-
I'm not sure I understand the question, but what I was sort of after when I did this was to toy with the following ideas. I am firmly convinced that different people think at different speeds. I first encounter this when I went to a lecture by a mathematical hero of mine whose work I had studied and admired and in his lecture he was confused,
Originally Posted by Vladan
slow, etc *about his own work*. This guy was a genius, extremely deliberate and deep, but a slow thinker.
I believe in Jazz you can't be a slow thinker if you want to play meaningful lines uptempo. I'm talking about note choice here, not time which I think is less about thinking than about practice and muscle speed. You see this in the way that a lot of fast players repeat the same old licks over and over, only a few can draw on a large collection of ideas up tempo. Fast Bebop especially requires a fast brain since one needs to think about appogiatura and phrasing to avoid just "running changes". So when I recorded that and sped it up, I recorded it slowly enough that I could think of cool things at the tempo my brain works, but hear what it might sound like if I indeed could think much faster. I can play that fast, but only if I rely on my few stock licks.
-
09-26-2014 10:50 AM
-
Re Mathematicians and their speed of thinking.
I think it was year 2000, when I got a book which exact title escapes me at the moment (but I searched the net and It is "..." by Simon Singh). It is about Andrew Wiles and his path on proving "..." You and many know what, the rest can search the net.
At the same time it's wonderfully written history of maths, given through romanced biographies and anegdotes from the lives of famous mathematicians. I'm layman on subject, but the book was fascinating.
It seamed that same kind of fascination shared a well known TV and Film director from here where I am, who at the time was in charge of largest local city TV, so he decided to bring someone in the studio only to show the glory of the book to broader public. I was watching TV one day and I could not believe they were to talk about the book I was blown away not too long before that. Book about "..." and history of maths?!!!
So he brought in some nerd, who even looked like Wiles, obviously some kind of maths genious. However, the guy failed to understand why he was there, what the question was, what made the book so fascinating and basically, he looked overly stupid. He just kept repeating the "....", trying to explain the math problem. In fact, I think he may have been lying about reading the book, hoping he'd pull it out by maths knowledge. However, he was not there because of the "...", but because of the beauty of the book, which he did not read, because he did not know what it was about and so on. I can not remember how they pulled out of the shame, but it was painfull to watch and listen.Last edited by Vladan; 09-26-2014 at 12:15 PM.
-
Fusion players, stop doing those long, 70's intros. Just stop. My ears don't need foreplay. Come in screaming and get to it.
Don't be so predictable.Last edited by Stevebol; 09-26-2014 at 01:32 PM.
-
Much of rock shred stuff is laid out in symmetrical patterns on the fingerboard so that it's easy to play. A lot of it doesn't make much musical sense as the notes often aren't chosen for their tonal qualities but how easy they are to play fast on a guitar. Sometimes that kind of works - I dug the way Ed VH would intentionally do that to get kind of an outside sound before resolving with a more bluesy lick over the i chord. But often shredders are just playing fast patterns that really don't sound all that interesting to me. Originally Posted by Guido
Watch an instructional video by a shredder and they'll often demonstrate a lick slowly and say "it doesn't sound very good slow but it's really cool once you speed it up". Which is to say, many of the licks don't have much musical value other than the effect of the notes going by really fast. If you slow down a fast Tal Farlow or George Benson lick it still sounds pretty damn cool.
-
I don't think it does jazz guitarists any good to slag on non-jazz guitarists. The truth is that, as "easy" as shredding techniques are purported to be, I never see a jazz player back that claim up by actually doing it. Of course you can point at shredders who are not very good ones and the point out how much better Tal Farlow and George Benson are. Wow, so the best jazz players are better than the pretender shredders? What a surprise. I'm not a big shredding fan but let's be fair - it's difficult to do well and the good ones can play with both musicality and skill. You may not like it (I don't) but the good stuff is not easy and my hat's off to any player of any style who works his ass off to develop a technique that he digs.
Personally, I think it's about time to institute a rule on this site. If you ever criticize the playing skills of another guitar player, you should be prepared to back that up with a recording of yourself playing better.
-
Good post, Colin0. Shredding like a pro is really freaking ridiculously hard.
That doesn't mean the end result sounds great, but it ain't easy. Anyone who claims it is needs to put up some clips or can it.
-
Would you call this shredding, playing melodically, or a mix of both? There are some nice runs and shred like patterns - at least to my ears.
-
This guy is my hero ...
-
pretty good if you ask me.
-
"If you ever criticize the playing skills of another guitar player, you should be prepared to back that up with a recording of yourself playing better." Originally Posted by ColinO
So, art critics should be able to paint any style like a full time artist, and sculpt in all mediums as well as a professional sculptor. And theatre critics must be skilled actors, and movie critics expert screen actors? Because reasons? Too funny.
-
-
The essence of fast picking is that you do not lose volume or pronunciation while you do it. It's easier to do on an electric instrument because you can still retain alternate picking technique by adding some volume. On an acoustic instrument, depending on how demanding music you play with plectrum, you will reach dead end sooner or later. Simply, playing will become blurred, people can see that you are playing fast but little sound comes out.
The natural response for all those who play acoustic instruments only, without active amplification, is to learn the so called rest-stroke technique best explained in Michael Horowitz' book Gipsy Picking. You do not need the book itself to learn it if you know what you are doing. It takes time, and biggest obstacle is, you basically need to re-learn many of the melodies you used to play effortlessly because you will need to sort of reprogram your brain.
There are many definitions of what you gain and what you lose by applying such technique, but here are my two cents:
- I gained confidence in playing, and i make much less errors
- This technique provides you with volume that no other way of plectrum picking can provide. You will get tons of volume even from smaller instruments. Hence, music sounds much more convincing, pronounced to the listener
- No more blurred fast runs. Every note comes out clean
- Your hand does not touch the top of the guitar, relieving instrument of wear and guitar top of hand choke. That is, unless your picking motions are too much expressive, in which case you might need pickguard to protect your top from vigorous downstrokes.
- You learn to hold your instrument and your playing hands in a very relaxed manner. This is an important mental moment which boosts your confidence and your image to your audience, and which focuses you entirely on playing and sound.
Of course, again, this is a plectrum technique. Someone who focuses on fingerstyle will not bother to invest time and effort needed to reprogram to this style.
Reply With Quote
D'Addario Eclipse Rechargeable Headstock Tuner
Today, 01:55 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos