Arpeggios!!!!!!

[kmanick]

I have to side with Justin on this one
Players like Franceso and George Bellas and Mathew Mills and Theodore Ziros have turned playing a musical instrument into a purely mechanical
excercise. When I watch Francesco Fareri and the rest of these guys I always marvel at the level of "technical" and "mechanical" excellence they have achieved.
But very rarely do they ever say anything when they play. To me it seems like all these guys have done is turned on a metronome and learned to alternate pick and sweep as fast as humanly possible.
I own of of Bellas's CD, one of Joe stumps CDs and I have heard all these other guys.
I can't comment on rustey Cooley because I haven't really listened to him yet, but as for the rest of them...........it's god awful, it's not music, it's just speed exercises over chord changes over a drum beat.
Listen to people like Greg Howe or Brett Garsed or Andy Timmons, these guys can all shred but they shred musically, it's not a constant all out note assualt for 4 minutes at a time.
some of these guys may even be great teachers for mechanics but I wouldn't want to sound like any of them.

[jjw]

Rusty has got fucking good now mate,all he need was a kick up the arse from playing in a real band situation.Some lads on this board posted a link to his new band/project-and it surprised me!
Last time i heard rusty he was doing that computer sounding atonal stuff,and fast sales,but that was it-no decent phrases and no vibrato
Now-he fucking wails mate,can phrase with musicaly timed melodic phrases and i enjoy listening to him
George bellas does that cromatic harmonic minor music right?I actualy like his YJM on cromatics and he can wail like a banshee-but i havent heard a lot of tune by him
Mathew!more musical than that Fran geezer but on about the same level playing wise
Theodore does good neoclassical shit-way better than Fran,i actualy dont think fran is a good sweeper at all..lol..he rakes!there not smooth fluid arps there just raked chords

[Endrik]

I think that Fareri doesn't have a good playing technique

[Fragle]

I think that Fareri doesn't have a good playing technique

i dunno, you can't tell for sure cause he's playing too fast

[Endrik]

i dunno, you can't tell for sure cause he's playing too fast

I mean there are bazillion different guitar techniques, some of them are:

fretting hand pressure
freting hand finger tone
picking attack
finger picking attack
finger picking tone
bending
hammer-ons
pull-offs

• quater, half, 3/4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 step bends and everything between
• pre-bends
• releasing bends
• multiple bends
• bending with the guitar's body
• bending the strings behind the nut
  
• etc.
  

vibrato

• vertical violin vibrato ala Uli Jon Roth
  
• horizontal violin vibrato
• horizontal vibrato ala Geroge Lynch
• different blues vibratos: SRV, Albert King etc.
• speed and widht changing vibratos
  
• different rock vibratos: fast, medium speed, slow and everything between. Narrow, medium width, wide and everything between. Each one of those applyed with different feel: Michael Schenker, John Sykes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Warren Demartini, Gary Moore etc.
  

sliding
tapping

• with different fingers
• multiple finger tapping
• linear tapping
• arpeggios
• tapping like playing piano
• tapping and bending
• tapping and vibrato
• speed
  

legato

• fretting hand attack
• speed
  

alternate picking

• different picking attacks
• staccatto
• alternate picked arpeggios
• trills
• tremolo picking
• speed
  

economy picking

• different picking attacks
• arpeggios
• speed
  

sweep picking

• 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 or whatever string arpeggios
• different "motions"
• speed
  

down picking

• while soloing
• while playing rhythms
• picking attack
• speed
  

up picking

• while soloing
• while playing rhythms
• picking attack
• speed
  

hybrid/chicken picking

• with a pick and fingers
• only with fingers
• attack
• speed
  

finger picking

• for different tonal options: Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler, Steve Morse and many blues players
• flamenco style
• speed
  

slapping
popping
harmonics

• pinched/false harmonics with thumb
• pinched/false harmonics with other fingers
• artifical harmonics
• natural harmonics
• hitting natural hamonics with fretting hand
• sliding natural harmonics
• strumming harmonics ala Eric Johnson
• "coming down the stairs" harmonics ala Eric Johnson
• weird slap and popping harmonics ala Eddie Van Halen

whammy bar tricks

• dive bombs
• different vibratos
• pull ups
• eastern tremolo tricks
• warbles
• tons of whacky-weird tricks: Steve Vai

pick scrapes
playing ghost notes
playing with theeth

[Endrik]

Fareri can do only a few of them: alternate picking styles with insane speed but with very weak attack, no definition, economy picking, legato, sweep picking, and a couple of other stuff too but with avarage level.

But the most IMPORTANT techniques are finger tone, finger pressure, picking attack, vibrato, bending etc. all wich are important to define the player. He isn't good at none of them.

It's like hey I can slam dunk with a salto but can't dribble, pass or shoot the ball at all.

[Fragle]

"But the most IMPORTANT techniques are finger tone, finger pressure, picking attack, vibrato, bending etc. all wich are important to define the player. He isn't good at none of them."
agreed. actually, i've been noticing this when recording my own playing. for years all i did was working on my technique...getting my alt. picking up to speed, legato, sweeping, tapping, you name it. when i first got my POD and started to record my playing i was up for quite a big surprise you gotta understand, i started playing listening to nothing but metallica, spent my first guitar year playing nothing but metallica (ok, almost), and we all know that kirk hamster isn't exactly the most toneful guitar player
bottom line is that during the last year i pretty much tried to keep my chops at the same level, while working on my tone REAL hard, and it pays off more than anything else imho...i've been listening to criss oliva, alex skolnick, steve vai etc, trying to nail their expressiveness and feel, and listening to old recordings of mine vs. new ones i've definitely improved a LOT....thank god
in a nutshell, anyone can play fast with enough practice, but it's much harder to make it sound musical and expressive.

[jjw]

i think you could simplify that even more,its fucking harder to play good
no matter the speed
Endrik/your spot on,i wouldnt rate his tech either-he picks too many notes(pick hand is faster than the fretting hand)
I hope he listens to all the people who have told him to practise more

but you look on his website and see the stuff he has played on and you would think he is a fucking grade A guitar hero!I realy cant understand anyone wanting him to play on their cd's?would ruin it

[thetroy]

vibrato

• vertical violin vibrato ala Uli Jon Roth
  
• horizontal violin vibrato
• horizontal vibrato ala Geroge Lynch
• different blues vibratos: SRV, Albert King etc.
• speed and widht changing vibratos
  
• different rock vibratos: fast, medium speed, slow and everything between. Narrow, medium width, wide and everything between. Each one of those applyed with different feel: Michael Schenker, John Sykes, Yngwie Malmsteen, Warren Demartini, Gary Moore etc.

Not sure what you mean by vertical and horizontal, but it seems like on a fretted guitar that you cannot do vibrato perpendicular to the frets. Am I missing something here?

[Endrik]

Justin, I think he can't improve because the most important thing in music is how good your ears are. To become a great player you must have good ears and a great feel, everything else comes after that.
Good ears means that you have a good pitch, you can analyze music very well and you are VERY critical about your own music/playing.
Good ears and feel = TALENT
Players like Fareri are talented physically not musically.
If you are talented musically then NO WAY you could sound so unmusical.
Since the day one a talented guy would try to improve his tone and note choices.
A person without talent (no musical hearing) doesn't really understand that he stinks. Or maybe he does understand that he sucks, but he doesn't have enough talent to improve himself.

As far as Fareri goes, let him play his stuff, I'm not against it, every person has the right to make music, it doesn't matter if it sucks or it rules, if the person who does his music and is happy about it then it's ok. It's still expressing your emotions even if you are musically bad.
I'm totally ok that some bedroom shredders make their stuff, I just don't want to listen to it, because there isn't anything good about it to my ears. I'm sure that there are many folks who enjoy it, I'm ok with that too. To each their own I guess.

But there are tons of players who can out play Fareri.
I mean Justin can piss circles around him.
Gary Moore would play only a one note to tear his head off.

[Endrik]

thetroy, many players do it including myself

here is the Lynch vibrato LINK

for more subtle wich is applied in one fret you can watch some classical guitarists or flamenco players

[jjw]

yeahh Gary moore is and always will be killer,his bluesy phrases are great and he can also white knuckle it for melodic speed playing

[JC_Denton]

I dont knnw why most people think that the fasteter = hardest:O If you are born with fast fingers i would say fareris lines wouldnt be too much of a challange.
Players like Eric Glass , greg Howe, Chad coggin, Danny Danzi , are much much more technical, they have enough speed and some of their lines are impossible to play( and not because of the pure speed).

[jjw]

yeahh JC those dudes are monster players-I personaly rate chad as the best out there full stop when it comes to rock guitar!no big names can touch his style and passion.danny is a great songwriter and fantastic player too with some of the most outrageous arps i have ever heard-and as for eric Glass!wow,he is scary!I love his country inspired playing tech when he plays wide interval licks with pick and fingersand his picking is tight

[JC_Denton]