The Importance of Technical Skill

[ilovepointe]

That's a pretty good description of Coltrane's style. The way I see it, he simply has a lot to say (so to speak) and nothing to prove, whereas Petrucci still seems to be on his endless shredquest to bore everyone to death. Bit of a pity since I actually like some of his riRAB on Train of Thought.

[rmehelba]

dearest mr dave... i like the way you think and am wondering if you have some music of your own that i could find somewhere on the net.

[supere30m3]

Blues is an incredibly different beast than gospel. It may have been based of Gospel but you cannot say they are all that similar. The biggest thing is Blues came from the fact that African Americans were introduced to a new variety of instrumentation that they've never seen before, and had to make up new rules for it. They may have loosely based it off the gospel/African tribal music but there's no way you can simply shift that to guitar without completely rewriting the book.

Hendrix is another good example of somebody who learned entirely outside the confines of traditional rule(Where as Page being an experienced studio guitarist is the opposite. Even if he did opt to break the rules when he had the opportunity). However, there are a few things Van Halen did differently. He had that little finger tapping thing. As for people influenced by him, couldn't give a ****. I myself believe that Van Halen as a band was extremely hit and miss. However, I think he was well more an inventive guitarist than you give him credit for. I mean, the way he introduced speed in itself I would say is creative.

My point is, he learned his technical chops but not be necessarily learning the rules. Suppose the phrase "You have to learn the rules before you break them" can't be taken too literally. But If eel it's kind of too easy of a phrase for elitist instrumentalists to toss onto self taught instrumentalists. The fact that Technical virtuosity was brought to the table is kind of enforcing my point that they're all roaRAB to the same place. That you can break the rules very well before you learn them, or that you can very well break the rules entirely and make up your own.

Van Halen might not have been the best example but he's really the only mainstream figure I could think up to where I know how he developed his technique and how unconventional it was. Hendrix probably would have been a better example because he was very much an incredibly rule defying self taught musician.

[jennnyy]

i just think it's about not interrupting what music is asking of its medium. it doesn't take any skill to hit a gong standing 5 feet in diameter. but when you hit it, it reaches every single body in its projection area and speaks to them. if you interrupt its decay though, it's almost like you absorb its intent and then assume responsibility for its proper redistribution.

[Camden O]

this is for fritter, the poor bastard.

[YOUTUBE]kyhWZW5a9gA[/YOUTUBE]

[Persephone]

A lot of music I listen to the guitarists aren't really that great (Elliott Smith, Kurt Cobain ect.). However I'm really into prog rock at the moment and technical skill is a must for that genre (Robert Fripp, David Gilmour ect.)

[Butterfly Lover]

Andy Warhol was actually very technically skilled and in fact worked as a commercial illustrator before becoming famous as a fine artist. His fine art also involved a high level of technical skill. His Brillo boxes, for example, were not commercially produced boxes that he had bought at the store, they were perfect reproductions created from scratch by him. If you don't think that takes a high level of technical ability, then you don't know much about the craft of creating visual art.

[dangerousjavi]

all i've got for the intermasses is in the link below these worRAB. horrible HORRIBLE quality but it's what you get when you record a live band off the floor straight into a laptop without so much as a mixer or anything besides the built-in mic. i'm seeing myself very slowly moving into a new direction though, not sure if i'm going to try going the bedroom producer route or just save up for a battery powered amp and see how many weird looks i can get while busking once the snow goes away.


also - Dolphy is THE man in my book :yeah: