I've also developed an interest in shred lately. My main problem with it though is the way it ends up treating the physical challenges posed by the guitar as a kind of object of fetish and that what comes out of it is little other than an expression of that fetish. I've no problem when a guitarist sometimes incorporates shred elements into their playing because the music they aim to create might at times call for it (as happens with people like SRV or Eric Johnson) but most of the more generic shred guitarists I've heard, while obviously technically impressive, seem to be concerned with little more than using the guitar as a device through which they can demonstrate their physical dexterity. I envy their technique but not what 90% of them do with it or, what I take to be, the motivation behind why they do it.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Glice
There's a solo on one of the Beck Yardbirds records which is just one note, attacked in different ways. And he can also play four million notes a second if necessary. Beck - a man with taste.
|
Beck's one of those guitarists, like SRV or EJ, for whom massive technical proficiency isn't an end unto itself but a necessary means for him to communicate his ideas. I'd categorise a shred guitarist as one who plays 4 million notes a second not because the music he makes
requires it, but simply because he can.
I have to take issue with the Clapton is overrated comment, though. I'd agree that his period of invention was very brief and that what he's done, roughly from the mid-'70s onwards, has been pedestrian at best. I'd even agree that during his most fertile period his influence could be seen as being negative but, for about five years, he was the guy who, for better or worse, transformed guitar playing in popular music. The day he plugged a Gibson into a Marshall for what would become the 'Beano' album, he effectively laid down the blueprint that'd see rock begin to replace rnr. There could be questions about how good he was technically although not particularly strong ones. There's certainly lots to dislike about Clapton (both as a player and a person) and, like any famous person, he could be described as overrated. If anything though, I think his significance is now more taken for granted and that, in truth, I'd say that in recent years he's become somewhat
underrated (atleast with regards his playing for the Bluesbreakers, Yardbirds and Cream). It's a typical case for me of someone coming along, stirring things up in a new and very major way, then being superseded by those influenced by him and subsequently ignored.