People who dismiss msuicians or artists as soulless bore the hell out of

[eyepaddle]

Who amongst us has looked into another's soul and been legitmately able to assess it's worth?

No matter how sure you are that your preferred style of music has "soul"-- which is why you like it of course -- the majority of people will actually disagree with you.

In my opinion soul comes from the listener--not the player. If it moves you then it has soul, if it doesn't, well, then it's just not for you.

I'll be honest, I rarely enjoy music that has a huge corporate push behind it--but I would never be so pompous as to tell others that they really don't like what they thought they liked!

A lot of this judging is justifying your own tastes--and you don't need to do that. They are your own tastes after all.

Rant off.

[noahmijo]

1. I really get pissed when people dismiss shred guitar players as soulless

They can portray soul as well only difference they can do it with more notes than your average player :)

[eyepaddle]

3. I happen to like notes myself,

whether it's from Annbjorg Lien on a Hardanger fiddle, some bluegrass mandolin blaze-master OR Steve Vai. Some things trip fewer people's triggers is all.--Doesn't mean those that feel it, feel it any less.

[noahmijo]

4. Mmm-hmm..Court Composer....What do you think?

:) if you get this you will completely earn my musical respect.

If you don't get it......well you earn it anyway just for mentioning Steve Vai (the man who got me started playing the guitar seriously aside from Joe Satriani)

[eyepaddle]

7. Amadeus of course!

Too many notes, just cut a few. :D

[noahmijo]

8. which few did you have in mind sire?

ahhhhh you the man! ALWAYS a pleasure to exchange words with someone who knows Amadeus.

[eyepaddle]

9. LOL

I forgot the next line! :rofl:

For the record Joe is my main man! :hi:

[noahmijo]

11. The Satch! well he was the first *real* player that got me wanting to

actually learn guitar not just play it but really learn it. My style has evolved more into a Steve Vai/John Petrucci with a little SRV mixed in however, listening to any of Joe's albums always is a pleasure even though I'll probably never adot that uber legato style of his :)

[eyepaddle]

16. Here cones my utter heresy,

after a lot of thought, I realized I just don't like Blues! I like a lot of the music that was inspired by blues--but not the blues itself. Granted if I'm in a bar and there's a blues band playing I'll enjoy the hell out of that, but to put it on my stereo or in my car, just doesn't do it for me. Same goes for reggae live it's fine, recorded :boring:

I just can't sweep pick for the life of me, so legato it was! If I crank up the crunch it sounds pretty broad shouldered though. Kinda Randy Rhoads like I'd imagine.

Lately I've been doing mostly fingerstyle accoustic in open tunings--sorta the busy folk-style :shrug: I have no idea where that came from!

That's why I don't questions others' muses who knows where they're going with it. Maybe it'll be someplace cool. :)

[ProfessorGAC]

23. I Do That Too

I've got three acoustics. All are tuned differently. Some for slide, some for droning. I only fingerpick on the standard tuning one. But, i use the pick and 3 fingers thing for plucked chords on acoustic slide.

Me, i've got a very fast right hand. Lots of highly articulated runs.

I try to make sure that hammers and pull-offs are used to create a different sound than picking each note. That way, the same basic pattern can sound completely different at times.

I'm such a shredder that my main guitar is an Ibanez JS-1000. (JS for Joe Satch!) Yeah, i'm that stupid about it.
The Professor

[eyepaddle]

25. Rock on!

I have an Ibanez and a Taylor accoustic. I've been at it for twenty years now, and every couple of years I take a serious run at improving myself, then stall for awhile. I'm kind of in a plateau right now. My paddling is surging ahead at the moment though--that's pretty cool.

Eyepaddle, side-surfin' stern-squirtin' finger-tappin DUer extra-ordin-Aire! :smoke:

[ProfessorGAC]

27. You Should Check Out The Musician's Group Here At DU

Both of you should!

I've got the JS, a Schecter C-1 Blackjack, 2 Strats (outfitted very differently), a Tele, a Dan Armstrong (1967), a Jazzmaster (1962), and the acoustics are a Martin, a Takamine, a Giannini. I've also got a 5 string Fender Jazz bass, and i've got 7 keyboards and tone generators.

I've been playing piano for 44 years, and guitar for 28. Bass about 4, but after this long, it was pretty easy to learn. Even the tricks are pretty easy with those big floppin' strings.

Check out the Musician's Group.
The Professor

[eyepaddle]

30. I will!

see you later--I'm gonna skipout of work and go paddle now!

Gotta love that fresh air!

[noahmijo]

33. I'm on my way out too but my quick list

My main guitar is my Jem 77v (The Steve Vai model that is white with the gold floyd rose) I also still play my first guitar a Mexican Stra that I outfitted with YJM pick ups gives it a nice raw bluesy sound and Hamer Special FM that I got in this little music shop in Upstate NY. I usually just use that one for jazz based stuff but since I don't think they are even made anymore I rarely toy with it. (All Hamers are custom made in the USA)

I've been playing for a total of about 7 years now so I consider myself a complete beginner (actually I consider myself a lifelong beginner because there are ALWAYS new things to learn)

My girlfriend plays piano and one of these days I'm gonna make her teach me :) Eventually I want to pick up the bass and drums as well but there's not enough room in my tiny room..oh well when I get a job and move out maybe..

Well take brotha shred man! see ya round!

[ProfessorGAC]

34. Later Young'Un!

We'll talk again.
The Professor

[noahmijo]

26. Strange I'm sort of the opposite

My legato skills I think are okay but I can actually sweep pick much better than I can play legato.

What you are mah mayan is simply bored of traditional blues but there are always ways to spice up the blues to your liking :)

Hey we all have different methods and tastes music would be boring if player #1 and player #2 always had the same style and taste...

[eyepaddle]

28. Yeah I think you're right

I like to use the analogy "I don't like tomatoes, but I like everything made with tomatoes.

Well, nice meeting you and I'll see ya 'round--I'm gonna skip out of work early (again) today! :evilgrin:

[ProfessorGAC]

22. It Was His Royal Highness Who Said It

Not Salieri. But, he was right there, digging the dig.
The Professor

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

As DU's resident shredder, i am so glad you said that, and not me. I can always play slower. But, if i want to i can do the 16th note triplets. So, i can play 1 note per measure or 48 of them. That's a lot of freedom. And, i know what i'm playing, and i hear what i'm playing. And, it's coming from inside both my head and my soul. Shredders are not soulless. People who say that just aren't listening carefullly enough. Not their taste? Fine! I understand. But, that's a huge leap to soulessness.
The Professor

[noahmijo]

19. You listen to Yngwie's "I'd Die Without You" you tell me

that's soulless. Or even Marty Friedman's "Night" or even yes I am gonna say a name that immediatly makes a shredder take a step back....Jason Becker....

I utterly love almost all music out there from blues to reggae, latin you name it all except for Country but it so happens that shred/progressive metal is my favorite genre and to say it has no soul is like saying angels have no mysticism.

PS If you're the resident DU shredder consider me No. 2 :)

[ProfessorGAC]

20. I've Just Been Here Forever

And, i've been the one taking the beating for being a shredder for 4+ years. You and i will be 1 and 1A.
The Professor

[eyepaddle]

21. Can I just get on the shredder mailing list?

Kayaking has made my guitar playing take a back seat these last few years--but I'm working on putting together a paddling short film and I hope to soundtrack it. I'll keep you posted (if you're interested)

[noahmijo]

24. Hell yea works for me!

I've actually started trying to get back into the game guitar playing took a back seat for 4 years of college, but I brought out all my old albums and trying to re learn them as well as develop a better technique than I had at 19 (I'm 23 now)

It's easily my main hobby nothing beats the feeling of correctly nailing a 16th note etude or even getting the rythm section of a crazy Dream Theater song done in an odd time signature.

On the other hand playing a simple Floyd song or improvising over a blues track is always fun..especially when you do it Yngwie "Spacebo Blues" style :)

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. "Soulless" = uninspired, derivative, unoriginal.

If a band happens to be one of a dozen with the same sound, down to the inflections of the vocalist and similarity of instrumental style (cf. many 1980's metal bands, many current pop singers, et cetera), then I have no problem in dismissing it as "soulless", because it's obviously an attempt to cash in on a trendy and popular sound rather than an artistic endeavour with any sort of merit.

[eyepaddle]

6. You see, this degenerates into pointless semantics almost immediately

Aren't derivation and inspriation similar? At least close enough to make arguing about how others feel inside pointless.

When I was a teen I HATED hair metal like Poison and Cinderella because they were giving actual metal like Iron Maiden and Armored Saint a bad name. I'm a little more introspective now though. A lot of those Hair metal bands that I dismissed as lightwieghts are still together and still touring. They went from headlining hockey arenas to playing bars again.

They are well aware that their chosen style is now wildly out of fashion. Why do they continue to do it then? Maybe they just like it a whole bunch, maybe they even "feel" it.

I will dislike a lot of music (or art) but I will rarely question the motives behind it. Or whether or not somebody "feels" it.

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. Hey, whatever works for them.

But I'd argue that, again from a semantic viewpoint, for those musicians it's more craft than art. Some of them may be quite technically skilled, and enjoy what they do immensely, but there's still something missing; a sort of transcendent spark, if you will. Lots of people can build houses, but not many of them are going to be Frank Lloyd Wright.

[Rabrrrrrr]

32. They are the graphic designers of music

Much like graphic design can be fine in and of itself, and sometimes even hit the realm of fine art, mostly it's about craftsmanship, not aristry.

bands like Poison and other hair bands, and most pop singers/performers/"musicians", and other derivative formulaic fuckholes, are just craftsmen/women. Nothing original, nothing pushing the boundary of art - they found their niche, found their genre, can play well enough within it to get by.

But they aren't doing art.

[WCGreen]

31. Agreed....

Craftesmen not artists....

The craft of music with the out the spark that gives it that push into art....

I was thinking more along the lines of Britney and Jessica...

But a lot of bands just go out there and play....

And there is nothing wrong with that at all...

It's just there is something special about the artist...

Craftsmen give pleasure to the soul as well....

[A-Schwarzenegger]

5. Has somebody been talking about Sting again? Damn them!

[smartvoter]

12. I am in complete agreement. They especially do this to anything

popular or mainstream, as if such an attribute is a clear measure of soullessness.

[eyepaddle]

18. It's the college radio phenomenon

If nobody likes it--it MUST be good!

I am aware that I am bordering on contradicting myself and questioning the merit ofothers' work--but hey, what's life without a little irony? :evilgrin:

[no name no slogan]

13. But Billy Corgan is a soleless bore

there have been several double-blind clinical studies done at reputable research institutions which prove that Smashing Pumpkins really were the REO Speedwagon of the 1990s.

:evilgrin:

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Besides, If You Met Him, And. . .

discussed anything other than sports, you would find out he's a real tool!
The Professor

[no name no slogan]

35. So you've met the Master of Musical Monotony?

i've heard he's a whiny little prat IRL, too. poor, little, rich, white, male Billy Corgan.

believe it or not, i saw a book of his "poetry" in the bookstore the other day :puke: and yeah, it was as bad as it sounds. apparently Jewel's got some competition in the overly-precious stuck-up indy muso category. who knew?

[eyepaddle]

17. LOL!

:rofl:

[AnarchoFreeThinker]

29. finally, somebody's defending my Britney