Lyrical Soloing

[GuitarSlinger]

What about Steve Lukather? A big name of 80's pop and rock mostly known from Toto. This guy has amazing phrasing. His solos are always tasty, catchy, and not overdone. As a studio musician Wikipedia credits him for having worked on 800 number one albums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Lukather

[redbaron]

I guess that´s really it: I´m asking if anyone knows any NEW players, and for an answer I get everybody telling me their favorite guitarist from 25 years ago. I know each one of them so well, believe me, and could go on adding several more - Lifeson, Landau, Petrucci...

But you can´t always live in the past! I think that there are still many great players around. The Alternative Rock and Metal scene is teeming with great guitarists - see and hear them live on stage and you know they´re for real as Hendrix and Moore were.

It´s just that in my perception, the classic "solo guitar" has become extinct. If that´s the case, well, musical tastes come and go, so be it. But maybe I´m overlooking something, that´s why I was asking...

But in another aspect I agree with Muddhole. A while ago I played a session with some kids (=20 year olds) who were normally playing togethr in a Metal band. They hung their instruments low to their knees, but when I said "let´s start with a Blues", they looked at me with empty eyes...

[pooterpatty]

I don't know how new this guy is, but I found him on Soundclick and really dig his stuff. his name is John Czajkowski, and he's an ex Navy SEAL, which automatically makes him cool.

Check out some video

[fooks]

it's gotta be the music that's being played and popular, it doesn't seem to lend itself to that kind of soloing.
altho slash and buckethead come closest to what you might be lookin at.
i saw buckethead with gnr here a couple yrs ago and the guy was incredible.
didn't know who he was at the time but did some searching and he can cut the solo's as with slash but i guess it;'s just not the right music to solo to. tunes aren't written like they used to be?
here's a clip of buckethead, not the best quality but it's not a frantic wank.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EELj8ANtzCA

[strychninekid]

I think what your overlooking is the over popular use of drop tuning. Everyone does it and honesty I think it takes away from soloing. I have yet to hear a great solo from a dropped tune song. Maybe I haven't heard enough but from what I have heard it's pretty lame.I was talking with Kurdt Vanderhoof from Metal Church a while back and I asked him about drop tuning and he said it's crap. LOL Old School guy.. He pretty much said that instead off drop tuning "learn to play better riffs!!" I hear ya about the fresh new talent. i know one guy here who is 20 that blows me away by far and he has taken the classical route and puts it in his metal. That should be the way to go but Muddhole is right. The new generation doesn't want to sit and learn they want to play and they opt for drop tuning because in my opinion is easier than the old standard. And it's sad..

[strychninekid]

I would like to introduce you guys to a friend of mine Daniel Dean Cambell. He is in his late 20's. Definately worth a listen

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=3877699

Rich

[epauley]

Good thread and discussion but I am going to throw a wrench in the works. I agree with redbaron – new blood is important. It revitalizes the discipline by injecting atypical approaches and consequently, innovative ideas.

Nonetheless, it is a mistake to fall prey to the pop-culture trap with phases like “living in the past.” The classic guitarists others mention above are still living human beings who constantly reinvent themselves and advance technique. Classic playing is classic regardless of what era a guitarist is associated. The age, sex, ethnic background of a musician doesn’t matter. Only the ideas matter because they take us down a different and inspired path.

Rather than sub-dividing guitarists into pointless niches (e.g., greatest solo played at a Sunday picnic by a red-headed Norwegian teen… ), focus on the idea(s) which emerge despite subset.

Of course, the heart of redbaron’s question is about the state of the solo today. Redbaron challenges us by asking, is the solo extinct? I honestly don’t think so. It is a false perception.

Our exposure to new solo material is limited because today we can easily self-impose limitations on what we styles we listen to. For example, one can choose to listen to only heavy metal on their ipod and seldom if ever be exposed to blues, jazz, country, classical, etc. As a result, that style is confined by the listener within a vacuum and can be endangered of becoming stagnate. (Please note, metal is used simply to illustrate the point - not an attack)

Meanwhile, guitarists who aren’t stuck in a vacuum continue to create new material. Guitarists such Hendrix and Satriani (and many others before and since) were and are influenced by wide-ranging styles and thus, they created more dynamic solos – in reality, the mutt is healthier than the thoroughbred.

The mutts will survive and thrive– it’s a law of nature. Some are young, some old, and some are redheaded Norwegians. Unfortunately, their recognition is restricted because they refuse to conform to the boundaries of the self-imposed limitations of listeners. In turn, we mistakenly perceive them as extinct.

[GuitarSlinger]

Live in the past? You're the guy who started the thread posting a Gary Moore video from 87 and how great he is. Don't get me wrong, I mentioned some old farts, but it seemed relevant. There are plenty of these old farts still making modern music so whats the big deal about giving them a mention. Lifeson and Petrucci among my favorites, and Buckethead was a great mention too. The Nottingham Lace solo is really great. Skip ahead to 2:45 for the solo.

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

[Muddhole]

Good topic and some good insight.

I took the question relating to Rock guitarists because Red Baron mentioned David Gilmour and Gary Moore with the question partaining to contemporary artists. Which can mean "modern" as in todays musicians, but can also mean that are still alive, existing today. I was just pointing out that todays (Rock) musicians are not of the same caliber as those from 20-30 years ago. The ones you hear on the radio and in magazines, MTV, VH1, and so forth. Sure you can find plenty of great musicians that are not discovered and only because they either do not have the funds to market themselves or the record labels don't feel they would generate profits from the genre of music they choose to play or because they don't have the look. I'm sure anybody here can generate a list of musicians who would blow you all away from all kinds of genres from, blues, rock, r&b, funk, Jazz, and as such. The ones not in the spotlight and have yet to be discovered. The root and cause of all of this? Money...

[redbaron]

epauley, those are very good points. And obviously you´re spot on because I´m limiting my query to such a narrow space as "lyrical soloing the Moore/Gilmour style" - I mean, indeed it doesn´t get much narrower than that

But fooks and strychninekid are right, too. I don´t know if drop tuning is really the root of all evil (interesting thought though!), but I too think that today´s songwriting is different. Muddhole - I tend to believe that this change in music taste is responsible for there not being some "new Gilmour" rather than a general, money-driven decrease in musicality...

As a case in point, 4 weeks ago I was playing a gig with 3 other bands, two of them made up by young guys in their early 20s, all of them coming from the Alternative/ Metal corner. When the evening was over, the audience had listened to 4 hours of live music from guitar bands - and in these 4 hours, only one single guitar solo had been heard.

(And that was yours truly redbaron, because we had played a cover of Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet", and I just HAD to let rip, I love that song )

[redbaron]

...and to my astonishment, after my band had played, some of the guitarists of the other bands came up to me and said, "hey man, blimey, you can still play the old way, I mean like fast and solo and stuff!"

That´s when I felt I was a leftover from a long-gone civilisation, like the Romans or Egyptians.

[fooks]

...and to my astonishment, after my band had played, some of the guitarists of the other bands came up to me and said, "hey man, blimey, you can still play the old way, I mean like fast and solo and stuff!"

That´s when I felt I was a leftover from a long-gone civilisation, like the Romans or Egyptians.

lol, i hear ya.

"the old way.....


and that kid stryk9 gave a link to, is pretty dam talented. thanks for the heads up on him.

...solo and stuff..lol

[Wedgebill]

I'm just an old fart who sings a bit, you know, that noise that fills in the gaps between the guitar bits

[strychninekid]

I'm not saying drop tuning is the primary evil.. However I am saying it's a shortcut that so many young people have taken.

[meesh]

You guys have rerally made some interesting discussion out of this original topic. Ultimately I side with Muddhole to the fact that the industry is the greatest factor to so many so called artists with so little to no actual talent. Who's going to spend time working so hard on something like actually learning to play an instrument when there are so many shortcuts.

But there is no doubt those players exist, it's just they are underground. A Guy like Kelley Joe Phelps (link below) is an example to a style of music long removed from the public mainstream but stilll has his niche and place in music today.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4028288969975636739&q=kelley+joe+phelps&total=82&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0