure is cool to be able to hear all kinds of music on this forum... unfortunately, my recent cd effort, which is close to done, will have to wait til we get ustadkhanali's studio back up and running, as that is where the recordings reside... one day, i'll post some of my guitar/hard rock stuff for a good picking apart!

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people can still play guitar, i just think the art of being technically amazing AND writing good songs together is lost. hendrix did it, there are some great players who really just rely on self indulgent wankery to show off rather than making great music. Rachmaninoff might have been a phenomenal pianist but he was an inspired composer as well. same principle applies.

id rather listen to a good song played simply than a complicated song that just sounds bad personally.

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Steve Vai is awesome but....
He wishes he could sing a note as good as Jimi did or write a vrese as well as Lennon did etc...

Way too much emphisis on just the guitar here guys. You need a beat and a good bass line and a catchy lyric. Ala "Whole Lotta Love" etc...

Anyone remember the story of "Stone Soup" ?

Do we really need 24 bars of 1/16 notes guitar solos to be impressed by a stupid song?

Its all about selling out to what the kids want to buy anyway so those who can`t be creative usually sell out just to stay in business. And sound like idiots when they do so.

Just listened to the new Chili Peppers Double album....Half the songs are garbage but half are worth hearing again but none really jump out and say "WOW".

I listen to Sirius Radio with my 12 yr old kid. She is a good barometer of what the kds are liking and buying these days. And I have to admit there are some good YOUNG bands out there.

Saw a tape of The Eagles last reunion tour thing on TV last night, Boring...Too polished...horn sections....old farts in audience sitting there like geriatric patients clapping for Guy Lumbardo.

We have war , famine and idoits running the country, all the necessary ingredients for good meaningful rock songs but no-one with the balls to write it, produce it, play it or sell it.

Keep it vanilla or just menaingless or just stupid and make it look cool enough to sell to the masses.

I can go on and on but I need to go to work.
Later






:p

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Musicians are not all innovators. Most remain regular folks who see the way the wind is blowing and convince themselves that THIS is THEIR choice.

We start with Randy Rhoads and EVH. They both ripped it up in their own way, and regular folks still could be entertained by them.

Then came the flood of Shapnel-ites. One after the other. All gifted technicians. Some with a touch more flair then the next.

Along with the bad clothes and haircuts, their wild excursions seemed to push them further and further away from what people wanted to hear. And they killed the guitar solo.

The knee jerk reaction was grunge. Messy hair, and songs. Then that became an exaggerated posture.

As soon as someone can pick up a guitar and play something harder then whole notes that connects to regular folks, solos will come back. Until then, guitarists will follow the trends.

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Originally posted by Joe Cole

We start with Randy Rhoads and EVH. They both ripped it up in their own way, and regular folks still could be entertained by them.



This implies that one is irregular if one is entertained by other "shredders"...?

Along with the bad clothes and haircuts, their wild excursions seemed to push them further and further away from what people wanted to hear.



"What people want to hear" is subjective to what group of people you're referencing. Obviously *somebody* (irregular people?) wanted to hear them, and apparently still do.

What they did was make shredding more and more esoteric, which in turn made their receptive audience smaller and smaller. That doesn't mean that what they did/do is any less valid than anything else.

For every Shrapnel guy one can name that one doesn't like, there's going to be 100 other guys that are in other genres who can be derided in an equivalent manner.



Grunge broke out thanks to the commerciality of Nirvana. Without Nirvana, we wouldn't be talking about grunge right now....

And they killed the guitar solo.[/'quote]


I disagree, that's giving way too much credit to Shrapnel as a genre. Popular trends made it hip to put down people who know what they're doing and can play. Shrapnel was just a label that was never a Top 10 entity - to say that it "killed the guitar solo" implies that the general populace were all somehow aware of Shrapnel Records, and all generally decided to not like the guys that played in that style.


The knee jerk reaction was grunge. Messy hair, and songs.
As soon as someone can pick up a guitar and play something harder then whole notes that connects to regular folks,



The problem is associating what seems "harder" to one person as being an invalid musical statement to another.

solos will come back.



Solos have been back for quite awhile.
As far as Shrapnel is concerned, I think the popularity of Avenged Sevenfold, Mars Volta and Dream Theatre runs counter to the argument that "Shrapnel killed the guitar solo"....

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Let's not forget good guitar playing that isn't lead/solo work. If you look to the frontiers of metal today, they're doing some amazing stuff with riffing. I'll mention, since I've been getting into them a lot lately, Lamb of God.

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The problem is that the big labels have way too uch power and are more or less only interested in money.

It's true some players favour technique over emotion, just as some people prefer thiking over feeling as a way to make decisions. It's not bad to play technically, but it lacks something; just as playing emotionally without interesting technique lacks something. But there are many great players who can do both, just as there are many bad listeners who can only hear one thing.

Have you all heard of Pandora?

Got to www.Pandora.com and sign on. A streaming radio station with a difference, where one can train it to play music tailored to your tastes, and virtuosity s one of the emelents taken into account.
It's a fantastic project, which if it succeeds will make so much music more accessible.
There were, apparently, 40,000 CDs released in the US last year and the fashion stations barely skim the surface. Pandora is trying to make music accessible by criteria other than sales and fashionability.

XX
D

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I think its good that even those who aren't amazing guitarists can put stuff out and be listented to these days, provided they're in the least bit creative. You can bash Cobain's guitar playing all you want, but no-one could argue about his creativity.

Only a guitarist can really appreciate a virtuoso like Vai anyway, most lay people won't go 'wow!' over a solo in E phrygian or a 9/11 rhythm, people just want good music that gets them going, and what's wrong with that?! Sometimes you run the risk of being too good, I think other guitarists never achieved the same level of iconic fame as Hendrix, Clapton et at because although they had fingers like lightening, their music lacked a certain soul that meant that a wide audience could identify with it. Music is not just technical, its social as well.

Just my two cents.

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As some of the others have responded, there are still hundreds of great recordings of really talented guitarists being made every year. It's just that the public moves in cycles and phases; always has. For example, Steve Hackett of early Genesis fame has been active all these years since he left the band. He's still writing great material, still eclectic, and still recording and touring. I met him once a few years ago and asked why he doesn't tour the U.S. with the whole band (he was doing a Border's music one-man show on classical guitar at the time), and he responded that it was too costly to tour here; too much of a risk of losing money instead of making it (I'm paraphrasing). The one thing we have going for us old-timers today that we didn't have back in the old days is the net. Tons and Tons of music available of all genres and plenty to discover and learn from.

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Originally posted by chipmcdonald


This implies that one is irregular if one is entertained by other "shredders"...?


"What people want to hear" is subjective to what group of people you're referencing.


What they did was make shredding more and more esoteric,...


Solos have been back for quite awhile.

 

 

To say that bands like Dream Theatre are as widely listened to as regular rock bands like Matchbox 20 is simply not true. I am not saying that I prefer Matchbox 20.

 

As for being subjective... there is a difference between what is popular, and what is popular within a smaller community of listeners. So, I am referring to the people who buy records, the ones that make things go up and down a sales chart.

 

Your opinion is that shredders made guitar solos esoteric, mine is that they became exessive showboating, and only other guys who aspire to showboat could appreciate more then two songs worth.

 

As for the popularity of the three bands you mentionned, hell, I am happy that someone steps up and lays down some hot guitar. Good on them. But to say that these guys are turning heads in a BIG way is just not the case.

 

As for your "irregular" coment, well.... here's two thoughts.

#1- nothing wrong with being different, it beats the hell out of being ordinary. So, embrace it.

#2- I am saying that it is not the norm if one is entertained by other "shredders".

 

My comment was based on the fact that people who do not have a vested interest in playing guitar in a certain style usually no longer care for the shred style of guitar solos.

 

Sorry if I offended you. It is only my opinion.

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