I
hope you people enjoy this list I gathered together through my search
of the internet and my record collection. I also hope it doesn't seem
biased in any way and covers all areas of guitar players styles and
their musical genres. If anyone has any suggestions or commendations, maybe
corrections, or just personal opinions, then post away!
Basically,
this list was compiled by looking at all the different aspects of
guitar playing and the social industry behind it, and then creating a
list that is based around a few simple qualities: Technical
proficiency, originality, ability to compose and write memorable
songs, general style and class, tone, versatility, live playing
abilities and probably the most important factor, how influential the
artist has been to the public and the fans that followed, and the
guitar as a whole. So here it is.
I'd
like to clear up some theories that people may have on this subject
that has been so pointlessly brought back up, years after the incident
actually happened.
To begin, Fal Out Boy do not suck,
they are just another band that do their thing. They won Best Live Band
of the year in Total Guitars reader awards in 2007 so that must count
for something?
Whether Pete actually had good
reason to try and kill himself is irrelevant when it comes to
depression. It was foolish of him to bring it all back up, but maybe he
just wanted people to understand "emos" better. That maybe there are
some out there that are real depressives and undergo all their emo acts
for their own reasons. Reasons, I might add, that are non of anyone
else's business. If they choose to tell the world about their last
suicide attack, or the last incident where they harmed themselves,
thats there business. I personally wouldn't tell the whole world what
I've done, but people look for attention in different ways in this
life, not just with a blade and dark eye makeup.
People should stop saying that,
'he should of finished the job, or he can't even kill himself, let
alone play music.' I agree with you, if your going to kill yourself, do
it properly and if you fail, don't let the whole world know! But on the
other hand, its not fair when you don't know the full facts. You don't know me, are you going
to start making comments about my mental state or my life? No, you
don't me as much as you don't know Pete. So its best if your comments of
racial hatred and servititude towards your own opinions are kept to a
minimal. And the times that you have something you feel strongly about
and wish to express them, try and be polite, mannerly and respectul of
other peoples lives. The basic fact is, he's messed up!
Is it just me, or am I sick of hearing people tell me you have to use a metronome if you want to become a fast and accurate player?!
There are a shed load of excellent guitarists who never used a
metronome, they just used a band...you know that old classic way of
becoming good! Jamming!!!!!!
It puts me down so much when all I here is, play with a click, its the
only way you'll improve! Well, I guess that means Jimi Hendrix, EVH,
Dimebag Darrel, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Slash, Daron Malakian, Jack
White, Colin Greenwood, MIke McCready, Brent Hinds, Neil Young, Robbie
Krieger, Jerry Cantrel, ect. are all lame! Well the last time I
checked, they all rocked!!!
So enough of this, you MUST abide by the metronome, and all that, you
are obliged to practise in this way and that way to become
brilliant...just like me!!
They
are headlining Oxegen festival this summer and it could be amazing.
Although I'm not going, I would of course bloody love to see Rage
playing. But to be honest, if I was going to see them, I'd much rather
see them in a small club, I don't feel like they belong on a big
festival stage. Maybe thats being to narrow minded?
Besides the rest of the line up for Oxegen isn't as a good as last
years which is a shame. I would of gone again if it was a little
better.
Although
I haven't written many, my review of Placebo's Black Market Music was
on the bulletin Board and had quite a few comments seeing as it was
only up for a day.
I hope people like how I write?
It
could be an awesome group if they hit if off well. I'm a bit
disapointed at the same time though as I was really anticipating the
reunion of Faith No More and I loved Korn's new album and seeing them
live still kicked ass. Although this would be a perfect time to
disband, I still would really miss them. At least I got to see them
live, unlike System Of A Down! They should of played to Ireland, then
broke up!
I
have started practising the glorious technique of Hybrid Picking, an
advancement on 'Chicken Picking'! For the last six months I have been
writting a few exercises to build up speed and the like but didn't
progress very much. Not until I learned that other heavy metal
guitarist like Brent Hinds from Mastodon (WOOT!) uses it and John 5 has
recorded video lessons for Total Guitar magazine which includes that
technique and has been of great help to me in improving Hybrid Picking.
I first became interested in it when I saw a unknown Jazz guitarist in
a pub in Leicestershire, England three years ago. I noticed he could
string skip from the 6th to the high E so quickly when it could take
years to get up to that kind of speed with a plectrum. I tried it out
but i failed miserably! I couldn't even finger pick normally, even
after a few months of practise. So I gave up hope until I saw Mastodon
playing in Dublin and noticed him playing some amazing solo's using
this techinque! Even the riffs he has written require Hybrid Picking. I
was astonished at this because if you tried to play his solo's and
riffs without using that technique, you could be there for hours
running circles around yourself trynig to complete it acurately. What
amazed me even further was that when I tried it again (obviously I had
improved a lot since I had first saw the Jazz guitarists demonstration)
and I did it! I was naturally quite competant at Hybrid Picking when I
hadn't even used normal finger picking in a long time! I waas so
chuffed with myself that I continued to practise different exercises as
I stated and I have written a number of songs based on that technique
that my band have now began working on for our originals! I think
everyone shoudl try it, I personally found it so very easy compared to
string skipping, albeit it wasn't very accurate, I do believe that I
can correct that with a year of solid practise and then I'll be picking
and pluckin' my way to succes!!! Cheers Folks!
The wonders that are seven string baritone guitars
Current mood: crushed
Deftones,
Korn, Fear Factory, Orgy, Steve Vai, Doug Doppler (student of Joe
Satriani and artist of Steve Vai's record label Favored Nation) and
Jeff Loomis of Nevermore. They all have something in common, seven
string guitars. Steph Carpenter of Deftones actually uses 7 string
Baritone, signature ESP guitars that have been known to of been dropped
to a low F on some occasions. Now some people might think that that is
extreme and over the top...screw them! Extreme, over the top, its what
guitar is all about! Some of my favourite guitars are extremist: Tom
Morello, Dimebag Darrel, Daron Malakian, all players of the utmost
quality and style! I have been looking for the perfect seven
string guitar for a long time and I have not yet found one, I think the
only option for me to do is to buy something farely cheap like a
Schecter Omen Etreme and replace the pickups and any other cheap
equipment that may come along with the guitar. I am very glad that very
few artist use seven string guitars as I don't desire for them to
become the 'standard' for nu metal bands. Trivium, Slipknot, In This
Moment and Dream Theatre have all dabbled with seven string guitars in
a few of their tracks and it does sound very exciting and deep but I
just don't want it to become the 'new thing'. In my opinion the seven
string guitar is a new method in which one can generate riffs and ideas
from, not just a mindless way to sound lower than low, if thatis your
plan, why not just play a bass guitar, put light gauge strings on it
and add a distortion or overdrive to it! I am in a band that doesn't
play extreme metal like Fear Factory or even Korn although we do
encourage each other to add more grooves similar to what Korn do. But
we generally follow more along the lines of Deftones with a more
melodic, epic style. I don't enjoy describing our sound because I never
like reading about other bands saying, "Oh yeah', well I think we sound
very like Metallica but our lead guiarist bases more of his techniques
on Megadeth with sweeping and spanish scales. While our singer tries to
sound like Pantera with low, gutteral growls."
I know its fair enough to put your opinion across about what you
imagine yourself to sound like, but something I just don't give a crap
what you think of yourself, it only matters what the public thinks you
sound like in the end of the day, for record sales anyway. If you want
to think you sound like Rage Against The Machine and you are a death
metal band then thats up to you but the public will not respect you
very much!
Anyway, enough of my angry cynical rambling and I'll return to my love
of seven string guitars...there bloody great aren't they! I love trying
out alternate tunings and the such and the seven strings that I have
played in shops and at friends house have complemented that really
well. (The shop keeper wasn't too pleased with a messed up tuning on
his guitar)
I do truly hoope that the perfect seven string guitar comes along, it
took two years to find the perfect electric guitar (Maverick F-1, then
the Razorback came out of course!)
So come on guitar manafactures...I want a seven string guitar that
looks hella cool, is not black (I already have two black guitars) has a
long scale length so I can reach low tunings such as G# if needed, has
two humbucker pickups of the utmost quality (does not have to EMG's)
has two tone and two volume knobs so I can add toggle switching to my
playing, has 24 frets, does not have stupid cross inlays (Jesus did not
die on a cross, where on earth did everyone get that idea from?). I
suppose thats about all I ask for, oh and a neck that is in between an
Ibanez or Maverick and a Gibson LP or PRS. The woods need to have a
nice resonatating sound to them as well! HA! Cheers folks!