Satrianni..at least i think thats how you spell his name.

You've never heard of Satrianni and your a Vai fan? Huh...thats odd. Usually they go together like pea's and corrots...lol.

 

ahh, Satriani. I had never heard that nickname before. I was never a big Satriani fan. But you're right, I think I first heard of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani on the same day. At any rate, I thought there was some hot guitarist that I had never heard of. It scared me, as I was a pro lead guitar player for almost 8 years.

 

lol, yea i thought i was the sh*t till i heard them play...made me feel about like this [sm=sick.gif]

 

I love his style. Modal, and with that swirling vibrato method of his. I enjoyed his concert very much.

 

Yea, he definatly throws some old school rock in there with his riffs. But man he can play like superhero fast when he wants to. Amazing. But i have to say my all time favorite guitar player has to be Slash, i worship him practically...anybody that can play that well, not to mention fast and accurate, so messed up...has got to be one hell of a person

 

Agreed. Slash is one of my favorites. I even dig his work in Velvet Revolver. The thing I had to learn is that playing fast is cool, but sometimes it's better to just pick out the good notes. In my formative years, I used to work on speed, figuring the faster I could play the better I would sound. I'd stand in my room for 6 hours on end, running modes up and down. Then, I started getting tired of listening to myself on the tapes that people made for me--it was just too many notes. As I matured (yeah right), I started to feel the music a lot more, a rely less on muscle memory. A by-product of this has been that I've slowed down a lot. I have noticed that when I get nervous though, I start to play faster solos. On gigs where there were tons of people watching--and tons of girls--I'd notice that I was just molesting the fretboard trying to impress everyone. I was just getting past that when my son was born and I stopped playing gigs. My point is, fast is always good for metal. But for all other styles, I've worked on finesse. And I feel like I get more compliments now. That's just been my personal experience. I don't ever dis any other musicians, as everyones vision is different.

 

I like alot of Vai and Satriani, but im not a speed player, i can play pretty fast, but that doesnt sound great to me. Im more of a speedy blues player. I like alot of the old Blues rock myself, Led Zeppelin type of sound. But my definate favorite player is Slash, i love how he mixes shear speed with some nice old school type riffs. But with speed i think you loose alot of the rythem, and im more of a rythem type player. Like i believe that Hendrix's Red house is a blues masterpiece and November rain is probably one of the best riffs ever written. You see where im coming from...and getting nervous playing in front of people is nothing new..lol....hell i practically forget what im playing when lots of people are just staring at you...haha. So i usually close my eyes when im playing like that. lol.

 

Agreed. We have a lot in common. I played for a variety band for two years, and most of what we played was classic rock--with the occasional odd song by Creed or the Chili Peppers. My historic favorite player is Hendrix. Although, these days, I'd rather listen to Slash, as all of Hendrix songs have been burned into my brain so many times.

Yeah, nerves can be a bitch. When I first started becoming a half-decent player, I used to play blues session three nights a week. I used to play a lot at a place called Warmdaddy's in Philly. I think their jam night was on Tuesdays. Well, every Tuesday, I'd have the ****s thinking about playing that night--literally. Then, I'd get on stage and forget how to play. Stage fright at its finest. It took me like two years of playing these kind of sessions three nights a week, before I got over my urge to soil my pants before a gig. And sweat? I'd sweat through every stitch of clothing I was wearing at those sessions. Luckily by the time I moved to California, I could play a packed house, and not be nervous one bit. Every now and then though, I'd play a show where there were a million critics (you know, the ones that stand in the front row and watch you like a hawk, but show no emotion), and get a little nervous. Not the the razor-blade butterflies I had 10 years earlier though.

 

I never got the sh(ts but ive probably looked like i was O.Ding or something from sweating so bad. I mainly play at little hole in the wall place called The Tye-Dye club. They're like a blues bar type place. About 30 people can fit in there, so thats not to many people, but they're all older guys thats played for about a hundred years and actually went to woodstock and saw CCR and Hendrix there...lol...thats a little nerve racking, so if you f*ck up and try to cover up, they notice before you do. lol.

But ive learned alot by playing there. Nothing beats experience of just doing it and playing, if it sounds like sh*t then it sounds like sh*t...but you still gotta get give it your all, who knows you might get somebody to take notice of you. lol.

Always dreaming....

 

Do you know what I used to do that helped me more than anything (besides practicing too much)? I used to record every gig. Hell, I used to record every practice too. Then, I'd go home and just learn volumes about my playing by listening to the tapes. If you do this, I bet you'll improve like you wouldn't believe. Maybe you already do this. At any rate, you're right, you just have to play all the time. In this one band, we were playing 4-5 nights a week. I'd play Orange County gigs all week, and then play Palm Springs every Friday and Saturday night--all four hour gigs. In that two year period, I got better than I got in probably ten years. Even better than when I was minoring in music in college. Nothing beats playing gigs. My wife estimated how many gigs she had seen me play, and she remembers over a hundred--just in like a two year period. My thinking has always been: "Practice until your fingers split, and then leave for the gig." It's grueling but it works. When my son was born, I didn't touch the guitar for six months. Then my old bandmates said, "Hey I got us some gigs at the Hard Rock in Newport. I was nervous as hell, not having played in a while. Well, we did one rehearsal, and it all came back to me. Mind you, my fingers were killing me, but I did OK. I doubt I would have been able to play those gigs well if it hadn't been for my grueling regimine.