Why do people hate technically advanced guitarists?

[KingsPowerSteel]

I always hear people complain about guys like Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Angelo Batio, Paul Gilbert, etc. But I do not understand why. In my opinion there is nothing that can beat those technicians.

People say they do not have feeling in their music? Why not? Why do you have to be less advanced in playing guitar to have actual feeling in your playing? If Slash had practiced more, would that mean you'd consider him a bad guitar player? I mean, all of those shredders have spent a lot more time practicing their skills than a regular rock guitarist, who most likely just started to play guitar to get chicks and to be on stage. While the virtuoso started playing guitar to fully understand music and to actually become a master on the guitar. That being said, how can they not have emotion? A virtusoso has (almost) no technical boundaries, so he can fully express what he wants in his music, whereas guitar players that play in regular Rock N' Roll bands can only express themselves to the point where their abilities end. Are people jealous of virtuosos? Do they not get the complexity of the music, which is often similar to classical music (especially Malmsteen)? Why do people think they constantly show off? They just play what they feel, but people seem to be jealous, because they can do it at such a high level. These guys have spent probably 10 hours a day practicing just to fully understand their guitar. This is why they actually have way more emotion in their playing then any other guitar players. Just because they are good at it, doesn't mean they are show offs. They just want to play far complexer music, that if you actually give a chance to, is absolutely brilliant.

[Marky]

There's no identifiable sound. 9/10 shredders, I could hear, and wouldn't be able to tell apart from Buckethead to some japanese kid on youtube. And why practice a technique for 99% of the time, when you can only realistically use it for 1% of a song without boring the listener beyond all belief.

Dats ma take on da situashun.

[Zint]

No passion,no soul,no spontanaeity.

I find them very robotic.

[moreblack]

There's no identifiable sound. 9/10 shredders, I could hear, and wouldn't be able to tell apart from Buckethead to some japanese kid on youtube. And why practice a technique for 99% of the time, when you can only realistically use it for 1% of a song without boring the listener beyond all belief.

you got a point there, there seems to be a limit in complexity where the regular listener can no longer relate to the music.

[KingsPowerSteel]

No passion,no soul,no spontanaeity.

I find them very robotic.

How can they have no passion when they basically spend their whole lives dedicated to this instrument?

[appetite4illusions]

I guess it comes down to the fact that you can only do so much technical playing before the effect is lost on your audience.

Guitar players that base their phrasing less on memorized runs or tricky string skipping are rooted in spontinety. There is no end to the amount of emotional playing that can be expressed through the guitar, the difference is the player has to feel it.

It's a connection to the music as far as I'm concerned. It's less flashy and truer to the music.

[KingsPowerSteel]

Guitar players that base their phrasing less on memorized runs or tricky string skipping are rooted in spontinety. There is no end to the amount of emotional playing that can be expressed through the guitar, the difference is the player has to feel it.

I think the audience has to feel it, and usually mainstream listeners might be not able to get the music or to appreciate the musical complexity (because of lesser knowledge in musical theory or whatever). But I don't think you can say THEY have no emotion, it's more that YOU don't get their emotion in the music.

[aidlook]

Well...I can be impressed with guys like Usain Bolt who's the best in the world at what he's doing. Still, I wouldn't probably like him as a painter. Technique can onlý take an artist so far, and it's basically a tool to create the art but it's not art in itself. Artists can be helped by good technique, but technique doesn't make art.

Edited November 7, 2008 by aidlook

[ADPT]

One reason is that, to a lot of people, it just sounds like masturbation with an instrument.

[moreblack]

instead of art it turns into an extreme sport.

[Shuffle]

It's all a matter of how it sounds. I couldn't really care if the guitarist actually knows what he's doing or just playing around if it sounds great... That's not saying I can't appreciate the skills of shredders, I just don't think it sounds particularly good. I'd rather listen to The Sex Pistols (and Steve Jones was actually a far better guitarist than he gets credit for) than any shredder.

[FunkyMonk]

I don't give a shit about them being "vitruosos", that's great for them, but if you can't make good songs that I connect with then I don't care about them. If they made amazing music AND were very skilled then I'd listen to them. Like Buckethead, I mean, the man is fantastic, but he also knows how to stop wanking and play some real music.

[KingsPowerSteel]

Don't you guys think this is brilliance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjmdpWxMhg

[Shuffle]

Don't you guys think this is brilliance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjmdpWxMhg

I really enjoy this but frankly this is different genre than rock. Which means that you can't really compare this Slash, since it's classical music being played with an electric guitar, which is great but not comparable. And this is completely different from the usual shredding that people dislike...

Edited November 8, 2008 by Soulseller

[mr. orangestone]

The music is always SOOOO repetitive. It's just boring. They all sound the same. Yngwie, Joe Stump, etc. There is no emotion, they sound like computers playing fast arpeggios. I took a class from Joe Stump, named the 5th fastest guitarist in the world, and when he wasn't playing fast shred, when he was asked to play blues, he sounded horrible. Blues is a genre based off of feel, they spend so much time getting technical that it results in no feel. I play guitar at Berklee College of Music, one of the best music schools in the world, so I'm not just some average joe shitting on shredders. It really is about showing off, they have got you fooled. Buckethead is an exception, he can shred but he can also play other genres and while he's a freak he is a great player. His shred gets repetitive and boring too though.

Look at Slash, Joe Perry, Hendrix, etc. They wrote some damn good music that is always interesting. Isn't repetitive wanking of the guitar neck. Even people like Randy Rhoads, he'd have great melodic playing and would shred, but he'd actually write songs. Not play classical pieces with slight variations like Yngwie does. Yngwies a fat fuck anyways.

[Guest Satanisk_Slakt]

The three first replies were very good.

Don't you guys think this is brilliance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjmdpWxMhg

No.

[Sysyphus]

The three first replies were very good.

Don't you guys think this is brilliance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjmdpWxMhg

No.

QFT.

[KingsPowerSteel]

Don't you guys think this is brilliance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjmdpWxMhg

I really enjoy this but frankly this is different genre than rock. Which means that you can't really compare this Slash, since it's classical music being played with an electric guitar, which is great but not comparable. And this is completely different from the usual shredding that people dislike...

Yeah, but this is the style of Yngwie Malmsteen. Usually he packs it into metal songs, though it always has that touch of classical music (he wrote the whole symphony this is from by himself, btw.). I mean, it's not really different then classical music, which is very technical as well. To me, most blues guitar solos sound the same. I don't know, but just them using the same scales over and over gets boring. I myself rather listen to music you have to concentrate on and listen to a few times to understand it, because these guys really have understood the whole thing that is called music.

[Guest banaszkiewicz]

No passion,no soul,no spontanaeity.

I find them very robotic.

you hit it right on the button.

[Shuffle]

Don't you guys think this is brilliance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjmdpWxMhg

I really enjoy this but frankly this is different genre than rock. Which means that you can't really compare this Slash, since it's classical music being played with an electric guitar, which is great but not comparable. And this is completely different from the usual shredding that people dislike...

Yeah, but this is the style of Yngwie Malmsteen. Usually he packs it into metal songs, though it always has that touch of classical music (he wrote the whole symphony this is from by himself, btw.). I mean, it's not really different then classical music, which is very technical as well. To me, most blues guitar solos sound the same. I don't know, but just them using the same scales over and over gets boring. I myself rather listen to music you have to concentrate on and listen to a few times to understand it, because these guys really have understood the whole thing that is called music.

It's pretty much this way for me: if they a guy like Yngwie plays classical music, it's fine - he's skilled etc, but when he (or similar guitarists) put this in a rock song it's usually pretty crap (imo)... It fits in classical music, but when it's in a rock solo it's way to precise, robotic, and not enough feel (soundwise). And I personally prefer rock - just my opinion. In rock songs shredders are pretty much what zint said...

[FunkyMonk]

Don't you guys think this is brilliance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpjmdpWxMhg

No, it doesn't fit in with the orchestra at all.

[Zint]

No passion,no soul,no spontanaeity.

I find them very robotic.

How can they have no passion when they basically spend their whole lives dedicated to this instrument?

"Unstudied" musicians spend their whole lives dedicated to this instrument as well.

Slash for example,learned his chops from a second hand "how to" book.

The end result...Slash's playing connects with me,I get where he's coming from.

I feel the passion he pours into his music.

Virtuosos sound like they've spent way too many years with a guitar teacher and practicing scales in their room most of the time.

It comes off as music with no passion to my ears.I'm not saying they aren't good musicians,clearly they are.

But what they offer musically does nothing for me.

The solo in the Stones' Sympathy For The Devil connects with me far greater than anything I've heard from a virtuoso.

It sounds like the devil picked up a Strat and started to wail.

The Malmsteen's of the world are too perfect.

It does nothing for me.

[Shuffle]

No passion,no soul,no spontanaeity.

I find them very robotic.

How can they have no passion when they basically spend their whole lives dedicated to this instrument?

"Unstudied" musicians spend their whole lives dedicated to this instrument as well.

Slash for example,learned his chops from a second hand "how to" book.

The end result...Slash's playing connects with me,I get where he's coming from.

I feel the passion he pours into his music.

Virtuosos sound like they've spent way too many years with a guitar teacher and practicing scales in their room most of the time.

It comes off as music with no passion to my ears.I'm not saying they aren't good musicians,clearly they are.

But what they offer musically does nothing for me.

The solo in the Stones' Sympathy For The Devil connects with me far greater than anything I've heard from a virtuoso.

It sounds like the devil picked up a Strat and started to wail.

The Malmsteen's of the world are too perfect.

It does nothing for me.

Agreed.

[Randy Lahey]

It's because most of them can't write good songs. Everybody loves Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen.

[chevelle]

Like Markyboy said, there's no identity. It's faceless shredding with little feeling and personally, lots of showing off. There's a total lack of melody at those speeds. When they slow down I can appreciate their talent, but otherwise they're all very boring to me.