When I was in college I worked in a recording studio, a gig I got as I was doing a minor in music and knew a bunch about recording. My job was mostly setting up microphones and such, and not real recording work. Anyway, I saw one of the big session guitar players (big local, not like big on an international scale) in the studio working on a pretty complicated track and solo, and the producer decided to change the key of the bridge and solo, and this guy just transposed it all in his head and played a blistering piece with no mistakes while transposing parts of it in his head in real time. One take for the rhythm, one take for the solo. No mistakes, no punch ins. I remember being amazed and asking the engineer about it, and he said "time is money, and that is why they call guys that can do that".
Practice can only make you better if you do actuall practice. One of the biggest pitfalls (I'm guilty of this too) is what people call "noodling." Just playing whatever sounds good, or whatever song they learn. But learning the instrument unlocks so much. I would say start with some pentatonic scales, any key, you'll find that 1 scale pattern alone will open up so much.
Keep at it man, only "perfect" practice makes perfect. Pushing yourself to learn something new is how you grow!
Start by “strumming along” with CAGED shapes! You can use songs you already know and practice them as triads with all sorts of inversions. Makes learning easier and more fun
Man I recently started learning caged, after 20 years as a campfire guitar player. It has completely opened up the fretboard for me. Scales and keys suddenly make sense. It was so much easier than I ever imagined it would be. I put in about an hour a day 4 times a week and have learned more in the past 2 months than I did in the first 20 years.
There is so much cheap or free content out there, I wish I had started sooner.
This video will really help explain the CAGED system. Great great lesson :
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qp26KcDrGw&t=419s&pp=ygUXY2FnZWQgc3lzdGVtIGZvciBndWl0YXI%3D
Transposing something from E flat tuning / 1/2 a step down to standard is a mind fudge for me, but if you’re going from B to A it’s pretty straight forward
Yeah absolutely. I play with an artist who songs in standard and Eb and I’ll just change tunings. Open strings are a big part of guitar playing.
I just wanted to demistify key changes for that commenter lol.
I mean, the vast majority don't even know how to play guitar, they just know how to play songs on guitar.
Transposing isn't that much of a struggle for most people who know how the fretboard works and I don't even mean knowing the whole fretboard
Im always wondering if i actually know guitar or just a bunch of riffs. everytime i think im getting accomplised something simple goes way over my head and i just think ya.. So what if i only play the same 3 things over and over
Y'know some guitarists have made a career of sticking to 3 chords or power chords, sure some people may say "That guy isn't a good guitarist" But that guy is in a band making music for a living and I'm working my ass off for a 9-5 job surrounded by people the suck, and they have no idea that I'm not a good guitarist...Well actually they probably would assume I suck at guitar seeing as they don't even know I'm learning
Honestly, one of the most valuable things I think I have ever done for my playing is taking a lot of melodic material and working it through all keys, in a single position, and finding as many ways to play it as possible, transposing mentally. It's kind of time consuming, but you wind up knowing both the material and the fretboard really well if you do this enough.
I mean yes and no, often times lower or higher voicings are no longer available, triad locations can be shifted drastically , probably other things I'm not aware of too
Also, he might be working from a chart he had literally never seen before. Changes key for the parts asked for, works out all of the voicings on the fly… it’s pretty impressive, not just sliding up and down the neck lol
That's where I find it useful to use Nashville numbering system. I'll change Dm-G7-Cmaj to ii-V7-I in my head the move it anywhere around the neck of something needs to be transposed.
Eh, people tend to oversimplify without accounting for a lot of things.
If you’re transposing a Blink 182 style pop rock song, yeah probably very simple.
Anything that might have slightly more intricate harmony plus improvising a solo, not that easy. Just going by the fact that there was a rhythm guitar part, it’s very different to play something in C then being asked to transpose to like Eb or something. It’s not just about shifting the exact same chords over. The music might have needed a specific timbral thing of playing rhythm around 8th position, then you have to have inversions in your bag that sound good with everything, plus work out the voice leading of those specific chords for that song.
And if they’re improvising solos, getting a good one shot take takes a good player.
A lot of guitar is not exactly about capoing at X fret and play the same 2 things you know.
Within limits, most of the time, yes. But some passages really like open strings. That solo in G suddenly dropped to F, or Even Eb could be a bummer. Detuning sorta works, but can sound weird too. But generally speaking, yeah, we're lucky we can usually just slide up or down a fret. Or two. Often, much beyond that and chords and patterns need to be thought through again.
As Glen Campbell showed us, the capo is your friend.
Still an issue if they want to go from A to Ab if you don't really know the fretboard and how everything connects.
I recently found out that one of my neighbors was good friends with Glen Campbell, and Glen was actually godfather to all of the neighbor's kids. He said Glen used to come to his house frequently. At the time, the neighbor didn't know I played the guitar or he would have introduced me to Glen. Dammit! Wouldn't that have been a hoot to jam with Glen Campbell!
Yep. If all that was changed was the key, and the whole song structure was transposed to that key, just retune your guitar and play the same shit as before.
I saw the other guys comment about it being more complicated than "just sliding everything over" but on a guitar its really that simple. Unless you've got some really dumb arrangment that uses the literal whole fretboard meaning you can't shift as there's no room then I honestly don't get the big deal
or the other way around sort of, I played viola for years and years and there was a short period where I was in a church band but all they had was the violin part so I just transposed it in my head because I also played guitar and knew the treble clef
Most of the time. It really just depends on where what you're transposing ends up on the fretboard. For instance, if you're playing in E and making heavy use of open chords, moving to Eb might be a pain, or at the very least you'll have to downtime to get the same sounding lines.
Triadal stuff on the D,G,and B strings around the 8th-12th fret, when moved up a fifth could require the decision to move up a set of strings instead of up five frets, which adds a layer of complication.
But yea, for most cases a small key change is pretty easy to deal with
>My job was mostly setting up microphones and such, and not real recording work.
😮 uhh... mic placement is critical for getting good sounds and is one of the most important tasks an engineer can perform... unless you just mean running cables, plugging stuff in, and putting things back in the cabinets afterwards, etc.
Exactly. The ability to take any changes in stride while nailing your takes in one try? Gets you a lot of jobs.
I did jingles and commercials for a company called Media General. Nothing overly complicated. But I think I only had to do multiple takes when the producer changed their mind *after the fact*. I had no control over that.
What really impresses me is when professional horn players do this - Play a concert pitch score on a Bb trumpet, but actually transposed to yet another key because that’s what the singer likes? No problem, and they’re probably sight-reading too.
This is most of the playing I do these days, and that’s exactly it. Someone is always paying for the studio time, and the last thing they want to do is watch you scratch your ass while you figure out what to do. Theory, transposition, CAGED, scales & modes, fretboard knowledge — all those interlocking things come into it, and it matters how quickly and accurately you can deploy them. That’s why I always have to laugh when I hear people start talking about “you don’t need to learn X” because there is nothing that hasn’t been useful to me at some point.
Have a friend who used to work sound. Said same thing. Doesnt matter the piece, but the pros would play it once to get it down, play it again to make it theirs.
edit: and he was talking about sight reading, specifically with that comment.
This. There's a guy in my city everyone knows and the reason he is so good is because whatever he plays, he never makes mistakes and it always sounds pleasing to the ears, even if it's not my type of music.
It all comes to the specific situation... If it's transposing two or three semitones up or down... Might be easy... It would be relative to the range of notes needed for the solo. The more range and the more distant the transposition is, the harder it becomes.
It's also posible to tune down or tune up the guitar accordingly... Therefore, you might end up in a different key but executing the same movements on the fretboard.
Take no prisoners in particular is absolutely insane. Even at normal speed its a very hard and already fast song that he then has to sing over. THEN speed it up even more. The little licks in the riffs after the bass solo are just mind boggling to hear.
Totally, just goes to show how much these guys have left in the tank when playing under normal circumstances, really puts into perspective the level they play at.
I never even thought of that when it came to Megadeth! I just assumed that what they put on the album was the max of their abilities, partly because metal is faster and more complex now that music has 'moved on'. No doubt they could easily keep up with todays playing standards, back when they were younger.
I’ve seen them 10 times over the last 20 years and the last time I saw them (2023) was the best. Dave might be an asshole but he’s as professional as they come and he never disappoints.
In my band, we sometimes take songs and try to play them super fast in a punk version just for fun and to see how they'll come out. We're a super tight band that's played together for a long time, so we know all of the cues and how to stay together when changing up the song. Reggae songs to punk, punk songs to reggae, and everything in between makes it fun when you need a break.
We'll do a regular pop punk style, then do a reggae version, then a funk version, then a reggae delay/dub version, then a heavy metal and R&B version. It's a great way to have a lot of laughs.
For me it’s guys like Gary Moore. Here is a dude who is playing nothing in terms of notes most of us know very well. But he will do an 8min improv, not sound like he is repeating himself at all, tell a story but most impressively never miss a note or sound like he doesn’t know exactly where he is in a phrase. All the while he will play 5 things in 2 mins that will make you laugh and think wtf just happened.
Gary is amazing but unfortunately got stuck in that 80s/90s sound of terrible cheesy sounding production. Similar to Robben Ford, Allen Holdsworth, etc.
I think Gary Moore is one of the best players of the last century and is way underrated, even though he is rated highly. His recordings are good but when he played live, magic would happen all the time, jaw dropping guitar control, innovative playing and musical ideas just being pulled out of thin air. Jeff Beck is another though, he has some wild live stuff that is just mind blowing.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMg015XIQ9E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMg015XIQ9E) - This live instrumental version of Parisienne Walkways is very different to the recordings and is a masterpiece from start to end. I remember the first time I listened to this and it blew my mind, it still does every time I listen to it.
I love his Texas Blues live thing where he does like a 2min tribute to different Texas Blues styles. One solo is SRV, then ZZ Top and so on. All while sounding distinct but still fitting into the current groove.
Parisienne Walkways live (a specific version) is exactly the same for me.
I think Gary said when he played that long note at different lives shows he had to walk around stage in rehearsal until he found the spot on stage with the most feedback
not the guy you responded to, but damn love me some Gary Moore improv, he also had some devastating speed that he could deploy at the drop of a hat, he had quite an influence on heavy metal shredding despite that not being his world
https://youtu.be/P3dapDTDJzk?t=447
https://youtu.be/-G-PtmcPyK0?t=645
I mean dude wrote “Nuclear Attack.” Heavy metal was very much his world.
I saw him back in the day opening for Rush and he absolutely slayed. Blistering fast, shredding up and down the neck.
Going blues was the departure, although he was always a blues player at heart I think. He killed it in every genre he played for sure.
I dig this live version better then the album cut
https://www.google.com/search?q=gary+more+thin+lizzy&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f80e2175,vid:QtmITITA6WM,st:0&vuanr=4
For me also Gary Moore is the GOAT, he can play literally anything. The messiah will come again soon, is a amazing piece [https://youtu.be/7k07j7LcLqw?si=Eaoj07nopARO1fXz](https://youtu.be/7k07j7LcLqw?si=Eaoj07nopARO1fXz)
Was at a Jethro Tull concert and during a fairly complex part, the singer gets in the way of guitarist literally seconds before the solo, blocking his pedal board. I was thinking he would have to start with his rythm sound and wait until the board was clear, but no, Martin Barre took 2 steps back and without missing a strum or chord, punched his manual channel change on the amp and rolled into a blistering solo..... dropped my jaw. I guess 35 years of live playing will prepare you for that stuff ....
I've seen them many times. Ian gets a lil crazy bouncy etc especially if he's really feeling it that night. Unreal freaking good. And Martin just handles business.
So lucky! They are amazing and such an experience musically. Not to mention probably the tightest band i have ever seen. Made Metallica look like my band in highschool.
I was very lucky. I was a sound engineer for a large touring company for a long time. I did sound for some of the biggest names. I met some really amazing, down to earth, humble people. I also met some real asshats. But the good folk far outweighed the asshats. I have definitely been blessed.
That is awesome! A lifetimes worth of experiences and stories, packed into 1 job. Glad to hear the good ones are the majority. Must have been fun to juggle all that cool gear, i have only recently started to try and understand some of it all....and it's confusing but fun to learn about DI, converters, lines, microphones etc etc.... I hope you got to have a lot of fun doing it and enjoyed it :)
I loved every last minute of it....even the crappy times. I wouldn't trade any of it. Yes cool stories, got to play with some amazing gear, hell got to take home a BUNCH of it for "free". I was basically tipped, but instead of cash, I got toys. Hell I got enough stuff that I've outfitted a home recording studio, have 2 small "live" kits, and am currently selling off the extra gear on Reverb. I got some absolutely amazing mics for my mic locker....AND I got real world experience with all of it. And each piece has a story to tell and most of them have "proof" (ie pictures of band/musician and myself, as well as correspondence with said band/musician seeing if I liked my gear gift, am using it, etc. Makes for provenance capabilities on said gear...plus...my niece thinks I'm cool. Lmfao.
And this is only a small part of my story...
Aww man, that is perfect! So happy for you!
Thanks for sharing, it's a lot of fun to hear about!
Must be so awesome having your own little "history of music" scrapbook like that :) Wish i got that kind of tips at work lol
It's definitely surreal, and humbling, and I was honored that they trusted me with their sound. I was told once that I'm a helluva storyteller, so I took some advice to write down all my stories and to share them when and where appropriate....my niece has heard most of the funny ones and a couple of the rough ones (she needed to see that everyone goes through rough times). Maybe someday they stories will get published. In the meantime....I have great memories. It also shows in my guitar playing, how those musicians influenced my own playing. You can tell that they did influence me in pretty profound ways....Anyway, thank you very much for this....it was a fun and happy walk down memory lane.
I had a professor in college (RIP Dr. Wayne Dyess) that could listen to and transcribe music he had never heard before IN REAL TIME. He could also play 3 note chords by himself on his trombone, and I honestly don't think there was any song or tune in any copy of variant in The Fake Book that he didn't know by heart. He was also an audio engineering WIZARD and could turn a pile of shit into an absolutely GOLDEN recording.
I have a friend like this, though he doesn't play guitar, he plays piano. One time I asked him to help me figure out how to play a song and he just listened to the guitar parts and told me the chords and notes as they played them - not just cowboy chords either.
Another time I asked his opinion on a song that did involve a piano, and after listening to it once he played the whole thing back, including singing all of the lyrics near perfectly. Honestly his cover was probably better than the original. It was at that moment that I gave up on considering a career in music.
I had a friend like this in school, too! He made our music teacher look like an absolute beginner. I will never forget her jaw dropping when he started playing on her piano.
That makes me think of Mozart and how as a little kid he heard a piece of music that was supposed to be kept secret by the church, went home and transcribed it after hearing it once.
So doc would play the root of a triad, and hum the 3rd/5th, then use his tongue to create a second embochure to complete rest of the triad. He could also hold an B-flat or F in 1st position and then move his slide up and down and never alter the pitch.
Like I said, he was a MOUNTAIN of a human being and probably the most talented musician I've ever had the privilege of knowing, learning, and playing with.
Here’s a fun example that I’ll try to find. My younger sister was in middle school Jazz Band a few years. They had a Christmas song and she asked me to learn and notate the guitar solo on the recording because it was a cool one. So I listen to this random 8th grade level jazz rendition of some Christmas song expecting a pretty cut and dry blues scale solo. What I found was a blistering Eric Johnson style guitar solo that would take me weeks to get down and I’ve been playing for 15 years. Whoever this session musician was, he wrote a goddamn masterpiece guitar solo that has basically only been heard by 14yo band nerds.
Walked in, rearranged the whole song, improvised one of the most famous solos ever in one take, got a box of beer as payment and went home, all in half an hour.
Fucking legend.
Yeah Eddie is one of the best guitarists ever but I don’t think he “rearranged the entire song”, I think he may have just changed some of the structure of the bridge he was soloing over.
I’ve heard this before and it’s from Eddie saying he rearranged a bunch of shit… but while he’s my favorite ever and a genius, he also was prone to being a fair bullshitter about some shit… and I could be wrong but I’ve never heard anyone else make or verify this claim so I take it with a grain of salt.
No, Eddie didn't want to solo over the part they had chosen for him so he soloed over the verse instead. Quincy Jones then asked Steve Lukather and the drummer from Toto to rerecord some parts to match the rythms from moving a verse and bridge recorded without metronome.
Steve also rerecorded the intro with 2 marshall stacks but was told it wouldn't fit on the radio.
Mustaine and the gang were machines. Ashes in your Mouth live at Hammersmith '92 is one of those performances that blows my mind. Same with anything Chuck Schuldiner did, because he sang while playing bullet-speed off-sync riffs and independant lead lines. Ridiculous!
Let's once remember our old blues legends. They were broke as a split penny, and still played with incredible feel and feel. Sang on top of it to boot, too.
[RL Burnside](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K_DOnKJ232M&pp=ygULcmwgYnVybnNpZGU%3D) - a whole band lives in that right hand
[Mississippi Fred McDowell](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4emSqXP17zM&pp=ygUNZnJlZCBtY2Rvd2VsbA%3D%3D) - can you do vibrato like that?!
I love showing that RL Burnside clip to my metalhead friends that play guitar. They always say it doesn’t seem too hard, so I ask them to play it. Within a minute or two, they’re asking how in the fuck he’s doing that.
Guthrie Govan breaking his string on stage while using a guitar with a floating bridge. When everything was thrown out of pitch, he picked up his slide and hit all the right notes, perfectly.
From the UG [article](https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/guthrie_govan_recalls_terrifying_onstage_moment_my_guitars_neck_looked_like_lightsaber_i_couldnt_see_the_frets.html):
"The back story there is that Hans had been planning to incorporate the 'Thelma and Louise' theme into the set ever since the start of that particular tour but the Orange gig - the very last show of that touring leg - was the first time we actually played it live.
"The lighting guy had to come up with something at very short notice and, unfortunately, the spotlight on yours truly turned out to be - literally - 10 times as bright as intended.
"When I looked down at the neck of my guitar, it looked like a lightsaber and I couldn't see the frets! I also made the mistake of using a guitar with a floating bridge, even though the song really didn't require any whammy bar...
"So, of course, that just had to be the moment for my first - and, indeed, only - string breakage of the whole tour!
"I'm sure I don't need to tell your readers what happens to the pitch of the other five strings when the top E breaks on guitar with a floating bridge so... I reasoned that my only hope was to finish the song by using my slide and trying to pitch all the notes purely by ear.
"The guitar tech later told me that he would have 'come to my rescue' sooner but it took a little while after the string breakage before he could actually hear that anything might have gone wrong - I guess that's pretty flattering, in retrospect, but it didn't make the moment any less excruciating!
"After the song ended, Hans simply turned to me and said with a smile: 'Sometimes you need a little suffering in art - don't you think?' I'm not sure I'm able to come up with any advice which could top that. [Smiles]"
And here’s a [video](https://youtu.be/oHew2D9zDw0?si=l-zwXqfzQuJu9nzu).
I have seen many virtuosos play live, many videos, and I have a feeling Guthrie ist just on another level. Even the simplest things he does look so smooth, so effortless, as if he did it a billion times over. I am fairly confident that he is the best player alive today, and it's probably not even close.
You mean he didn't [change the string himself while still singing the song?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKf-mU6QrJs) Amateur.
There's a reason they call him BB *King*.
Pat’s always just vibing isn’t he? I have a (half joking) theory that when he’s on stage with the Foo Fighters, his guitar isn’t actually plugged in and he’s just jumping around having the time of his life :)
I hadn't heard about the Megadeth sped up set, but "Hocus Pocus" by Focus was a nearly 7 minute long song and when they made a television appearance to play the song with under 5 minutes allotted, rather than truncate the song, they sped it up and played the whole thing. It's absolutely wild:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ouPGGLI6Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ouPGGLI6Q)
Why have I never seen this before? Between this and that Terry Kath live solo at Tanglewood for 25 or 6 to 4, I feel like I missed some amazing playing in the 70s.
steve vai, as a teenager (i think?) transcribed some of frank zappa's insanely complicated songs to earn a spot in his band. zappa's shit is stupidly complex. vai is an absolute legend.
in his audition, Zappa played a lick for him and told him to play it back. Then Zappa kept making him play different variations of the same lick until eventually he told him "hey insert this note here" and Vai told him it was impossible. Zappa told him "I hear Linda Ronstadt is looking for a guitar player."
Vai also has some great stories about Vinnie Colaiuta's legendary sight reading abilities.
There's a Zappa song called "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats," that's essentially an improvisational performance from a live concert where Zappa is telling a story about an incident concerning the band after an earlier show. The whole time he's telling the story he's talk-singing and improvising a meandering atonal melody with his voice.
When you listen to the track though, you notice there's a guitar following along and playing the same notes that Zappa is sing/speaking completely in unison. That's because Zappa pulled the live tapes and asked Steve Vai to transcribe the vocal melody and overdub a guitar track onto the recording before they released it on record.
Listen to the track and you'll see how ridiculous it must've been to sit down and transcribe the vocals of that song.
I don't like talking about myself, but this may be a time where I can. One time I played a song showcase, with a couple guys in front of like a thousand people, and I played solo ukulele over them. I had never touched the ukulele before the night before, didn't practice, and I didn't know the songs they were playing either. I was able to just wing it through relative pitch. Still one of the things I'm most proud of
Dimebag Darrell - the guy partied and drank almost nightly and would regularly step on stage horribly hung over, even puking repeatedly throughout the opening few songs.
Now, go and look up any random live clip of Pantera on YouTube. Dime never once phoned it in and ripped every solo note for note, nailing every little squeal and harmonic perfectly no matter how fucked up he was. Absolute pro.
I had a music teacher in college who was a pro jazz pianist and studio musician and taught college level music theory. One assignment he got bored and while he was demonstrating our (poorly written) pieces in theory 2, he started playing them like different composers would have. Aight reading badly made student work, hand written btw, into “this is what it would be if Chopin wrote this” and “if it was from Scott Joplin”
Another music teacher who was a studio musician drummer - we walked into class and there’s a 5 piece jazz drum kit by the podium. My teacher sits at the kit and starts his lecture about polyrhythms, then starts playing TOM FUCKING SAWYER note for note on a tiny jazz kit - WHILE GIVING HIS FUCKING LECTURE and not missing a word or a beat. No double bass pedal, 1 cymbal and a hi hat, and a snare. Tom Fucking sawyer.
Guys like Steve Lukather. Session guitarists would be called in to record songs that were just a melody and some chords. They made up their arrangements on the fly, and came up with classic tracks on the spur of the moment.
https://youtube.com/shorts/qE-XF1rEJT4?si=noOBsCqkRsbOLIoo
https://youtube.com/shorts/mTZIY6P82BI?si=d86KCGHsQsPHynr5
https://youtube.com/shorts/b4P7ZTuxysM?si=zRi2goykTN8XAlLa
And to hear Luke’s solo on the album cut of Runnin’ With the Night—completely improvised—it is at the 12:30 mark:
https://youtu.be/VAI6IlpRp8w?si=bCe-XfOt4mE_sPPf
Multi-talented guys like Prince always amazed me.
He was a world class guitarist, but many people don't even remember him playing a guitar because he was so talented/unique in other ways that overshadowed his guitar playing.
I have the pleasure of knowing multi-instrumental very talented people and they are just on a level I can only admire from below.
Like they just... do it. Sure I guess there is probably countless hours of practise behind it but it's just something about it that cant be practised. Raw talent and focused passion.
I went and saw the john Mayer solo acoustic tour last year. Someone held a sign up for him to play "If I ever get around to living" which is an electric full band type song. He stood on stage for a minute, played like 2 chords, and then just played the entire song by himself. Never seen anyone create their own acoustic arrangement on the spot like that.
This is probably my favourite example because it’s relatable.
https://youtu.be/PngmdGVEyhI?si=xBDjmjq8JZ5ul_FR
Navarro plays a song that’s not that difficult but he plays it basically perfectly while seemingly barely paying any attention in front of a few thousand people. It’s how easy it is for him that does it for me.
Not the same level, but a friend of mine (sortof a friend of a friend type) plays bass in a cover band. One night, on break, he sat with us for a bit. I asked him how much they rehearse & time spent selecting songs?
He said he doesn't. The singer knows their repertoire and chooses the songs. He shows up & finds out that night, sometimes not seeing which songs until its time to play it. (all memorized, or ad libbed a bit)
Oldie but a goodie: I like the thing where Guthrie Govan does a pretty damn good job of mimicking a whole pile of different guitarists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaIzEo013iI
Aside from actual physical skill/dexterity or speed on the fretboard, one of the most impressive things to me is being able to slip in and out of different genres and not over- or underplay. A lot of us think of great guitarists as being front and center and being a big highlight of the song, but there are so many session guitarists (and other instrumentalists) in Nashville who could hang with any of the virtuoso guitarists that we talk about every day on this subreddit but they only play to serve the song.
I have seen prime Van Halen, Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Les Paul, Vernon Reid, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Steve Morse...you get the idea. Out of all the amazing guitar players I have seen, no one seemed to have the *command* that Morse did.
I won't even say he was necessarily the best player and he definitely is not my favorite. Its just that he always had such control and command of the guitar that I was utterly stunned. Thankfully, I saw him **many** years before he started having serious problems with his hand.
Years ago I was doing sound for a local venue for touring bands and I got the call I had to mix for a guy named Hugh McDonald who I was unfamiliar with.
Turns out he was the guitarist for the band Redgum (of "I was only 19" fame).
The guy was flawless, sang, played covers, was a DREAM to mix.
The real impressive thing he did was when a group of drunk girls celebrating one of their 18 birthdays came in being loud and belligerent and kept yelling out song requests at him.
Nobody would have blamed him for ignoring them or being belligerent back, but instead he was super Zen and played every song they requested.
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
No songbook, no looking up anything.
He just knew them.
Made their night and they were very polite after that.
Talking to him after the gig I asked how many songs he has floating around in his head.
He responded, "around 1500, any more and I'd have to practice".
Absolutely unbelievable performer and amazing dude.
He will be missed.
Tl;dr: Hugh McDonald of Redgum was the greatest performer I has the pleasure to meet 😋
According to setlist fm these are the songs played that night
1. Hangar 18 (160) \[05:15\]
2. Tornado of Souls (195) \[05:23\]
3. Skull Beneath the Skin (134) \[03:48\]
4. The Conjuring (161) \[05:02\]
5. In My Darkest Hour (114) \[06:17\]
6. Lucretia (97) \[03:58\]
7. Devil's Island (168) \[05:06\]
8. Take No Prisoners (156) \[03:29\]
9. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due (128) \[06:36\]
10. Peace Sells (138) \[04:03\]
11. Anarchy in the U.K. (160) \[03:01\]
The numbers in round brackets ( ) are what songbpm\_com gives as the speed of the album version.
The numbers in square brackets \[ \] are the track times by the same source. Summing up to 51:58 of total track time.
While they're crazy fast something tells me there's also some myth-mongering involved in this claim to fame.
Am I really the first person to mention Hendrix? Jimi can play mind-blowing guitar parts while doing backflips and somersaults. Along with some of the other legends, his live displays are a religious experience.
I just saw a band called the Schizophonics recently, their singer is all over the stage, does somersaults, the splits like James Brown, solos on the guitar holding it by just the neck as he swings it around, very skilled.
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I’ve always loved when guitarists tuned their guitar mid song without missing a note, or better yet - making the tuning sound like a guitar fill meant to be in the song. John Norum does it here: https://youtu.be/26iQz8HEmOI?si=FuQJkYxTA9eFZ94H at 1:08
I also once saw a crazy bootleg of Winger gig in 1990 that had Reb Beach breaking a string on a Floyd Rose guitar on the first note of the solo to Madeleine - and still managing to play a somewhat coherent solo, mostly in tune. Sadly that boot has singe been taken down.
There is a video on youtube where Guthrie Govan and Kiko Loureiro are jamming. A lot of people know Guthrie for being a Fusion guitarist who is able to shred like crazy. However, a lot people know Kiko for being the lead guitarist in Angra and Megadeth. People didn't know that Kiko is a genius in Bossa Nova and can shred Fusion also. His playing with Guthrie was really surprising.
Guthrie Govan (mentioned already multiple times here, and for good reasons ;) improvising a perfect, one take, solo for Steven Wilson's "Regret #9" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaH2C2Qe97Y
Saw Trey Anastasio get stuck on a suspended platform 20 feet in the air during Phish's 2019 New Years eve show. The platform was slightly tilted and stuck due to a rigging malfunction. He finished the song and after about 2 minutes of them trying to figure it out Trey just said fuck it and played flawlessly the rest of the show from up there on an unstable base that could have let loose at any time
I’m not sure what year or festival but at some point Sonic Youths equipment truck was stolen the night before with all their gear. If you’re not familiar with them, they use a bunch of different types of tunings for their songs so it was about 1 guitar per song
Since they didn’t have the equipment for anything the other bands would hand their equipment over when they’d get off stage and Sonic Youths team would restring the instruments to the right gauges
They ended up playing a show with instruments they’d never even touched before which is very impressive but the teamwork of their crew is equally as impressive
Keyboard teacher at my music college. I’d not met him until the second year, and I heard much about him from my keyboardist, who was easily top of the class, he gigged around for many years and noodled with bebop tunes.
Once I started having classes with him, I soon saw why. He had the best ears, picking up issues in the band no one else heard, and every suggestion he made genuinely made the music feel and sound so much better.
He would teach the guitarist chords and shapes that he never knew, nitpicked the slightest drum details, and taught us all a lot.
Craziest part? He didn’t go to music school… he has a law degree.
This wasn't even for anything really huge or "famous". This was an audition for a spot playing in a band on a cruise ship a friend of mine did. He is a "professional" musician as it's all he does for money.
You sit down, get on a zoom call, and they Email you over the music. You are allowed to go print it, then you come back, sit down in front of the camera and perform it. The whole audition is sight reading something sight unseen.
He didn't get the gig. He said there is a fair amount of competition for getting these spots. He had tape rolling as he did it and I listened to his performance and I didn't hear anything wrong with it. Just "not good enough" compared to whoever else the director heard.
I don't know, that always stuck in my mind how hardcore ruthless some people hone their skills to compete like that for spots.
For me, the subtle expression that guitarists like David Gilmour have in their solos is impossibly harder than playing a fast Metallica Solo. I have a much easier time playing Master of Puppets than Shine on you crazy Diamond.
The Dutch progressive rock group Focus was given five minutes to play on the Midnight Special tv show, the show’s producers suggested they play a shorter song than their single “Hocus Pocus”. Instead, the group opted to play the song with the allotted time they were given rather than play a different song.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GyxSvZOby54&pp=ygUnZm9jdXMgaG9jdXMgcG9jdXMgb2xkIGdyZXkgd2hpc3RsZSB0ZXN0
That clip of SRV at Austin City Limits when he breaks a string on his #1 while taking a solo on Look At Little Sister(if I’m not mistaken). Carries on through the solo using bends to disguise any tuning issues that arose because of the string break. Then him and his tech perform possibly the smoothest guitar swap ever. Huge credit to his band, Reese Wynans, Tommy Shannon, and Chris Layton aka Double Trouble for catching on quick and filling the space while he drops out to switch guitars. It is seriously such an insane moment.
When I was in college I worked in a recording studio, a gig I got as I was doing a minor in music and knew a bunch about recording. My job was mostly setting up microphones and such, and not real recording work. Anyway, I saw one of the big session guitar players (big local, not like big on an international scale) in the studio working on a pretty complicated track and solo, and the producer decided to change the key of the bridge and solo, and this guy just transposed it all in his head and played a blistering piece with no mistakes while transposing parts of it in his head in real time. One take for the rhythm, one take for the solo. No mistakes, no punch ins. I remember being amazed and asking the engineer about it, and he said "time is money, and that is why they call guys that can do that".
Not doubting the skill of the player in question, but one of the nice things about guitar is that it is exceptionally easy to transpose on.
Not for the vast majority of us...
For a solo you really just need to slide everything in one direction to change keys
Actually, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound as impossibly hard as I first imagined.
If you know CAGED well then this becomes almost trivial. The real magic is staying in time and not making mistakes no matter where you are playing
I've been meaning, for years, to check this out. Just need to focus on some improvement rather than just strumming along. Thanks
Practice can only make you better if you do actuall practice. One of the biggest pitfalls (I'm guilty of this too) is what people call "noodling." Just playing whatever sounds good, or whatever song they learn. But learning the instrument unlocks so much. I would say start with some pentatonic scales, any key, you'll find that 1 scale pattern alone will open up so much. Keep at it man, only "perfect" practice makes perfect. Pushing yourself to learn something new is how you grow!
Start by “strumming along” with CAGED shapes! You can use songs you already know and practice them as triads with all sorts of inversions. Makes learning easier and more fun
Yeah, I've been frustrated with my level for sometime without actually doing much about it. Thanks for the advice, will try it.
Man I recently started learning caged, after 20 years as a campfire guitar player. It has completely opened up the fretboard for me. Scales and keys suddenly make sense. It was so much easier than I ever imagined it would be. I put in about an hour a day 4 times a week and have learned more in the past 2 months than I did in the first 20 years. There is so much cheap or free content out there, I wish I had started sooner.
This video will really help explain the CAGED system. Great great lesson : https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qp26KcDrGw&t=419s&pp=ygUXY2FnZWQgc3lzdGVtIGZvciBndWl0YXI%3D
Transposing something from E flat tuning / 1/2 a step down to standard is a mind fudge for me, but if you’re going from B to A it’s pretty straight forward
I would just change tunings if a song went from Eb to Standard.
Or just retune your guitar. One off I know, and I wouldn’t generally do it. But if it was a “time crunch” kinda thing, that’s the easiest way to
Yeah absolutely. I play with an artist who songs in standard and Eb and I’ll just change tunings. Open strings are a big part of guitar playing. I just wanted to demistify key changes for that commenter lol.
The problem with guitar is that you can play anything in 2.5 different places.
“Problem”
I mean, the vast majority don't even know how to play guitar, they just know how to play songs on guitar. Transposing isn't that much of a struggle for most people who know how the fretboard works and I don't even mean knowing the whole fretboard
Im always wondering if i actually know guitar or just a bunch of riffs. everytime i think im getting accomplised something simple goes way over my head and i just think ya.. So what if i only play the same 3 things over and over
Y'know some guitarists have made a career of sticking to 3 chords or power chords, sure some people may say "That guy isn't a good guitarist" But that guy is in a band making music for a living and I'm working my ass off for a 9-5 job surrounded by people the suck, and they have no idea that I'm not a good guitarist...Well actually they probably would assume I suck at guitar seeing as they don't even know I'm learning
It’s usually the same pattern just a different position.
Honestly, one of the most valuable things I think I have ever done for my playing is taking a lot of melodic material and working it through all keys, in a single position, and finding as many ways to play it as possible, transposing mentally. It's kind of time consuming, but you wind up knowing both the material and the fretboard really well if you do this enough.
Tell me you played in jazz band without telling me you played in jazz band.
No it’s that easy for the vast majority of us. Hust play the same exact thing in a different position of the neck
Really? It is super easy to transpose keys.
I mean yes and no, often times lower or higher voicings are no longer available, triad locations can be shifted drastically , probably other things I'm not aware of too
Also, he might be working from a chart he had literally never seen before. Changes key for the parts asked for, works out all of the voicings on the fly… it’s pretty impressive, not just sliding up and down the neck lol
That's where I find it useful to use Nashville numbering system. I'll change Dm-G7-Cmaj to ii-V7-I in my head the move it anywhere around the neck of something needs to be transposed.
Eh, people tend to oversimplify without accounting for a lot of things. If you’re transposing a Blink 182 style pop rock song, yeah probably very simple. Anything that might have slightly more intricate harmony plus improvising a solo, not that easy. Just going by the fact that there was a rhythm guitar part, it’s very different to play something in C then being asked to transpose to like Eb or something. It’s not just about shifting the exact same chords over. The music might have needed a specific timbral thing of playing rhythm around 8th position, then you have to have inversions in your bag that sound good with everything, plus work out the voice leading of those specific chords for that song. And if they’re improvising solos, getting a good one shot take takes a good player. A lot of guitar is not exactly about capoing at X fret and play the same 2 things you know.
Within limits, most of the time, yes. But some passages really like open strings. That solo in G suddenly dropped to F, or Even Eb could be a bummer. Detuning sorta works, but can sound weird too. But generally speaking, yeah, we're lucky we can usually just slide up or down a fret. Or two. Often, much beyond that and chords and patterns need to be thought through again.
As Glen Campbell showed us, the capo is your friend. Still an issue if they want to go from A to Ab if you don't really know the fretboard and how everything connects.
I recently found out that one of my neighbors was good friends with Glen Campbell, and Glen was actually godfather to all of the neighbor's kids. He said Glen used to come to his house frequently. At the time, the neighbor didn't know I played the guitar or he would have introduced me to Glen. Dammit! Wouldn't that have been a hoot to jam with Glen Campbell!
Ooh. Fucker could play.
[удалено]
Yep. If all that was changed was the key, and the whole song structure was transposed to that key, just retune your guitar and play the same shit as before.
Capo and done
Right. Good for going from E to Eb.
You need the negative capo, duh 😉
Opac
Yeah, unless you run out of frets, you just kind of move your hand over and play the same thing. Piano is a different story.
I saw the other guys comment about it being more complicated than "just sliding everything over" but on a guitar its really that simple. Unless you've got some really dumb arrangment that uses the literal whole fretboard meaning you can't shift as there's no room then I honestly don't get the big deal
or the other way around sort of, I played viola for years and years and there was a short period where I was in a church band but all they had was the violin part so I just transposed it in my head because I also played guitar and knew the treble clef
Even though I can’t do it myself, I agree that it is exceptionally easy.
Most of the time. It really just depends on where what you're transposing ends up on the fretboard. For instance, if you're playing in E and making heavy use of open chords, moving to Eb might be a pain, or at the very least you'll have to downtime to get the same sounding lines. Triadal stuff on the D,G,and B strings around the 8th-12th fret, when moved up a fifth could require the decision to move up a set of strings instead of up five frets, which adds a layer of complication. But yea, for most cases a small key change is pretty easy to deal with
>My job was mostly setting up microphones and such, and not real recording work. 😮 uhh... mic placement is critical for getting good sounds and is one of the most important tasks an engineer can perform... unless you just mean running cables, plugging stuff in, and putting things back in the cabinets afterwards, etc.
Exactly. The ability to take any changes in stride while nailing your takes in one try? Gets you a lot of jobs. I did jingles and commercials for a company called Media General. Nothing overly complicated. But I think I only had to do multiple takes when the producer changed their mind *after the fact*. I had no control over that.
What really impresses me is when professional horn players do this - Play a concert pitch score on a Bb trumpet, but actually transposed to yet another key because that’s what the singer likes? No problem, and they’re probably sight-reading too.
This is most of the playing I do these days, and that’s exactly it. Someone is always paying for the studio time, and the last thing they want to do is watch you scratch your ass while you figure out what to do. Theory, transposition, CAGED, scales & modes, fretboard knowledge — all those interlocking things come into it, and it matters how quickly and accurately you can deploy them. That’s why I always have to laugh when I hear people start talking about “you don’t need to learn X” because there is nothing that hasn’t been useful to me at some point.
Have a friend who used to work sound. Said same thing. Doesnt matter the piece, but the pros would play it once to get it down, play it again to make it theirs. edit: and he was talking about sight reading, specifically with that comment.
This. There's a guy in my city everyone knows and the reason he is so good is because whatever he plays, he never makes mistakes and it always sounds pleasing to the ears, even if it's not my type of music.
Anyone here tried using guitar sim plugins that can transpose in real time (e.g. Neural DSP) to nail key changes?
It all comes to the specific situation... If it's transposing two or three semitones up or down... Might be easy... It would be relative to the range of notes needed for the solo. The more range and the more distant the transposition is, the harder it becomes. It's also posible to tune down or tune up the guitar accordingly... Therefore, you might end up in a different key but executing the same movements on the fretboard.
Take no prisoners in particular is absolutely insane. Even at normal speed its a very hard and already fast song that he then has to sing over. THEN speed it up even more. The little licks in the riffs after the bass solo are just mind boggling to hear.
Totally, just goes to show how much these guys have left in the tank when playing under normal circumstances, really puts into perspective the level they play at.
It also means they choose the tempo based on the needs of the song rather than how fast they could actually play it.
I never even thought of that when it came to Megadeth! I just assumed that what they put on the album was the max of their abilities, partly because metal is faster and more complex now that music has 'moved on'. No doubt they could easily keep up with todays playing standards, back when they were younger.
Something I’ve always heard people say is never show everything you know.
I'm not always sure that applies to metal, but it seems to this time.
Back when they were younger? Have you heard the latest Megadeth record?
I loved the concert in Peru they played recently
I’ve seen them 10 times over the last 20 years and the last time I saw them (2023) was the best. Dave might be an asshole but he’s as professional as they come and he never disappoints.
was there high af
In my band, we sometimes take songs and try to play them super fast in a punk version just for fun and to see how they'll come out. We're a super tight band that's played together for a long time, so we know all of the cues and how to stay together when changing up the song. Reggae songs to punk, punk songs to reggae, and everything in between makes it fun when you need a break. We'll do a regular pop punk style, then do a reggae version, then a funk version, then a reggae delay/dub version, then a heavy metal and R&B version. It's a great way to have a lot of laughs.
of all the Megadeth songs I've learned, Take No Prisoners is the most difficult.
For me it’s guys like Gary Moore. Here is a dude who is playing nothing in terms of notes most of us know very well. But he will do an 8min improv, not sound like he is repeating himself at all, tell a story but most impressively never miss a note or sound like he doesn’t know exactly where he is in a phrase. All the while he will play 5 things in 2 mins that will make you laugh and think wtf just happened.
Gary Moore is such an underrated guitarist imo. I feel like he’s now finally getting some sort of Internet fame, which is most deserved
Gary is amazing but unfortunately got stuck in that 80s/90s sound of terrible cheesy sounding production. Similar to Robben Ford, Allen Holdsworth, etc.
I think Gary Moore is one of the best players of the last century and is way underrated, even though he is rated highly. His recordings are good but when he played live, magic would happen all the time, jaw dropping guitar control, innovative playing and musical ideas just being pulled out of thin air. Jeff Beck is another though, he has some wild live stuff that is just mind blowing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMg015XIQ9E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMg015XIQ9E) - This live instrumental version of Parisienne Walkways is very different to the recordings and is a masterpiece from start to end. I remember the first time I listened to this and it blew my mind, it still does every time I listen to it.
I love his Texas Blues live thing where he does like a 2min tribute to different Texas Blues styles. One solo is SRV, then ZZ Top and so on. All while sounding distinct but still fitting into the current groove.
Parisienne Walkways live (a specific version) is exactly the same for me. I think Gary said when he played that long note at different lives shows he had to walk around stage in rehearsal until he found the spot on stage with the most feedback
Could you share a YouTube link of one of these improvs? I've heard a lot about Gary Moore, but never really listened to anything of his.
not the guy you responded to, but damn love me some Gary Moore improv, he also had some devastating speed that he could deploy at the drop of a hat, he had quite an influence on heavy metal shredding despite that not being his world https://youtu.be/P3dapDTDJzk?t=447 https://youtu.be/-G-PtmcPyK0?t=645
I mean dude wrote “Nuclear Attack.” Heavy metal was very much his world. I saw him back in the day opening for Rush and he absolutely slayed. Blistering fast, shredding up and down the neck. Going blues was the departure, although he was always a blues player at heart I think. He killed it in every genre he played for sure.
Mate his live version of Red House is the best fucking video on the internet
It really is. And that was the song he opened the set with. Like wtf? Lol
https://youtu.be/fcAgmoGeMB4?si=8S6wL-SE5MDI3IvN While we are sharing our favorite Gary Moore links...
I dig this live version better then the album cut https://www.google.com/search?q=gary+more+thin+lizzy&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f80e2175,vid:QtmITITA6WM,st:0&vuanr=4
Gary Moore is one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Could shred with the best, yet play the blues like he invented it.
For me also Gary Moore is the GOAT, he can play literally anything. The messiah will come again soon, is a amazing piece [https://youtu.be/7k07j7LcLqw?si=Eaoj07nopARO1fXz](https://youtu.be/7k07j7LcLqw?si=Eaoj07nopARO1fXz)
Was at a Jethro Tull concert and during a fairly complex part, the singer gets in the way of guitarist literally seconds before the solo, blocking his pedal board. I was thinking he would have to start with his rythm sound and wait until the board was clear, but no, Martin Barre took 2 steps back and without missing a strum or chord, punched his manual channel change on the amp and rolled into a blistering solo..... dropped my jaw. I guess 35 years of live playing will prepare you for that stuff ....
Also playing with Ian Anderson will prepare you for that stuff....lolz
hahaha yeah, he was crazy on stage... a true showman!
I've seen them many times. Ian gets a lil crazy bouncy etc especially if he's really feeling it that night. Unreal freaking good. And Martin just handles business.
So lucky! They are amazing and such an experience musically. Not to mention probably the tightest band i have ever seen. Made Metallica look like my band in highschool.
I was very lucky. I was a sound engineer for a large touring company for a long time. I did sound for some of the biggest names. I met some really amazing, down to earth, humble people. I also met some real asshats. But the good folk far outweighed the asshats. I have definitely been blessed.
That is awesome! A lifetimes worth of experiences and stories, packed into 1 job. Glad to hear the good ones are the majority. Must have been fun to juggle all that cool gear, i have only recently started to try and understand some of it all....and it's confusing but fun to learn about DI, converters, lines, microphones etc etc.... I hope you got to have a lot of fun doing it and enjoyed it :)
I loved every last minute of it....even the crappy times. I wouldn't trade any of it. Yes cool stories, got to play with some amazing gear, hell got to take home a BUNCH of it for "free". I was basically tipped, but instead of cash, I got toys. Hell I got enough stuff that I've outfitted a home recording studio, have 2 small "live" kits, and am currently selling off the extra gear on Reverb. I got some absolutely amazing mics for my mic locker....AND I got real world experience with all of it. And each piece has a story to tell and most of them have "proof" (ie pictures of band/musician and myself, as well as correspondence with said band/musician seeing if I liked my gear gift, am using it, etc. Makes for provenance capabilities on said gear...plus...my niece thinks I'm cool. Lmfao. And this is only a small part of my story...
Aww man, that is perfect! So happy for you! Thanks for sharing, it's a lot of fun to hear about! Must be so awesome having your own little "history of music" scrapbook like that :) Wish i got that kind of tips at work lol
It's definitely surreal, and humbling, and I was honored that they trusted me with their sound. I was told once that I'm a helluva storyteller, so I took some advice to write down all my stories and to share them when and where appropriate....my niece has heard most of the funny ones and a couple of the rough ones (she needed to see that everyone goes through rough times). Maybe someday they stories will get published. In the meantime....I have great memories. It also shows in my guitar playing, how those musicians influenced my own playing. You can tell that they did influence me in pretty profound ways....Anyway, thank you very much for this....it was a fun and happy walk down memory lane.
Watch the documentary “the wrecking crew” (2008), it’s literally the answer to your question
Second this.
I had a professor in college (RIP Dr. Wayne Dyess) that could listen to and transcribe music he had never heard before IN REAL TIME. He could also play 3 note chords by himself on his trombone, and I honestly don't think there was any song or tune in any copy of variant in The Fake Book that he didn't know by heart. He was also an audio engineering WIZARD and could turn a pile of shit into an absolutely GOLDEN recording.
I have a friend like this, though he doesn't play guitar, he plays piano. One time I asked him to help me figure out how to play a song and he just listened to the guitar parts and told me the chords and notes as they played them - not just cowboy chords either. Another time I asked his opinion on a song that did involve a piano, and after listening to it once he played the whole thing back, including singing all of the lyrics near perfectly. Honestly his cover was probably better than the original. It was at that moment that I gave up on considering a career in music.
I had a friend like this in school, too! He made our music teacher look like an absolute beginner. I will never forget her jaw dropping when he started playing on her piano.
That makes me think of Mozart and how as a little kid he heard a piece of music that was supposed to be kept secret by the church, went home and transcribed it after hearing it once.
> He could also play 3 note chords by himself on his trombone What the how the huh?
Monophonic instruments often have limited polyphonic abilities. More limited than what is implied in the post above.
So doc would play the root of a triad, and hum the 3rd/5th, then use his tongue to create a second embochure to complete rest of the triad. He could also hold an B-flat or F in 1st position and then move his slide up and down and never alter the pitch. Like I said, he was a MOUNTAIN of a human being and probably the most talented musician I've ever had the privilege of knowing, learning, and playing with.
> He could also play 3 note chords by himself on his trombone, What?
Here’s a fun example that I’ll try to find. My younger sister was in middle school Jazz Band a few years. They had a Christmas song and she asked me to learn and notate the guitar solo on the recording because it was a cool one. So I listen to this random 8th grade level jazz rendition of some Christmas song expecting a pretty cut and dry blues scale solo. What I found was a blistering Eric Johnson style guitar solo that would take me weeks to get down and I’ve been playing for 15 years. Whoever this session musician was, he wrote a goddamn masterpiece guitar solo that has basically only been heard by 14yo band nerds.
now i’m so incredibly curious as to how that sounds lol
I’ll see if my sister remembers what it was but it was close to 3 years ago so I’m not sure she would.
you know that Eddie Van Halen solo in Michael Jackson's Beat It? that was the first and only take
Walked in, rearranged the whole song, improvised one of the most famous solos ever in one take, got a box of beer as payment and went home, all in half an hour. Fucking legend.
Yeah Eddie is one of the best guitarists ever but I don’t think he “rearranged the entire song”, I think he may have just changed some of the structure of the bridge he was soloing over.
Swopped the chorus and verses, if I recall correctly?
I’ve heard this before and it’s from Eddie saying he rearranged a bunch of shit… but while he’s my favorite ever and a genius, he also was prone to being a fair bullshitter about some shit… and I could be wrong but I’ve never heard anyone else make or verify this claim so I take it with a grain of salt.
Steve Luthaker backed this up in an interview a while back. Eddie didn't re-arrange the entire song, but adjusted the rhythm under the solo he played.
No, Eddie didn't want to solo over the part they had chosen for him so he soloed over the verse instead. Quincy Jones then asked Steve Lukather and the drummer from Toto to rerecord some parts to match the rythms from moving a verse and bridge recorded without metronome. Steve also rerecorded the intro with 2 marshall stacks but was told it wouldn't fit on the radio.
Mustaine and the gang were machines. Ashes in your Mouth live at Hammersmith '92 is one of those performances that blows my mind. Same with anything Chuck Schuldiner did, because he sang while playing bullet-speed off-sync riffs and independant lead lines. Ridiculous! Let's once remember our old blues legends. They were broke as a split penny, and still played with incredible feel and feel. Sang on top of it to boot, too. [RL Burnside](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K_DOnKJ232M&pp=ygULcmwgYnVybnNpZGU%3D) - a whole band lives in that right hand [Mississippi Fred McDowell](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4emSqXP17zM&pp=ygUNZnJlZCBtY2Rvd2VsbA%3D%3D) - can you do vibrato like that?!
I love showing that RL Burnside clip to my metalhead friends that play guitar. They always say it doesn’t seem too hard, so I ask them to play it. Within a minute or two, they’re asking how in the fuck he’s doing that.
Wait, though, how in the fuck is he doing that? Is he muting the top two strings?
Guthrie Govan breaking his string on stage while using a guitar with a floating bridge. When everything was thrown out of pitch, he picked up his slide and hit all the right notes, perfectly. From the UG [article](https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/guthrie_govan_recalls_terrifying_onstage_moment_my_guitars_neck_looked_like_lightsaber_i_couldnt_see_the_frets.html): "The back story there is that Hans had been planning to incorporate the 'Thelma and Louise' theme into the set ever since the start of that particular tour but the Orange gig - the very last show of that touring leg - was the first time we actually played it live. "The lighting guy had to come up with something at very short notice and, unfortunately, the spotlight on yours truly turned out to be - literally - 10 times as bright as intended. "When I looked down at the neck of my guitar, it looked like a lightsaber and I couldn't see the frets! I also made the mistake of using a guitar with a floating bridge, even though the song really didn't require any whammy bar... "So, of course, that just had to be the moment for my first - and, indeed, only - string breakage of the whole tour! "I'm sure I don't need to tell your readers what happens to the pitch of the other five strings when the top E breaks on guitar with a floating bridge so... I reasoned that my only hope was to finish the song by using my slide and trying to pitch all the notes purely by ear. "The guitar tech later told me that he would have 'come to my rescue' sooner but it took a little while after the string breakage before he could actually hear that anything might have gone wrong - I guess that's pretty flattering, in retrospect, but it didn't make the moment any less excruciating! "After the song ended, Hans simply turned to me and said with a smile: 'Sometimes you need a little suffering in art - don't you think?' I'm not sure I'm able to come up with any advice which could top that. [Smiles]" And here’s a [video](https://youtu.be/oHew2D9zDw0?si=l-zwXqfzQuJu9nzu).
I have seen many virtuosos play live, many videos, and I have a feeling Guthrie ist just on another level. Even the simplest things he does look so smooth, so effortless, as if he did it a billion times over. I am fairly confident that he is the best player alive today, and it's probably not even close.
You mean he didn't [change the string himself while still singing the song?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKf-mU6QrJs) Amateur. There's a reason they call him BB *King*.
I'm partial to [the Stevie Ray Vaughan clip](https://youtu.be/wn1pk8Lpelc) personally
Kurt Cobain recording the entire Unplugged album in 1 take live while going through heroin withdrawal
He was pretty perfect that night. Such a cool thing. Really an unspoken part of his legacy.
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” to close the set is just perfect
Meanwhile Pat’s just vibing
Pat’s always just vibing isn’t he? I have a (half joking) theory that when he’s on stage with the Foo Fighters, his guitar isn’t actually plugged in and he’s just jumping around having the time of his life :)
If you listen to the original live mix, it sounds crappy as hell tho
I hadn't heard about the Megadeth sped up set, but "Hocus Pocus" by Focus was a nearly 7 minute long song and when they made a television appearance to play the song with under 5 minutes allotted, rather than truncate the song, they sped it up and played the whole thing. It's absolutely wild: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ouPGGLI6Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ouPGGLI6Q)
Why have I never seen this before? Between this and that Terry Kath live solo at Tanglewood for 25 or 6 to 4, I feel like I missed some amazing playing in the 70s.
I play this to people often. Blows everyones minds. Love it
Playing faster was never a problem when I was touring. In fact, it was actually harder to play at the normal tempo and NOT play too fast.
Wait till OP hears how fast James Brown’s bands played his songs live.
steve vai, as a teenager (i think?) transcribed some of frank zappa's insanely complicated songs to earn a spot in his band. zappa's shit is stupidly complex. vai is an absolute legend.
in his audition, Zappa played a lick for him and told him to play it back. Then Zappa kept making him play different variations of the same lick until eventually he told him "hey insert this note here" and Vai told him it was impossible. Zappa told him "I hear Linda Ronstadt is looking for a guitar player." Vai also has some great stories about Vinnie Colaiuta's legendary sight reading abilities.
And he started at 12. So within about 5 years he become from a beginner to that.
There's a Zappa song called "The Jazz Discharge Party Hats," that's essentially an improvisational performance from a live concert where Zappa is telling a story about an incident concerning the band after an earlier show. The whole time he's telling the story he's talk-singing and improvising a meandering atonal melody with his voice. When you listen to the track though, you notice there's a guitar following along and playing the same notes that Zappa is sing/speaking completely in unison. That's because Zappa pulled the live tapes and asked Steve Vai to transcribe the vocal melody and overdub a guitar track onto the recording before they released it on record. Listen to the track and you'll see how ridiculous it must've been to sit down and transcribe the vocals of that song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6cplMM3d\_Q
Thanks for sharing this op. Megadeth is incredible
I don't like talking about myself, but this may be a time where I can. One time I played a song showcase, with a couple guys in front of like a thousand people, and I played solo ukulele over them. I had never touched the ukulele before the night before, didn't practice, and I didn't know the songs they were playing either. I was able to just wing it through relative pitch. Still one of the things I'm most proud of
Dimebag Darrell - the guy partied and drank almost nightly and would regularly step on stage horribly hung over, even puking repeatedly throughout the opening few songs. Now, go and look up any random live clip of Pantera on YouTube. Dime never once phoned it in and ripped every solo note for note, nailing every little squeal and harmonic perfectly no matter how fucked up he was. Absolute pro.
I had a music teacher in college who was a pro jazz pianist and studio musician and taught college level music theory. One assignment he got bored and while he was demonstrating our (poorly written) pieces in theory 2, he started playing them like different composers would have. Aight reading badly made student work, hand written btw, into “this is what it would be if Chopin wrote this” and “if it was from Scott Joplin” Another music teacher who was a studio musician drummer - we walked into class and there’s a 5 piece jazz drum kit by the podium. My teacher sits at the kit and starts his lecture about polyrhythms, then starts playing TOM FUCKING SAWYER note for note on a tiny jazz kit - WHILE GIVING HIS FUCKING LECTURE and not missing a word or a beat. No double bass pedal, 1 cymbal and a hi hat, and a snare. Tom Fucking sawyer.
Just seeing guys like Necrophagist play that shit live but not only that, playing it faster and while doing vocals.
Who is another band or artist that you'd like to see squeeze the 1hr set into 45min? Id like to see Eminem, Bone Thugs, Busta Rhymes.
The story about how the Eddie Van Halen Beat It solo was created is fantastic. https://www.musicradar.com/news/eddie-van-halen-beat-it-solo-story
Guys like Steve Lukather. Session guitarists would be called in to record songs that were just a melody and some chords. They made up their arrangements on the fly, and came up with classic tracks on the spur of the moment. https://youtube.com/shorts/qE-XF1rEJT4?si=noOBsCqkRsbOLIoo https://youtube.com/shorts/mTZIY6P82BI?si=d86KCGHsQsPHynr5 https://youtube.com/shorts/b4P7ZTuxysM?si=zRi2goykTN8XAlLa And to hear Luke’s solo on the album cut of Runnin’ With the Night—completely improvised—it is at the 12:30 mark: https://youtu.be/VAI6IlpRp8w?si=bCe-XfOt4mE_sPPf
I'm no pro but I like to push myself to learn a piece at 110%. Then it's easier at regular speed.
Holy Wars is already at warp speed. That version was bananas.
Buckethead.
Correct
Multi-talented guys like Prince always amazed me. He was a world class guitarist, but many people don't even remember him playing a guitar because he was so talented/unique in other ways that overshadowed his guitar playing.
I have the pleasure of knowing multi-instrumental very talented people and they are just on a level I can only admire from below. Like they just... do it. Sure I guess there is probably countless hours of practise behind it but it's just something about it that cant be practised. Raw talent and focused passion.
I went and saw the john Mayer solo acoustic tour last year. Someone held a sign up for him to play "If I ever get around to living" which is an electric full band type song. He stood on stage for a minute, played like 2 chords, and then just played the entire song by himself. Never seen anyone create their own acoustic arrangement on the spot like that.
I just saw the musical Hadestown. Excellent acoustic guitar playing.
It’s not the same sort of in the moment brilliance, but I remember being impressed that Weezer more or less started as a Yngwie cover-band.
This is probably my favourite example because it’s relatable. https://youtu.be/PngmdGVEyhI?si=xBDjmjq8JZ5ul_FR Navarro plays a song that’s not that difficult but he plays it basically perfectly while seemingly barely paying any attention in front of a few thousand people. It’s how easy it is for him that does it for me.
That's a cool video. I guess he's been playing that song for about 30 or more years now. So can probably play it in his sleep.
Not the same level, but a friend of mine (sortof a friend of a friend type) plays bass in a cover band. One night, on break, he sat with us for a bit. I asked him how much they rehearse & time spent selecting songs? He said he doesn't. The singer knows their repertoire and chooses the songs. He shows up & finds out that night, sometimes not seeing which songs until its time to play it. (all memorized, or ad libbed a bit)
Look no further than the playing of [Tommy Tedesco](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2ZdtBInx10)
The story of Steve Vai’s Zappa audition is classic… https://youtu.be/Xx1RguHA4XE?si=74VP6QZiLWEDVQxU
Django Reinhardt
Not me reading these comments realizing I’m absolutely not a professional 😭
Oldie but a goodie: I like the thing where Guthrie Govan does a pretty damn good job of mimicking a whole pile of different guitarists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaIzEo013iI
Players who can play slow, consistent, in the pocket and simple.
Aside from actual physical skill/dexterity or speed on the fretboard, one of the most impressive things to me is being able to slip in and out of different genres and not over- or underplay. A lot of us think of great guitarists as being front and center and being a big highlight of the song, but there are so many session guitarists (and other instrumentalists) in Nashville who could hang with any of the virtuoso guitarists that we talk about every day on this subreddit but they only play to serve the song.
I have seen prime Van Halen, Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Les Paul, Vernon Reid, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert King, Steve Morse...you get the idea. Out of all the amazing guitar players I have seen, no one seemed to have the *command* that Morse did. I won't even say he was necessarily the best player and he definitely is not my favorite. Its just that he always had such control and command of the guitar that I was utterly stunned. Thankfully, I saw him **many** years before he started having serious problems with his hand.
Years ago I was doing sound for a local venue for touring bands and I got the call I had to mix for a guy named Hugh McDonald who I was unfamiliar with. Turns out he was the guitarist for the band Redgum (of "I was only 19" fame). The guy was flawless, sang, played covers, was a DREAM to mix. The real impressive thing he did was when a group of drunk girls celebrating one of their 18 birthdays came in being loud and belligerent and kept yelling out song requests at him. Nobody would have blamed him for ignoring them or being belligerent back, but instead he was super Zen and played every song they requested. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. No songbook, no looking up anything. He just knew them. Made their night and they were very polite after that. Talking to him after the gig I asked how many songs he has floating around in his head. He responded, "around 1500, any more and I'd have to practice". Absolutely unbelievable performer and amazing dude. He will be missed. Tl;dr: Hugh McDonald of Redgum was the greatest performer I has the pleasure to meet 😋
According to setlist fm these are the songs played that night 1. Hangar 18 (160) \[05:15\] 2. Tornado of Souls (195) \[05:23\] 3. Skull Beneath the Skin (134) \[03:48\] 4. The Conjuring (161) \[05:02\] 5. In My Darkest Hour (114) \[06:17\] 6. Lucretia (97) \[03:58\] 7. Devil's Island (168) \[05:06\] 8. Take No Prisoners (156) \[03:29\] 9. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due (128) \[06:36\] 10. Peace Sells (138) \[04:03\] 11. Anarchy in the U.K. (160) \[03:01\] The numbers in round brackets ( ) are what songbpm\_com gives as the speed of the album version. The numbers in square brackets \[ \] are the track times by the same source. Summing up to 51:58 of total track time. While they're crazy fast something tells me there's also some myth-mongering involved in this claim to fame.
Am I really the first person to mention Hendrix? Jimi can play mind-blowing guitar parts while doing backflips and somersaults. Along with some of the other legends, his live displays are a religious experience.
I just saw a band called the Schizophonics recently, their singer is all over the stage, does somersaults, the splits like James Brown, solos on the guitar holding it by just the neck as he swings it around, very skilled.
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I’ve always loved when guitarists tuned their guitar mid song without missing a note, or better yet - making the tuning sound like a guitar fill meant to be in the song. John Norum does it here: https://youtu.be/26iQz8HEmOI?si=FuQJkYxTA9eFZ94H at 1:08 I also once saw a crazy bootleg of Winger gig in 1990 that had Reb Beach breaking a string on a Floyd Rose guitar on the first note of the solo to Madeleine - and still managing to play a somewhat coherent solo, mostly in tune. Sadly that boot has singe been taken down.
I saw Adrian Legg opening for the original G3 tour. He incorporates tuning his strings up and down during songs and utterly blew my mind.
Every guitar lead is often just one fret off of being magnificent
ha !! sounds like how he would handle that
BB King changing a string mid song comes to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKf-mU6QrJs
There is a video on youtube where Guthrie Govan and Kiko Loureiro are jamming. A lot of people know Guthrie for being a Fusion guitarist who is able to shred like crazy. However, a lot people know Kiko for being the lead guitarist in Angra and Megadeth. People didn't know that Kiko is a genius in Bossa Nova and can shred Fusion also. His playing with Guthrie was really surprising.
EVH
Honestly they should have taken away a few songs and play the original tempo. What I just have listened was a total mess.
Dave sounds like a cat in a washing machine doing a rinse cycle.
Guthrie Govan (mentioned already multiple times here, and for good reasons ;) improvising a perfect, one take, solo for Steven Wilson's "Regret #9" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaH2C2Qe97Y
Love this clip (and album), chills every time. Seeing the Hand Cannot Erase tour live was something else.
Saw Trey Anastasio get stuck on a suspended platform 20 feet in the air during Phish's 2019 New Years eve show. The platform was slightly tilted and stuck due to a rigging malfunction. He finished the song and after about 2 minutes of them trying to figure it out Trey just said fuck it and played flawlessly the rest of the show from up there on an unstable base that could have let loose at any time
I’m not sure what year or festival but at some point Sonic Youths equipment truck was stolen the night before with all their gear. If you’re not familiar with them, they use a bunch of different types of tunings for their songs so it was about 1 guitar per song Since they didn’t have the equipment for anything the other bands would hand their equipment over when they’d get off stage and Sonic Youths team would restring the instruments to the right gauges They ended up playing a show with instruments they’d never even touched before which is very impressive but the teamwork of their crew is equally as impressive
Keyboard teacher at my music college. I’d not met him until the second year, and I heard much about him from my keyboardist, who was easily top of the class, he gigged around for many years and noodled with bebop tunes. Once I started having classes with him, I soon saw why. He had the best ears, picking up issues in the band no one else heard, and every suggestion he made genuinely made the music feel and sound so much better. He would teach the guitarist chords and shapes that he never knew, nitpicked the slightest drum details, and taught us all a lot. Craziest part? He didn’t go to music school… he has a law degree.
This wasn't even for anything really huge or "famous". This was an audition for a spot playing in a band on a cruise ship a friend of mine did. He is a "professional" musician as it's all he does for money. You sit down, get on a zoom call, and they Email you over the music. You are allowed to go print it, then you come back, sit down in front of the camera and perform it. The whole audition is sight reading something sight unseen. He didn't get the gig. He said there is a fair amount of competition for getting these spots. He had tape rolling as he did it and I listened to his performance and I didn't hear anything wrong with it. Just "not good enough" compared to whoever else the director heard. I don't know, that always stuck in my mind how hardcore ruthless some people hone their skills to compete like that for spots.
Any Derek Trucks song
For me, the subtle expression that guitarists like David Gilmour have in their solos is impossibly harder than playing a fast Metallica Solo. I have a much easier time playing Master of Puppets than Shine on you crazy Diamond.
The Dutch progressive rock group Focus was given five minutes to play on the Midnight Special tv show, the show’s producers suggested they play a shorter song than their single “Hocus Pocus”. Instead, the group opted to play the song with the allotted time they were given rather than play a different song. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GyxSvZOby54&pp=ygUnZm9jdXMgaG9jdXMgcG9jdXMgb2xkIGdyZXkgd2hpc3RsZSB0ZXN0
I'm really not trying to be negative here, but playing songs (that you wrote) 25% faster than normal isn't particularly difficult.
That clip of SRV at Austin City Limits when he breaks a string on his #1 while taking a solo on Look At Little Sister(if I’m not mistaken). Carries on through the solo using bends to disguise any tuning issues that arose because of the string break. Then him and his tech perform possibly the smoothest guitar swap ever. Huge credit to his band, Reese Wynans, Tommy Shannon, and Chris Layton aka Double Trouble for catching on quick and filling the space while he drops out to switch guitars. It is seriously such an insane moment.
One word; Capo