General Music Chat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtBZYmvkl1w

You actually look like you're masturbating when you play...


I don't think you'd like anything I would do Sean. I don't play with whammy bars. My two newest guitars are fixed bridges. I really don't care for the whammy...

I love my whammy, mammy! But it's only used for specific effects. Anything used in excess (whammy, finger-tapping, scales-vs-melody, feedback, etc) becomes gauche.

It takes a long time to learn what it is your audience wants and needs from your guitar playing: Passion, power and imagination.

Play in front of people as much as you can. Holing up in your practice room won't get you there.

Any special reason for harrasing the guy?

You're not going to get the reaction/result that you're looking for, so why do it?

You're very good.
I could do all the whammy stuff (and maybe a few tricks that you don't know), but I can't play that fast.
I never got into tapping much - got tired of hearing it in the late 80's.

Any special reason for harrasing the guy?

Seems like it's been working both ways bro.

I love whammy s. When used properly they are a great mood tool. Making a chord cry could add some real grit to the mood of a song if it is used in the right place with the right touch.
I used to use Bigsbys on all my Gibson guitars, even my huge "F" hole had one.

Only someone who never learned to use one with taste could really think of them as being worthless. The real problem is that they are never properly set up to stay in tune from the factory. I use a stock whammy. It does not go out of tune because I took the time to do whatever needed to make it work properly. Mainly re cutting the nut so the strings do not bind. (Not a direct response to anything said earlier) I just hear so many
musicians dissing them.

Thats like no hammering, or no pulls, slides or bends. Only notes without any emphasis should be used when playing guitar. That's what would make a guitar player better? I actually hear things implying that. Like you aren't a real picker until you play a Telecaster. Like duh? Where did that moronic line ever get started? By a bad guitar picker who played a Tele?

Can you believe I heard someone post on another forum with great enthusiasm that the picker he was talking about didn't hammer or bend a note in that whole song..... as if those techniques actually make you a worse guitar player. Go figure... Taking away some tools of expression are to be admired by some?

Oh never mind. Could you guys who hate whammys and replace them with fixed bridges please send them to me?

I didn't say a whammy was worthless.

Just not my thing.

I've heard a lot of neat whammy stuff in the past (Petrucci's use of the whammy in the "Under a Glass Moon" solo a prime example).

I just personally don't use them much; it's not my "style".


For me, the key to enjoying the guitar was figuring out what my style was and then harnessing that to express myself. The whammy just didn't happen to be a part of that process.

Sean,

Your timekeeping is decent on this one...

.. but it's about as exciting as watching someone play scales really fast.

man this is a tough, tough crowd....sheesh...lol

remind me not to play for you guys for another 15 years.

man this is a tough, tough crowd....sheesh...lol

remind me not to play for you guys for another 15 years.

I don't think it's a tough crowd at all. Sean has posted many of these. At one point people were just giving their opinions and advice. But it wasn't until Sean started acting like this that he acquired harsher responses.

I personally can't watch too many of his vids all the way through either. I think there was an SRV vid I watched all the way through, but the VH stuff?? Ugh. You know I'm actually a big fan of VH as well. But even VH knows how to use his leads to what's appropriate for a song. With Sean it's more of an unstructured mess of tricks that pierce the ears. You'll even see the same 5 tricks 5-times within the same vid.

It's really odd to me. The fact that he actually can do some really cool stuff, but his VH stuff even intrudes in his blues style and everything he does. It's uncanny.

If this is what Sean likes to do, and it makes him happy, then so be it. I don't really have a problem with it. But I also find it uninspiring, without any sense of originality, and lacking emotion.

This kind of thing is why I give advice to youngsters at our shows to not take their guitar heroes to too big of an influence, and be very careful of what knowledge you acquire. Knowledge is always good until it becomes nothing but scales forward and backward. I think that's why I like Steve Vai so much. I think that for how much knowledge he has, he still has perspective on keeping emotion in his playing.

There's a song I have on our new album called Sky Down. In the lead there is one single note that kills doing a scale. And that's not my words really. I get props for it at our shows. It's a slow lead, not much to it technically, but it sucks you in from the first note.

When someone does that (not necessarily taking myself in account or patting myself on the back), That's where I gain respect for what they do. Being patient, and doing like Colors said, being appropriate for the song at hand, that's a true skill.

It's like I would have told Jimmi had I been there at Woodstock.

"Ya know Jimmi, you might have a future as an entertainer some day. But ya gotta just stick to the music quit makin all them f*%#@N funny noises."

Hey Slacker, I put the Sky Down solo in my profile so you guys could take a listen.

Like I said, not much to it, but Ive had people come up to me and say it gives them goose-bumps live. That's the biggest compliment I think a musician can get.

Keep in mind the solo starts with the swells at the end of the melodica. I do that live as well.

Anyway, tell me what you think.

And the debate rages on, will Sean emerge as a validated guitar wizard or the criticism will reduce him to a merely one dimensional guitar stunts artist?

Stay tuned I think there will be more to come unless someone comes up with an idea which would settle the question one way or the other.

It's like I would have told Jimmi had I been there at Woodstock.

"Ya know Jimmi, you might have a future as an entertainer some day. But ya gotta just stick to the music quit makin all them f*%#@N funny noises."

Not a good analogy IMO. Hendrix was doing things that nobody else was doing at the time and always in the context of a song and good songs at that, he was fresh, new, bold and innovative his music stood the test of time, Sean on the other hand is doing 30 years old stuff, now mind you there’s nothing wrong playing old styles but if you do don’t expect to longevity or even acceptance with techniques which came and went unless you introduce a new twist to it like Hendrix did by taking the Blues/Rock and elevate it to new heights.