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| In this video you can see Tiago Della Vega set a world record for speed playing. Playing "Flight of the Bumblebee," he starts off at a "modest" 170 bpm, then increases ultimately to 320 bpm.
A few of observations:
[list]
[*]What's up with that ultra-manly neck? It looks wider than a classical guitar on an electric!
[*]While I can admire the dedication and countless hours of practice to achieve that ability, where is the soul? I've known grad students in robotics who could probably come up with a machine that does the same thing.
[*]At what point does this kind of thing cease to be music? Music to me is an aural expression of feeling. The only feeling this performance evokes in me is ultimately irritation at the purely mechanistic quality.
[*]Is this really guitar mastery, or just a display of freakish physical ability (see previous observation).
[*]I can't help but remember what Matt Smith and my current instructor, Richy Stano, keep reiterating: most often it's what you don't play that's more important to the tone and feel of a song than what you do play.
[/list]
Curious for your thoughts... |
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Location: Vernon CT | Serge, I completely understand and agree with your thinking.
Looks like he's a 7 or 8 string guitar.
Another observation. He looked "Pained" at 320bpm.
As someone who can't play fast, Slow with feeling is better! :) |
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| Originally posted by G8r:
[*] Music to me is an aural expression of feeling.
Music to me is what sounds good. I don't particularly care how or what the artist is feeling. |
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Location: Michigan | Interesting. A very annoying song if you ask me, but that is my 2 cents. I saw Willie Porter play a while back and he talked about sitting down with Paul Simon after a gig. Paul told him that he suffered from the same syndrom as Willie in that they had a tendency sometimes to put too many notes in songs.
I agree 100% with your analysis of the video. Less is quite often more than enough. That stuff just has no soul. But music like art, has the unique ability to take different forms that appeal to different people. I guess that is why some people even buy all wood guitars :) |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by twistedlim:
I guess that is why some people even buy all wood guitars :) Gasp!!! |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | We did a concert conducted by multi-Grammy recipient Leonard Slatkin a few weeks ago at the Aspen Music Festival. He constantly emphasized the importance of silence. |
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Location: Yucaipa, California | , |
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Location: Vernon CT | Well said Tim! ;) |
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Location: East Tennessee | Originally posted by Tim in Yucaipa:
, +1
Originally posted by G8r :
[QBI can't help but remember what Matt Smith and my current instructor, Richy Stano, keep reiterating: most often it's what you don't play that's more important to the tone and feel of a song than what you do play. +1 |
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Location: Flahdaw | Originally posted by G8r :
[QBI can't help but remember what Matt Smith and my current instructor, Richy Stano, keep reiterating: most often it's what you don't play that's more important to the tone and feel of a song than what you do play. +1 [/QB]
Well, if it's what you DON'T play that's more important, then I'm better than I thought :eek: |
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Location: south east Michigan | two words.... "that guy". |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | when you play that fast there is no soul.
In the words of Debanjo, "He sure can play a lot of notes, Can he play one?" |
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Location: Tennessee | I always like listening to Matt when he plays his one note solo. |
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Location: Newington, CT | I loved it. He DID show that he can play with soul. The last two notes of each selection are always played with some panache.
I think I have seen this guy play slowly, and he was quite good.
There IS a simple truth: Those that can play fast DO at least have the possibity of playing slow. Those who CAN'T play fast can play ONLY slow.
At the NJ gathering, Matt Smith said something to the effect that he took 25 years to learn to play fast, and 15 years after that to learn to play slow.
The lesson for me was that there certainly IS something VERY attractive to playing fast. Maybe not "soul," but something at least -- call it energy, force, power, intensity -- call it whatever, but there IS something. And it is NOT easy to play fast.
But, slow has equal attraction: It's where you get the sweetness, or the finesse, or the touch, or the achingly goreous melody...or the "soul." And, it's not easy to play slow either!
One thing Matt DIDN'T say, was that he regretted learning to play fast. I kind of got the impression that he was pleased to be able to demonstrate that he was a very well-rounded guitarist. And he sure is THAT! |
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Location: Newington, CT | I just thought of an example of what I'm talking about:
Phil Keaggy here .
John Champion here .
Both songs really sweet (JMHO), smooth, occasionally fast and slow...both very soulful and tasteful. Very skilled guitarists.
I understand that there are no Ovations in the video, and I apologize, but the topic seemed to cry out for posting these really tasty videos. |
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Location: Brighty in Blighty | Originally posted by AlanM:
I loved it. He DID show that he can play with soul. The last two notes of each selection are always played with some panache.
I think I have seen this guy play slowly, and he was quite good.
There IS a simple truth: Those that can play fast DO at least have the possibity of playing slow. Those who CAN'T play fast can play ONLY slow.
At the NJ gathering, Matt Smith said something to the effect that he took 25 years to learn to play fast, and 15 years after that to learn to play slow.
The lesson for me was that there certainly IS something VERY attractive to playing fast. Maybe not "soul," but something at least -- call it energy, force, power, intensity -- call it whatever, but there IS something. And it is NOT easy to play fast.
But, slow has equal attraction: It's where you get the sweetness, or the finesse, or the touch, or the achingly goreous melody...or the "soul." And, it's not easy to play slow either!
One thing Matt DIDN'T say, was that he regretted learning to play fast. I kind of got the impression that he was pleased to be able to demonstrate that he was a very well-rounded guitarist. And he sure is THAT! Agree with you 100%! Well said. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by AlanM:
I just thought of an example of what I'm talking about:
Phil Keaggy here .
John Champion here .
Both songs really sweet (JMHO), smooth, occasionally fast and slow...both very soulful and tasteful. Very skilled guitarists.
I understand that there are no Ovations in the video, and I apologize, but the topic seemed to cry out for posting these really tasty videos. |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by AlanM:
It's just a glorious lead. Just watched that. Now that's soul stirring! |
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| Originally posted by G8r:
[QB] In this video you can see Tiago Della Vega set a world record for speed |
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Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Oh that John Champion clip, he is actually playing pretty durn fast, but just to a slower melody.
Nothing bad... I am really impressed by that little ditty. |
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| Alan, thanks for the vids, some nice guitar work there.
It's not everybody's cup of tea, but if you want to hear fast guitar with soul, find some Pat Martino. |
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Location: Brighty in Blighty | Yeah Pat is the man, saw him in a small club in London a couple of years back. Mind blowing. His life story is pretty amazing too. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by G8r:
Alan, thanks for the vids, some nice guitar work there.
It's not everybody's cup of tea, but if you want to hear fast guitar with soul, find some Pat Martino. MANY thanks for that reminder! I had forgotton about him. Can't wait to catch back up on YouTube! |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by 2ifbyC:
Originally posted by AlanM:
It's just a glorious lead. Just watched that. Now that's soul stirring!
(always wanted to say that at least once in my life!) |
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Location: Newington, CT | Falling squarely into the category of further flogging this dead horse...I WATCHED (vs. listened to) this video, and it seems that there are really only a few things (4 or 5) that he does, in a few patterns in various places on the fingerboard. At that point it's just a question of positioning on the neck and playing the proper pattern at the proper time.
Not trying to to diminish the time and practice it must have taken to get this down, but it kind of DOES bring it more reasonably into the realm of the "understandable-how-it-could-be-done."
That he does all that pretty close to perfectly in the given cadences remains remarkable to me. |
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Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by AlanM:
"understandable-how-it-could-be-done."
Granted. Which just reinforces the 'slow and sweet with emotion' side of the discussion. ;) |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by 2ifbyC:
Originally posted by AlanM:
"understandable-how-it-could-be-done."
Granted. Which just reinforces the 'slow and sweet with emotion' side of the discussion. ;)
Sometimes, if the guitarist is skillful enough, it seems like one long note that starts in a beautiful place and ends in a beautiful place, having visited many more nice places in-between.
It's like a slow, sweet passage with a whole bunch of punctuation in the middle. And I DO love it, I truly do. |
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Location: Chicago | Over the last three years of intensive band practice and gigs I have received a very strong message from my listeners: we like the lyrical and soulful playing FAR more than technical show-offs. I've slowed WAY down and now, more often than not, take a languid solo in octaves or just look for the spaces that Matt Smith speaks of. Miles Davis was famous as an example of a beautiful silence-to-noise ratio! |
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Location: Omaha, NE | Originally posted by Losov:
Originally posted by G8r:
[*] Music to me is an aural expression of feeling.
Music to me is what sounds good. I don't particularly care how or what the artist is feeling. |
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Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by dobro:
Over the last three years of intensive band practice and gigs I have received a very strong message from my listeners: we like the lyrical and soulful playing FAR more than technical show-offs. I've slowed WAY down and now, more often than not, take a languid solo in octaves or just look for the spaces that Matt Smith speaks of. Miles Davis was famous as an example of a beautiful silence-to-noise ratio! I DID learn to defer to my betters, so I concede the point, and further concede that I probably need to get to this point in my own development. |
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Packing as many notes into the least time