[eleven59]

Alright, I'm sitting here watching a Tool bootleg I downloaded (Radio City 8-13-02) and thinking about how much I love this band, and thinking about the musicians in it.

Every guy in that band is amazingly talented. Danny Carey's one of my favourite drummers and is, in my opinion one of the best. Justin Chancellor is probably my favourite bass player, or top 3 at the very least. Maynard's got an amazing voice and can write meaningful lyrics and perfect melodies over fucking anything. Adam Jones...

And here's where I get to. I know Adam Jones is a great guitarist, and I love everything he does, but it's a little hard to tell people he's a great guitarist, because they'll immediately go to the tried and true "I can play that, it's not that hard, it's all in drop-D anyways..." and so on. And they're not wrong. I haven't heard anything on a Tool album on guitar that I don't think I could play or I sit there wondering how he did it. And yet, I know he's a great guitarist.

So, I'm reading the latest Guitar World interview with him (great issue btw), and it all becomes clear. Adam Jones isn't a great guitarist because he can play flashy licks at a million notes a second, and he's not a great guitarist because he's doing things that no one's ever done before. He's a great guitarist because everything he does is just so damn perfect. Everything fits flawlessly, and his dynamics, tone, phrasing, etc. is just plain beautiful. Sure, I could play most of the things he's written, but could I write it? Hell no.

And same goes for the rest of the guys in the band. It sounds really complicated together as a band, but breaking it down, they're not over-playing or showing off. Everything's just so well crafted to fit together in interesting ways that it sounds like nothing else. And it sounds huge, despite being only one guitar, one bass, and one drummer. Hell, there's not even a huge number of vocal overdubs. Their live shows sound like the album (and better) because there's really not a lot extra going on in their albums. Just four guys who can create music like no one else.

I had a friend, and fellow Tool fan, say he couldn't figure out the time signature of "Schism", and I realized I'd never even thought about it. The feel of their music is so strong that it just flows naturally. When I learned that song, I didn't even think of the time signature, or count it in my head, I just went by feel. And I know that's how they write. They don't try to be uber-complex, they just create what comes naturally to them, and what they want to hear, and they try to do something different from themselves and everyone else every time they pick up their instruments. And in the latest Guitar World, there's a tab of "Schism", and the first verse switches between 5/8 and 7/8, at which point I immediately thought "Well, that makes sense, it's just 6/8, with the downbeat displaced". Really, the whole song could be written out in 6/8 and it'd make sense, but to try and write down the feel, that's how you have to do it. And it looks complicated, but it's really just moving notes around, adding and subtracting beats here and there.

I'm not a Tool worshipper, or one of those "Maynard is God" people, I know they're just regular guys who love making music. I just think they're pretty freaking good at it

Wow...long post

[Shannon]

Well said on all counts.

There is more to being a great guitarist than playing a million miles an hour. A great guitarist knows when to play and when NOT to play. A great guitarist opens his mind & lets the song tell him what to play.

[Naren]

Well said. I have to agree with you completely. I've always thought Adam Jones was a brilliant guitarist. I can play anything he's written. In fact, I used to do covers of: Hush, Sober, Hooker With A Penis, and H. Part of his unique sound comes from the guitar he plays (a "defective" Gibson Les Paul Custom II, I believe, from the mid-1980s. They were recalled because the paint somehow effected the way the guitar sounded. But Adam liked the sound and has been collecting those "defective" guitars, making it part of his sound). I like how in Tool's music the guitar and bass interact so much. I read an interview with Adam Jones and he said "I'm not a great guitarist, by any means. I just play." And I had to give it to him. He wasn't sitting there, going "Oh, yeah. I'm the guitarist for Tool. I'm so amazing."

And stuff.

[Shannon]

My old cover band in the early-mid 90s used to cover the entire Undertow album. I was the bassist & MAN, those were some fun lines to play!

In the last 2 years, I periodically play a set with another cover band here. Luckily, that do perfect renditions of "46 & 2," "Stinkfist," & "Aenima." Again, really fun guitar lines!

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Shannon

In the last 2 years, I periodically play a set with another cover band here. Luckily, that do perfect renditions of "46 & 2," "Stinkfist," & "Aenima." Again, really fun guitar lines!

46 and 2 is damn fun to play. One of my favorite songs off "Aenima."

[eleven59]

Originally Posted by Shannon

Well said on all counts.

There is more to being a great guitarist than playing a million miles an hour. A great guitarist knows when to play and when NOT to play. A great guitarist opens his mind & lets the song tell him what to play.

As Adam Jones says in the interview:

Originally Posted by Adam Jones

You learn very quickly that discipline plays a huge part in your writing. You learn that not playing can be just as powerful as playing. You need to let things breathe. I could fill up every little space with feedback or something, but why? That silence just makes the times that I do play have much more impact.

He also mentions that he does a few solos on the new album, including one that features a talkbox (said he always wanted to use one, but not as a gimmick, it had to fit, and he finally found a place for it where it really works). I'm psyched for the new album.

Damn, all this talk is making me really wish I had the money for this

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Gibson-Les-Paul-C...QQcmdZViewItem

[juggernaut]

damn it shannon! how the hell am i supposed to read any threads with alba dancing around in your avatar.

[Shannon]

Like walking, talking & chewing gum at the same time....you learn to multi-task.

[Drew]

It's "Forty-six and 2," you posers.

Adam Jones' parts are fairly simplistic the way they lie on the neck, but generally pretty rhythmically complex. I would never rave "Oh my god Adam Jones is amazing!" or anything, but what he's doing works perfectly within the context of his band, and while the lyrics, bass, and drum (especially) parts in Tool are all more impressive on their own, at the same time I'd never dream of calling him a "weak link" in the band. I guess he's a lot like Jim Matheos in this regard.

Interesting to note - I recall an interview from years ago where he said his writing process is basically taking blues riffs and adding or substracting beats until it sounds like him. Naturally, that's oversimplified, but it's interesting nonetheless...

[noodles]

Adam's true talent shows through when you think of Tool as a drum and bass driven band, with the guitar and vocals both weaving in and out of the music. He's not playing anything technically complex, but it is really hard to spend most of your time playing what essentially amounts to fills, without making it sound like you're playing fills.

The man is also a volume knob master. It's fun listening to someone who can control distortion solely by the guitar's volume knob. That is an art that got left behind in the 70s.