A 40 minute education

**WARNING** Yes it will take about 40 minutes to experience the following blog post, depending on your reading speed, because it contains 35 minutes and 18 seconds worth of video which may take a couple seconds to load, as well **END WARNING**

Recently I have refocused my musical leanings on something that captivated me a couple years ago and has never quite let go. That would be a fascination with talented rock 'n' roll guitarists who hone their craft and structure their music so that each song becomes an exercise in awe-inspiring face-melting ego-driven speed-laden technically-masterful hard-rockin' soloing. As with many things, a detailed examination of such an art at its highest level serves as a microcosm of society.

The name that to many people embodies the most extreme example of such guitaristry is Yngwie J. Malmsteen. His roadies where shirts that say "Yngwie Who?/YNGWIE &*$%ING MALMSTEEN, THAT'S WHO". He plays more notes faster and cleaner than anyone, and brings a thoroughly classical sense of composition and arpeggiation to his solos - and his modes of dress and attitude. Check it out, press play:
Yngwie is flamboyant and arrogant, and he's GOOD. To some this may be the most amazing display of talent you've seen on this particular instrument - whether or not it's your style, you have to recognize that your favorite guitarist simply cannot play that fast and that cleanly.

Unless your favorite guitarist is one of the other fellows in this post. Because as you'll see, there are folks out there who can do this stuff as well as Yngwie. But like I said, it's a microcosm of society - there are many different approaches. Yngwie is technically superior to almost everyone else out there - like I said no one can play as many notes as fast and as clean as he can. And his compositions are technically sound as well - the sound clearly harkens back to the Classical and Baroque eras with its complex musical modes and immense ornamentation. The thing that Yngwie lacks, which is a glaring omission that overshadows his incredible talent, is innovation and creativity. He does improvise his solos, but they are improvised in a predictable way - he connects arpeggios and scales from different modes and creates a sound that sounds quite unique the first time you hear it, but if you listen to more than one or two of his albums it all starts to sound the same - he does not have the rich variety of musical styles to pull from nor the desire to create something new - just the desire to perfect what has already been done. This is an initially impressive but ultimately shallow approach to the music, but serves as a good introduction. Here is another who plays with similar speed and better innovation, but also lacks the emotional depth present in some of the later players we will examine. His name is Herman Li and he is the famous guitarist of the absolutely over-the-top extreme power metal band known as DragonForce:
To Herman's right is Sam Totman, and they both arguably play faster, cleaner, and better than even Yngwie - you've got to be impressed that they can both play the same insanely fast passages in perfect unison with one another, and that their individual solos retain a sense of personality, style, and attitude that is unique from one another. But how many of you felt emotionall touched by what happened? The whole point of that video was "look what amazing guitarists Herman and Sam are" - for proof look at the picture-in-picture view of their hands during the solo. The entire focus of the video is on Herman and Sam's talent - they are fun loving guys who do not claim to be deep or importantly abiding figures but rather just like to have fun impressing people with their talent. And they do.

When it comes to over-the-top guitar soloing that DOES have emotional quality, it is impossible to ignore Steve Vai. He has bent his talent and energy to mastering an incredible range of expression, and while he does so one can easily see his incredible abilities. He does not hide his ego-ism and he does show off quite a lot, but it's all in the name of emotionial expression. Take a look and see what I mean, but first let me explain what you are seeing. Steve is playing a guitar with three necks, each with their own separate output cable. The middle neck is setup like a normal electric guitar, but its output goes to a looping device that will record and playback a passage of music so that he can solo overtop of his own rhythm work. The top neck is a twelve-string guitar - the regular six and another six set an octave higher. The bottom neck is a six string guitar with no frets to enable him to do lots of smooth slides. Just watch the way he uses each of these different parts of the instrument to a different effect.
Yes he's playing a three-neck guitar which is something that you don't do unless you have an ego as massive as that instrument - but you have to admit that he does communicate quite a bit of emotion through his playing.

If there's one thing that Vai does better than emotion it's showmanship and he never does it better than when he's playing with bassist Billy Sheehan. This clip should prove that to you:
Any chance you get to watch Steve and Billy play together is just absolute loads of fun. I could do a whole other post about Billy and other bassists who are at the same level as all the guitarists I've mentioned today, but let me wrap this up by moving on to what I consider the two absolute masters of this genre of music. First is the man who you saw finishing his concert set at the very beginning of that first Steve Vai video - he has not only perfected and mastered the art of guitar playing but he has taught and influenced so many younger guitarists - if anyone is out there going "But Metallica's guitarist is good, too" well Joe Satriani taught him how to play. Joe also organized the G3 concert which each year tours Joe and Steve and one other guitarist around the counrty to maintain the country's fascination with its amazingly talented artists. Joe Satriani, or "Satch" has become the father of a new generation of rock 'n' roll, all of whom look up to the legendary Jimi Hendrix as their grandfather or godfather, but have been more directly influenced by Satch himself. My favorite song here would have to be the Satch Boogie:
Any DVD or CD with G3 in the title will give you a fuller experience of just the kind of blessing that Joe Satriani has been to this music.

Speaking of blessing - the truly best solo guitarist out there today is also (not surprisingly) the one who attributes all his talent to the Lord who gave it to him and plays his music as an expression of praise to the creative God who created us with the ability to create - when someone asked Jimi Hendrix what it felt like to be the greatest guitarist on the planet, he said "I don't know, ask Phil Keaggy". Here is a video of Phil using a looping device to literally compose and arrange a song live on stage while singing in his trademark gently loving voice:
There you have it folks - no one uses their talent to glorify God more than Phil Keaggy, and in the end, that's what it's all about.

If you've stuck with me through all this, I applaud you and thank you. Have a blessed day.