Drastic overhaul to technique.

[Eggy]

Every 3 to 5 years I seem to reach a junction in my playing, perhaps you do too ? That time has come around again for me. I've spent the past few years looking at the techniques of Vai, Gilbert, Malmsteen etc and spent a lot of time feeling frustrated. Whilst I have the greatest respect for these guys I havn't felt a massive connection with them, in regards to my own style for a long time. There have been elements of many of the greats that I truly admire and wished to replicate. I have had this feeling I was fragmenting my playing style and I needed to find my own voice. I wasn't even realy sure who my influences were anymore when people asked me. After deciding that I was going to "stop trying to be like Stve Vai" I suddenly felt a bit lost.
Enter Doug Aldrich..
This guy has given me a bit of a shake up. The kind that you only get every once in a while ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aK9K70Koek ).
I'm sure that now and again this has happened (or will happen) to a lot of you guys. So now , despite still feeling a bit frustrated about my style and technique at least I've got some inspiration back. I was doing way too much practicing whilst sitting down and having the "stuck in the middle" feeling of not knowing wether I should stick to dorian for this next chop or switch up to a phrygian run. Watching Doug has taught me that it doesn't realy matter as long as you are blasting it out straight from the heart.
I've decided to do a bit of a time capsule thing and make video of my confused/fragmented current situation and I'll make another one in a few weeks time so I can compare and reflect.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsvIfqNujME

Obviously the influence of Doug Aldrich is personal to me but I wonder if any of you guys have been in this situation or perhaps can see it happenening to you in the future ?

BTW ..(If this hasn't happened to you before , be warned...
These kind of situations come with tere own special kind of G.A.S. attacks. I'm in the processeve of getting my hand on a 100w genuine 60's, hand wired butique power amp head. I'm saving up for a 4x12 cab and I'm already selling gear to get hold of a Les Paul (obviously I wont be parting eith my DY though ).

Ben

[S-man]

Great...

Everything causes GAS...thanks for the warning.

[andy7jem]

It says "the video you requeted is not available" on the second link

[Eggy]

Originally Posted by andy7jem

It says "the video you requeted is not available" on the second link

It'll be up soon, it's just YT being slow I'm afraid.

Ben

[newbieguitarmaker]

well it's my 3rd year in playing and i feel like i've hit a junction so i'm starting to do an overhaul on my technique too. I try and find something i'm doing wrong or poorly and then work at it until i can play it 10 in a loop perfectly, then i move to the next technique and do the same thing. The next day i might mix it up a little. Lately i've been working on using my 4th finger more, i tend to not use it with legato so thats what i've been working on a lot.

[wilch]

Same thing just happened to me. I've been spending so long trying to emulate Petrucci and Vai.

Then I heard and saw this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVCSd5PIrjE

Up until I saw the above clip I hadn't really paid much attention to Gilbert.

...then I watched some of the Guitars From Mars instructional clips that are on youtube. Now, I already had the Petrucci Rock Discipline DVD...it frustrated me more than anything else. In the Guitars From Mars clips Paul seemed to be speaking a language that I could understand!! I was shocked, and surprised, and able to apply the things he was talking about almost instantly.

...I now want a PGM fixed bridge. Although I think I might just get ET to make me a reverse headstock neck with a vine for my 421 instead, and grab some f-hole decals. lol

[newbieguitarmaker]

Originally Posted by wilch

Same thing just happened to me. I've been spending so long trying to emulate Petrucci and Vai.

Then I heard and saw this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVCSd5PIrjE

Up until I saw the above clip I hadn't really paid much attention to Gilbert.

...then I watched some of the Guitars From Mars instructional clips that are on youtube. Now, I already had the Petrucci Rock Discipline DVD...it frustrated me more than anything else. In the Guitars From Mars clips Paul seemed to be speaking a language that I could understand!! I was shocked, and surprised, and able to apply the things he was talking about almost instantly.

...I now want a PGM fixed bridge. Although I think I might just get ET to make me a reverse headstock neck with a vine for my 421 instead, and grab some f-hole decals. lol

i just got the terrifying guitar trip a couple weeks ago and i drastically improved because i understand him so well. My friend says he doesn't make sense but my friend is pretty dumb so i don't know, i guess it depends on the person if pg makes sense when teaching

[crevis]

Can't say I'm digging aldrich that much, it happened to me recently, for the last year I've been really into petrucci and lately I've discovered Gambale, holdsworth, greg howe and shawn Lane and alot of players of other instruments as well like chick corea, ferribrachi, dave weckl. I'm focused alot more on theory now rather than technique, although I've learned economy picking which I think is a big asset.

[Dee]

I'm with Crevis on this (plus he mentioned some of my favourite players!). I'm not feeling Aldrich at all, last time me I watched him he seemed to just be firing off fast pentatonic licks which, to me, isn't very creative. I'm not being disrespectful, it's just not my kinda thing because it's been done so many times before and he sounds like a lot of other guitarists. But anyway, I think it's a bad idea to emulate other players, and it's just odd to me why anyone would want to sound like someone else (not that you guys are saying "I want to sound exactly like that", but this is just a general message to anyone) you will only ever be a second rate version of that player. Then again, Aldrich's style has no real identity, so you could probably do what he does and be just another fast blues scale player and no one would know any better. You should develop your own style, carve your own identity, but be inspired by others. Imagine if singers were like "I just want to emulate Elvis"? That would be disastrous! LOL. The reason why is because he had his own, distinctive style and sound. Everyone else would then sound like a cheap copy.

I tend to be in awe of players like Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Greg Howe, Brett Garsed, plus many lesser known players such as Simon Hosford... these guys really are the cream of the crop, in my opinion. I would never try to sound like them, but only try to learn from their technique. Ben, it's great that you have discovered some new inspiration, and I hope you don't go out to copy his style.

Crevis, you mentioned Ric Fierabracci. The guy is an incredible bass player who plays a lot wiith Virgil Donati (my favourite drummer). Good to see Ric getting a mention. Check out an album called Serious Young Insects by On The Virg (OTV). It's an album by Virgil and features Ric. That's an amazing album, very much in the style of Planet X. Quite hard to get hold of though.

[crevis]

Originally Posted by Dee

Check out an album called Serious Young Insects by On The Virg (OTV). It's an album by Virgil and features Ric. That's an amazing album, very much in the style of Planet X. Quite hard to get hold of though.

Will do. I've only really heard Ric's work with Gambale, it's really good though because both of them have a lot of room to work with being only a 3 peice.

[Eggy]

Originally Posted by Dee

I'm with Crevis on this (plus he mentioned some of my favourite players!). I'm not feeling Aldrich at all, last time me I watched him he seemed to just be firing off fast pentatonic licks which, to me, isn't very creative. I'm not being disrespectful, it's just not my kinda thing because it's been done so many times before and he sounds like a lot of other guitarists. But anyway, I think it's a bad idea to emulate other players, and it's just odd to me why anyone would want to sound like someone else (not that you guys are saying "I want to sound exactly like that", but this is just a general message to anyone) you will only ever be a second rate version of that player. Then again, Aldrich's style has no real identity, so you could probably do what he does and be just another fast blues scale player and no one would know any better. You should develop your own style, carve your own identity, but be inspired by others. Imagine if singers were like "I just want to emulate Elvis"? That would be disastrous! LOL. The reason why is because he had his own, distinctive style and sound. Everyone else would then sound like a cheap copy.

I tend to be in awe of players like Holdsworth, Shawn Lane, Greg Howe, Brett Garsed, plus many lesser known players such as Simon Hosford... these guys really are the cream of the crop, in my opinion. I would never try to sound like them, but only try to learn from their technique. Ben, it's great that you have discovered some new inspiration, and I hope you don't go out to copy his style.

Crevis, you mentioned Ric Fierabracci. The guy is an incredible bass player who plays a lot wiith Virgil Donati (my favourite drummer). Good to see Ric getting a mention. Check out an album called Serious Young Insects by On The Virg (OTV). It's an album by Virgil and features Ric. That's an amazing album, very much in the style of Planet X. Quite hard to get hold of though.

Well I'm suprised you got the impression I might be out to copy Aldrich and I'm even more suprised that you fell that his style has "no real identity". It's probably foolish to try and get you to see it from my point of view but I'll give it a shot.
I'm in the very lucky position if being able to sit down and learn a Vai, Gilbert, Malmsteen etc lick and play it until people (who perhaps don't know any better) think I was the one who made it up. The trouble with this kind of playing is that I get less and less satisfaction from it each time I do it. I'm tired of getting to the mid part of a solo when I'm playing live and thinking "wow, I've taken this into Locrian now". Who in the audience gives a ****? Rather than push through the raw, rock emotion of the song I've just given it a nerdy, artsy-fartsy middle section. I'm a rock guitarist damn it, not a jazz man, not a fusion player, just a rocker.
This hit home after standing through a "blues gig" that I'd been advised to go see as the guitarist was "out of this world". He was good, he was very good but not in a good way. His technique was lovely, his theory knowladge, his chord/harmony displacement was second to none but man was he boring.
He was supposed to be doing a blues gig but he ventured off on so many tangents that we all just lost track. He was lucky enough to have 2 "guitar geeks" in an crowd of 90 (myself and Dave Sharpe). After the gig I asked around to see what the reaction to his playing was and in general I was told he was boring. I asked Dave what he thought and the most objective he could be was to say "well, he's different".
I realised that following all this technique and theory to the ends of the Earth was making me a sterile player in my chosen field.

At the end of the day folks,
I just wanna Rock!

Ben

[supermau]

For what it's worth I think Aldrich is a KILLER guitar player. But then I'm not one to over-analyze a players technique to death. I could care less if you shred out the toughest arpeggios on the planet or just rip it up Angus Young style. It's all about the vibe. Aldrich has vibe.

[Dee]

Gambale, Fierabracci and Donati just had a new CD released. I say "new" but it's actually a live show from 2003, released just a few days ago. Check www.VirgilDonati.com for details on that. Should be a great album. There's samples in the media section too, btw.

[crevis]

So that's what happened to Derek Sherinian, I haven't heard planet X yet.

[Dee]

I'm in touch with Derek all the time. Actually, Derek just offered to play on any tracks I make free of charge! Really great guy. Needless to say, I'll be starting work on some new material soon. He just started work on his new album. Not sure if Zakk Wylde is onboard this time.

Planet X just completed Quantum, their new album which is due to be released in May. Check the PX MySpace page for news on that (and sample clips). I'm hoping to get some full tracks from Quantum up there when it's released because the samples are a little short. Desert Girl (with Holdsworth ) is just great. Quantum is amazing, I am lucky to own an advance copy.

Click here for audio clips of the OTV album. You can download the first track free.