Taking this idea further, look at blues players like Albert King, or BB King. Neither of those two legends shred like the virtuosos, but I dare you to try and play like them. They can both squeeze unbelievable mileage out of a relatively simple phrase. They make the guitar sing.
Another metal vs. blues argument? *sigh* :lol:
All kidding aside, I'm trying to develop a combination of both 'shred' playing and melodic, 'emotional' playing and turn it into an interesting style of lead: In my opinion i think that's what SRV did (I know, he's mainly a blues guy but can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't call some of his licks fast enough to be shred?), also guys like Kirk Hammett and Randy Rhodes and such. I think you need both, anyways, back to the original topic.
The idea of a piece being tougher then something else is very subjective... i mean, that guy is amazing in terms of metal/rock lead playing... but i think if someone gave him a slide and a guitar and said play, or gave him a classical guitar and sheet music and said play, it might be a different story. I mean, someone who can play all of Malmsteen's pieces might find an Allman Bros solo simply IMPOSSIBLE to play, and that person might also find Classical Gas to be very hard to play.
There's so much music out there, you just have to go looking for it.
Steve-0
i mean, that guy is amazing in terms of metal/rock lead playing... but i think if someone gave him a slide and a guitar and said play, or gave him a classical guitar and sheet music and said play, it might be a different story.
If you're talking about malmsteen there(I really couldn't tell who you were talking about specifically)...he started out playing classical guitar and is still strongly routed in neo-classicism. That being said, I see your point and agree with it. Playing phyrgian modes in different positions is an altogether different skill than those necessary for playing differnt things such as classical pieces with intricate fingering patterns.
Guitarin' isn't a job, so don't make it one.
I guess to me, one technical demand isn't enough to qualify a piece as difficult. So what if it's 400 BPM, if that's all you have to do is play a line of notes that quickly. Just get a metronome and practice until you can do it. Same thing if it's minimal-note blues. If you all you have to do is bend a note here or there and apply a little vibrato, you can learn that too relatively quickly.
The difficulty comes from having to do everything at the same time, which is what the great players do. They play 400 BPM while pouring soul into the music, palm muting, bending, vibrato, legato lines - the whole shebang. There isn't one ultimately difficult piece or form of music. You just get out of it what you put into it.
Of course, this is generalized a bit.
"There's no easy ways man," he said. "You gotta learn the hard parts for yourself."
mmm, its true about some classical peices having complicated fingerings. Classical Gas is pretty hard, but I found Comming Bach by Yngwie even more so, as it involed changing finger positions so quick.
