[neon_black88]

Nevermore... ... Because I don't have a sevenstring, and born is way to fast ... i literally pull that face when i try to play it

[abyssalservant]

COBHC
I . . . think I'm tuned wrong . . .

[eleven59]

Originally Posted by Drew

I completely disagree - given a great guitarist with a good melodic sense, well, I can't think of a single time in a Lynch tune where there was a solo where I thought, "Gee, I wish there was a simple melody line a la Cobain there." To judge the "shred" thing on the less talented guys inserting a wank-fest after the bridge of each song is sort of like judging the 100-yard-dash as an athletic event by watching the special olympics, you know?

That's true. I don't hate all shredders and all shred-style solos, I guess I just got sick of it after hearing so much unneccessary wanking from lesser players (not to mention I got really cynical about shred in general after spending so much time on Jemsite and seeing them value crappy Vai covers way above original songs).

This is why you won't become a faster, more technical soloist - because you enjoy songwriting more than you do soloing. That's not a dig, by any means, but just a different way of approaching the instrument - you'd rather sit down and come up with some cool riffs that work well together, while I try to find my guitar's melodic voice.

So, if you want to become a better soloist, you need to change your mindset - practicing lead guitar isn't "not writing a song," it's building the vocabulary and touch that will eventually allow you to "write" a melody line on the spot.

If not, the world will always need good songwriters too.

That's true, and lately I've been enjoying soloing a lot more, since I have a band and we've been doing more improvised jamming and I've been having more opportunities to put solos into our songs. I have definitely been improving gradually, my main problem is psyching myself out by thinking "Man, I'll never be able to do that"

[Drew]

110% with you on the Vai covers, and even worse the originals that sound like PAW outtakes that everyone raves about.

So, your real problem is psyching yourself out, then. What I always do when I'm feeling down is remind myself of the player I was in 1998. If you played me some of the music I've recorded recently back then, and told me, "that's you in 8 years," I'd just have laughed at you. I still see huge flaws in my technique and have SO much I need to learn, but sometimes a reminder of just how far I've come can count for a lot.

[eleven59]

Originally Posted by Drew

110% with you on the Vai covers, and even worse the originals that sound like PAW outtakes that everyone raves about.

So, your real problem is psyching yourself out, then. What I always do when I'm feeling down is remind myself of the player I was in 1998. If you played me some of the music I've recorded recently back then, and told me, "that's you in 8 years," I'd just have laughed at you. I still see huge flaws in my technique and have SO much I need to learn, but sometimes a reminder of just how far I've come can count for a lot.

Good points all around. Even listening to recordings I did with my band a year ago (both the ones on our myspace page and the ones I did at practice by just putting up a mic in the corner of the room to capture our ideas) shows me that I've improved a lot in that time (some of the songs sound ridiculously slow compared to how we play them now, but that's as fast as we could play them back then ).

[bostjan]

I'm so sick of people who go down the path of wanting to become Steve Vai! He's a great player and a powerful influence, but we already have a Steve Vai.

Even worse are the SRV clones. I don't know about nationwide, but here in the D, we have 50,000 guitarists, and 45,000 of them think they are SRV. Some of them sound just like SRV, but most just sound like crap. I have no musical respect for any of them, sure some are good technicians, but where is the soul in becoming a clone of someone else?

In all fairness, it's mainly the volume of these fuckers that annoys me. If it was only a dozen guitar players, then it wouldn't get to me.

The other thing is when you see a really cool band and somehow they have this SRV copy playing guitar. It ruins what the band is trying to do. No joke, I saw not one, not two, but three bands who had really tight groove bass and drums, laying down some cool dance grooves, but all three had this crappy SRVist wanking off high-powered blues licks over the groove. It didn't fit at all. The third one I saw, I just had to be an asshole and go up to them afterwards. I said something like "Great job guys, I really liked the grooves in the rhythm section! And...umm, the guitar playing was...umm well you sound like SRV" The guitar player actually took this as a huge compliment, so I didn't feel so bad about ragging him. *shrug*

[DSS3]

Am I the only one who doesn't play along to recorded music at all?


I will say, though... the one bands who's material (save a few riffs and a lead or two) I can't play period = Necrophagist.

[bostjan]

Originally Posted by DSS3

Am I the only one who doesn't play along to recorded music at all?

Why not? It's fun to do.

[omentremor]

Wah solos, and cryptopsy solos.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by bostjan

Why not? It's fun to do.

Usually when I play along, I'm just listening to music and then absent mindly take my guitar off the stand and start playing along. It could be a song I've never played before and I'll just start improvising solos over it or harmonizing with the current solo or if there is a solo but no backing guitar, I'll make up backing guitar. It's just fun stuff to do. It's not something I plan beforehand, though. Usually, it's just that I'm listening to a cool song, pick up the guitar, and start to play along. Every now and then I make up guitar parts over a song that I think would have sounded awesome if the original band had done it that way, but there are a million ways to do a song, anyway.