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A question of Technique...


Guest JackButler

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Posted

I didn't really bother to read the entire thread so I aplogize if my comments are off track a bit, but technique from a players perspective is individual and doesn't have any rules, as far as I'm concerned you're a guitar player even if you choose to fret with your elbows. But Jack's perspective as an instructor differs. I think legato technique is most sensible as a more advanced or subsequent training method to rudimentary picking styles. If a kid wanted to learn shredding, my guess is that logic would suggest mastering picking first...of course I'm a Page freak blues player, so what the hell do I know?

Posted

Cheating ... no..

lazy?..... Yup! ....

Same with sweep picking.... if you need to sweep get a broom!

hahahahahhahahahahhahah kidding kidding..........

Those are the jokes I make... because I am not really proficient at either thechnique..... more of a comfort thing than anything... I actually pick much faster than I can do it legato (too much Al Dimeola at a young age... hahahaha)...

I follow the rule of: do what works best for you and the song....

Although right now I'm trying to emerse myself into country (Albert Lee type sick chickin' pickin' .... )

Posted

I didn't really bother to read the entire thread so I aplogize if my comments are off track a bit, but technique from a players perspective is individual and doesn't have any rules, as far as I'm concerned you're a guitar player even if you choose to fret with your elbows. But Jack's perspective as an instructor differs. I think legato technique is most sensible as a more advanced or subsequent training method to rudimentary picking styles. If a kid wanted to learn shredding, my guess is that logic would suggest mastering picking first...of course I'm a Page freak blues player, so what the hell do I know?

However, conversely...case in point. EVH is my favorite, and his left hand fretting to right hand picking ratio is probably something like 10 to 1. See..no rules.

Posted

The goal of music is to listen to it. Does it really matter if you picked the note or not? For that matter does it matter that it took 23 takes to get the solo down and even at that it has been spliced a dozen times? I think you are confusing a means with the end, the end is music to be heard, the means are of no significance once the end is accomplished. Too many people go to G3 tours and get the impression that Vai is a spectator sport, when to him it really is just the way to create the sounds he hears in his mind. If a song is not pleasing to the listener's ear, it does not matter how hard or easy recording the music was, which brings me to Yngwie. Many people are anti-Yngwie because they do not appreciate his neo-classical sounding music, so they insult him as being all technique and no feel. Do the members of the Boston Pops fall into this all technique no feel category as well, mean while Neil Young is keeping it real? The biggest issue with any opinion is who is the person giving the opinion and what is their real objective in sharing the given opinion. Whenever I heard someone bash a playing technique or style that raises a red flag that screams "I can not do this, I will never be able to do it, I feel inferior, so like a 5 lb dog I will bark about it to make up for my own deficiences".

Posted

Hmmm, ;)

Telling someone that there is a "proper" way to play guitar is like someone telling you that the is a proper way to PhuKK.

Everyone is going to do whatever they need to do to get the sound that they want. Even people that hold there guitars/picks weird can still pump out some great music.

Legato is just another technique at your disposal.

One of the best legato players is Ritchie Kotzen, he slides around the neck like he's ice skating on it.

Posted

Thanks for the learning inspiration this and threads like it generate for me. ;)

Posted

Playing a legato line is cheating! AHAHA!! Classic! Ehh..play whatever fits the vibe of the piece or create the vibe with a legato, pickin', chick'n lickin' line ..whatever. Guitar players are the most critical of the musical bunch and it's so damn funny because at our core we're just a buncha down-and-outers and losers with egos too big to realize it.

Posted

:P

Heres my take on this whole .. " i can play 100 notes in a stanza" bullshit

ANY jackass can play fast and play scales.... it takes TALENT and FEELING to put make a song sound good.... lookin for the robot sound?.... thats 90% of all so called "guitarists" out there.... learn to play the notes with feeling.... not to just PLAY the notes..... so take yer "shredder" crap and go the way of the Dodo please.

FLAME ON WANNA BE'S!!!!!!!!

Sir Douglas ;)

Randy ;)

Posted
ANY jackass can play fast and play scales....

Now come on. I HATE that knee jerk line. No, not everybody can play fast, nor can everyone pedal a bike really fast, or hit a tee shot 300 yards. Does everyone want to? No.

I'm not defending them, and I'm sure as hell not a shredder (never was, never will be, maybe could never be). Everyone should be trying to say something musically, regardless of genre.

BTw, tell these little punks to go up to some orchestral musician and call him a cheater because he plays a legato line when it's written.

Posted

I just play what comes natural or happens to sound good for a particular song. Look at all of the great guitarists who use hammer-ons, pull-offs and legato playing to its potential. I think it is more important to concetrate on musicality anyway....but that is me. I wouldn't let any of what people say bother you - if it sounds good, it is good.

Guest Buck Dharma
Posted

All that matters is that you can express the music in your head. The technique you use doesn't matter. If everyone picked all the notes all the music would sound the same. All the innovators have been different than the mainstream: Hendrix, EVH SRV,etc. How you get the sounds doesn't matter, as long as you get them. Blues depends on hammer ons slides and pulloffs to sound good and so does rock. I guess if you play boring jazz it's sounds right without them.

Guest Buck Dharma
Posted
boring jazz? keep the rationalizations coming LOL

I didn't mean that all jazz is boring! Relax!

Posted

I was checking out an old recording of Jason Becker playing with Cacophony from 1989 and thought you guys might get a kick out of this section....

At around 40 seconds Jason comes in with these crazy legato lines that just flow beautifuly together. May not be everyones cup of tea but back then I was a Junior in High School and this stuff gave me a tent in the ol' trousers. ;)

Cool legato section

Yes I know...legato stuff doesn't have to be this fast but it brings back a ton of memories.

Posted

LOL, I knew I'd catch flak for that one but yeah....

At 40 seconds in Jason rips into some VERY quick hammer-on, pull-off scale/arpeggio runs. It gives it a very fluid sound.

There are a few actual picks in that section though.

Posted
Cool legato section

Yes I know...legato stuff doesn't have to be this fast but it brings back a ton of memories.

Sweet!!! Maybe I'm just a soulless shredder at heart, but I'd love to be able to play like that (without putting in any effort whatsoever of course ;)).

-Austin

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