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15K views 68 replies 19 participants last post by  Smitty 
#1 ·
Does Allan Holdsworth do any sort of alternate picking runs? I have seen/heard about his amazing legato but have never heard about him doing any alternate picking. Any other players that mainly use a legato approach?
 
#2 ·
I'm a big Holdsworth fan, and I have never seen him do an alternate picked run! He hates the sound of pick attack. In fact he doesn't even like the guitar as an instrument! Gotta love the fact that arguably the most technically advanced guitar player in the world doesn't like the instrument he plays. :)
 
#4 ·
That is interesting. I find myself only liking the sound of legato playing as well. In fact I have been working on tapped arpeggios as opposed to sweep picked arpeggios because I like the smoothness of the tapping. Are there any other players you can think of that are mostly legato players?
 
#17 ·
The point is not that players don't use alternate picking *at all* (heck, even Holdsworth does some of it)... but rather that legato phrases are the 'trademark' of their playing style. They use legato more often, and in more creative ways than the average guitarist.
Satriani is considered to be pretty much THE legato player in the rock/metal genre.
 
#20 ·
Not really. We can't disagree on the fact that he has a very original and virtuoso way of playing legato/arpeggio's. I think "He plays really fast with both hands" isn't doing his playing justice.
There are lots of guitarists that can play fast with both hands, but none of them sound anywhere near Hanenberg. You may not like his music, but that's not a reason to disrespect his ability and originality.
 
#24 ·
when I think of a player that is 'mainly legato' I think of lack of pick attack.. i.e. holdsworth or garsed. though satch does a lot of fast legato runs (which I cannot stand,) he plays a lot of bluesy runs, and picks very hard at times, picking every note. so to me, I think of holdsworth and brett as the kings of legato.
 
#25 ·
Legato is a funny thing among guitarists. Where guitarists consider it a technique or an approach to the instrument, pretty much every other instrument player consider it a musical phrasing and nothing more.

In this respect, legato has it's place. But I can't handle players that over-use it in the same way I'm not fond of players that insist on picking everything. I feel it undermines the dynamics of their music and limits their capabilities both as a player and a musician.

Thats why I prefer players like Vai or Gilbert. They are more conscious of the dynamics and subtleties that varying techniques can produce. You can play a lick legato, then later play the same thing with another technique and it will give a whole new feel to it. Satch falls more into this category also rather than the 'all legato' group.

Not to say I dislike Holdsworth or Kotzen, they are fine players. But I would be turned off pretty quickly if they were the only thing I could ever listen to.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Legato is a funny thing among guitarists. Where guitarists consider it a technique or an approach to the instrument, pretty much every other instrument player consider it a musical phrasing and nothing more.
I agree... If you can't do both, you're limiting the music you will be able to play.
Now some people here say they don't like the harsh sound of a pick attack... But even they would have to agree that some music just asks for a harsher sound.
But you can take it overboard aswell... I don't like John Petrucci because he picks so hard that sometimes you barely hear the notes he plays in faster phrases, you just hear the pick going *krrrrrrrr*.

I really like a player such as Guthrie Govan, who is technically a well-rounded musician, and knows exactly how to apply his technique to a wide variety of music. He knows when to really hit a note, or when to just flow with the legato.
This for example:
And ofcourse the brilliant 'Fives':
 
#31 · (Edited)
In response to Scali, post number 28.

You don't need my permission to say whatever you want.

You say this had nothing to do with me, and you might be right. Maybe I should have held my tongue, but i'm becoming sick of people resorting to insults when someone disagrees with them. Doing this lowers the quality of the whole site, and makes intelligent discussion of a topic impossible.This is not an excuse, and if I was out of line I apologise to the whole Jemsite community.

I won't add any further off topic discussion to the thread. We can take this up via PM if you feel the need...

Back to the topic at hand.

For me, legato is just like alternate picking, it suits some phrases, but not others. Neither is better or worse than the other, just different.

Rock on!
 
#33 ·
You say this had nothing to do with me, and you might be right. Maybe I should have held my tongue, but i'm becoming sick of people resorting to insults when someone disagrees with them. Doing this lowers the quality of the whole site, and makes intelligent discussion of a topic impossible.This is not an excuse, and if I was out of line I apologise to the whole Jemsite community.
Well I think that the quality of this, and other sites on the internet also decrease by people thinking that just because they have the right to free speech, have to put down everything and everyone in each and every thread.
I mean, the guy didn't HAVE to respond to my referral of Robbert Hanenberg. Whether or not he likes Hanenberg really is of no interest to anyone, and doesn't contribute anything to this thread. And you didn't have to respond either. Nobody cares what you think of my response.
Just look at the average line of responses to a Youtube video... The amount of disrespectful comments is appalling. What's worse, mostly it comes from people who don't even have a clue about guitarplaying or music in general, at the level that the respective musicians practice their instruments.
It seems like lots of people have issues, because they lack the talent they compulsively have to put down the people that do. So hey, if they think they can say anything about others, don't go crying when I do the same and call them idiots. At least they deserve it, unlike the people they put down.
 
#42 ·
Stupid thread! Seriously guys, get a grip. You're falling out about a guitar technique?

LMAO.

If you can see past the end of your own noses for just a second, you'll see there's a huge sky up there, wars going on, people starving, battered housewives, drunken idiots everywhere, huge planets spinning all over the place, brain surgery... and so on.

Yet you choose to argue about ... legato? Well done!
 
#43 ·
Stupid thread! Seriously guys, get a grip. You're falling out about a guitar technique?

LMAO.

If you can see past the end of your own noses for just a second, you'll see there's a huge sky up there, wars going on, people starving, battered housewives, drunken idiots everywhere, huge planets spinning all over the place, brain surgery... and so on.

Yet you choose to argue about ... legato? Well done!
Actually, I was arguing about the drunken idiots, more or less.
One of the problem with internet forums is that some people seem to think it's some kind of bar. They get drunk, go on a forum and post drunk nonsense.
Now, I don't go to bars because I don't want to have anything to do with drunken idiots, but do they have to spoil internet forums aswell?
 
#67 ·
True dat, Dee.
I saw a video where it's him and Shawn Rickman, the drummer, just jamming, and Shawn is purposely just shredding it up in the most untasteful way possible. It's somewhere on youtube. But...good lord. Paul Gilbert is right when he says that a normal guitarist tapping with two right hand fingers is what it sounds like when Shawn Lane does legato. And his picking is just CRAZY!!
Or was. Quite a shame he had to leave us.
But I honestly think that there is no electric guitarist to ever live able to play as fast as he could in a musical context, and that's just one aspect of his playing. "Gray Pianos Flying," for example, is just so BEAUTIFUL! That melody makes me cry!
Good lord, I NEED "Powers of Ten!" Damn you, Warner Brothers!
smitty
 
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