If any of you want to hear an actual guitarist and not some showy tool who spent his years learning to shred on his guitar instead of developing his MIND, listen to Stephen Malkmus.
Stephen Malkmus - Pig Lib
Or pick up a Steve Reich album. There's plenty of great stuff out there, too much to warrant a pissing match between your favorite hasbeens.
Ok, stephen, malkmus, that guy, has 0 talent. He can't sing, he can't play guitar worth shit. If he has a message he wants to express, all he has to do is say it. I don't get why he is putting it through music, if he can't even play.
And if you're reply is I don't appreciate music... then you're wrong. I love opera, I listen to classical music played on all instruments, I think Mandy Moore and Alicia Keys are some of the best female singers ever, Whitney Houston's voice gives me chills, Elton John is one of the greatest song writers of all time, SRV has more emotion and feeling in his fingers than an nu-age-non-washed-out-non-talented-emo-anti-corporation kid. I love music, not pointless crap. Anti-flag can suck my balls.
Maybe you're just too lazy to learn it, and don't get it. There are lot of shred players who can play super fast, but with no feeling. If you still think that way, with Becker, Vai, Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Al Di Meola... etc... then I'm going to have to say, you are not a musician.:^ Now I don't know what you think of them yet... so I'm not gonna say anything...
Heres my friend Drew:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=28710541Chris:
http://www.chrisquigley.com/Ken Burtch, awesome feeling in his stuff!:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=34442840The all-mighty rusty cooley:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=7340213And definately, go look up the god Shawn Lane.
Developing the mind? How about the fact that instrumental guitar... is developing your mind. Learning complex scales, and organizing your thoughts if you're a writer. Instead of listening to lyrics, you hear a guitar. The guitar is now the voice. You want to say a word, you bend the string and make the listener feel that way. Anyone can say something, and understand it. It's more of a challenge to hear something and be able to understand it.
Oh yeah, I'm a shred head, I have thousands of hours of guitar (not just plucking fast), under my belt. The fact that your dumb ass who clearly hasn't experienced or looked into it, is pissing all over it right now, I'm pretty pissed. If you don't understand it, don't say it. One of the ways to feel shred music, is to play it. Each note has it's own feel, each vibrato, and it's something that can only drive you when you know what that feels like. First time I heard "Gray Flying Pianos" by Shawn Lane, I didn't know what to think of it. About 6 months later, and playing a ton of jazz and shred/virtuoso, it almost gave me convulsions.