Sound was great, and the guy seemed genuinely happy up there, but 90 minutes straight of physical mastery was less enjoyable (to me) than some of the random local bands. Just recently, I was at a festival and saw a very well-known acoustic guitarist. In line with what you said about liking slow songs from fast players, I think if you always play fast and complicated stuff, you kill a sense of variety and surprise. I'd say I listen to less guitar-forward music over time, probably moreso than the general public but less than most guitar players. These days, I go for a lot of hip-hop, soul, and synthpop when I want to enjoy music and contribute to a party playlist. Always tried to stay open-minded and continue finding new music. When I was a teenager (31 now), I listened to a lot of the shred pantheon and ran scales out the A. My dad was in a bluegrass band and my first guitar teacher played a lot of classic/southern rock and solo jazz pieces. Don’t shoot the messenger folks, i’m just being honest about how non-guitarists more generally react to shredding. The winners were either people who don’t shred in public, or people who played lyrically and reserved shredding for only the most intense moments. I’m sure i’ll get downvoted for this but i’m a pro with 30 years experience, and i’ve watched a lot of guitarists win and lose over the years. It’s the difference between all the fusion music that gets ignored by history and Miles Davis, who could play anything he wanted, but often plays only one note in a 2-3 bar period, especially at the beginning of solos/phrases. I know it’s a cliche but ‘a great musician supports the song.’ It’s a cliche for a reason. And if you’re not the absolute best technician, other musicians won’t be interested either because that is a very rarified game. But get used to non-musicians not showing up at shows or listening to the records. In which case, burn all the time, all over everything. Unless of course you are making music strictly for musicians, which is a valid pursuit. The audience wants to connect with your music, and that means playing an audience some music that they will care about. Audiences of non-musicians want to be swept off their feet by mutual communication. Standing on stage blazing 100% of the time is like expecting others to enjoy watching you pleasure yourself. Great players play phrases, almost like a singer (listen to Gilmour or BB King). The best players who can only do so at the peak of a solo or phrase, and only briefly. Don’t shoot the messenger, that’s a fact. But fewer notes seem to work better a lot of times.ĩ8% of listeners listen to music differently than many musicians, and as such will hear too much fast playing and press ‘skip track’, or walk to the bar and talk over the music. I still want to play fast to increase the range of techniques I use. What are your opinion on this? Have you ever experienced some kind of existencial crisis in your playing? Do you feel playing fast is mostly playing for other guitarists rather then playing for the audience? In my improvisations, I am trying to play less and let myself digest these notes instead of playing a lot to sound cool for other guitarists. Examples are: Lines in the Sand and Goodnight Kiss. My favorite guitarist is John Petrucci but I realized my favorite solos from him are not the metal ones, but the slowers and more jazzy. I am starting to wonder if playing fast is really what I want my playing to be since this guys can, with fewer notes, express more emotion. Now, listening to BB King, Steve Rothery and Guilmour, I realized it may be more effective to express feelings with fewer notes. I always aimed to become really fast and play complex solos. Always admired shredders but starting to change my mind a bit about my goal as a guitarist
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