Has guitar playing progressed since the late 70's

Moe_Zambeek

Adrian Belew, anyone? David Torn?

Moe_Zambeek

Then there's Henry Kaiser

HPhillipsmusic

Although he's more building on a wide sphere of world music/blues/jazz influences, I think Blake Mills is really starting to influence the way people who know his playings approach. He definitely has changed the way I think about guitar and many of my friends.

koneguitarist

I think quite a few names mentioned have made a small impact on guitar playing, yes they are great technically proficient etc but their impact was minor in the scale of EVH bursting on the scene. 
Like I say I am not a rock fan, but EVH just blew everyone away, even to the layman in the street who didn't play guitar, this was something way out there, same with Jimi Hendrix etc.

koneguitarist

In fact I would say Chuck Berry, Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and EVH are the only guitarists that really changed the game for everyone and influenced just about everyone with a guitar. 
Yes Page, Beck and countless others were probably better but none had the impact. 

lysander

Danny1969 said:

Personally I don't think anyone has done anything technique wise that has had the impact Van Halen had .... I mean guys can pick faster and tap faster but those techniques were his first. He was also the first guy I ever heard tap out harmonics like the intro of Mean Streets and the first guy I heard do crazy wide picked intervals like Ice-cream man. When I think of all the techniqies rock guitairst use now it's all VH originally 

The big difference is Van Halen can also write killer riffs and play with such a groove that the music cross's over to non musicians ... something people like Vai, Gilbert etc never seem to manage although Gilbert came close with Mr big on one album

Country rock is where the killer techniques are now for me, incredible players in that field

Would you mind giving a few good country rock references ? I do like Brad Paisley if he qualifies, though I'm a bit tired of it now, harmonically there's not much going on.

Deijavoo

Yes. So many.

Also as much as some may not want to admit it, Ed Sheeran. He's inspired a generation of acoustic guitarists with looper pedals already.

blobb

Then again, there is always Fred Frith. Although technically he was around in the '70's, but still innovating.

Jalapeno

Deijavoo said:

Also as much as some may not want to admit it, Ed Sheeran. He's inspired a generation of acoustic guitarists with looper pedals already.

Think KT Tunstall easily beat him to that one, but nevertheless the inspiration bit is definitely true

Jalapeno

re: OP guitar playing has, rock guitar perhaps not so much - listen to some modern jazz guitar players, astounding !

VimFuego

koneguitarist said:

I think quite a few names mentioned have made a small impact on guitar playing, yes they are great technically proficient etc but their impact was minor in the scale of EVH bursting on the scene. 
Like I say I am not a rock fan, but EVH just blew everyone away, even to the layman in the street who didn't play guitar, this was something way out there, same with Jimi Hendrix etc.

ah, so no we're moving the goal posts. OK. Has guitar playing advanced since an arbitarily chosen date? yes, undoubtably. Have the mindless plebs that queue up to watch X factor heard of any of them? No.

Barney

Jalapeno said:

re: OP guitar playing has, rock guitar perhaps not so much - listen to some modern jazz guitar players, astounding !

Julian lage springs to mind...

FelineGuitars

Sometimes guitar playing and technique have advanced but are unlistenable to anyone but guitar devotees.

In the 70s and much of the 80s there was a lot of great guitar in rock & pop songs and it was often melodic and fitted the music it was contained within. It was memorable and hummable by anyone who listened.

That seems to have been by and large a lost thing in some circles in my opinion.

One area where it is sadly missing is R&B and disco (showing my age now) music. 

Late 70s disco bands had awesome bands playing the music . 

Now it's all samples or artificial EDM (and no cost of having musicians to pay).

Barney

FelineGuitars said:

Sometimes guitar playing and technique have advanced but are unlistenable to anyone but guitar devotees.

In the 70s and much of the 80s there was a lot of great guitar in rock & pop songs and it was often melodic and fitted the music it was contained within. It was memorable and hummable by anyone who listened.

That seems to have been by and large a lost thing in some circles in my opinion.

One area where it is sadly missing is R&B and disco (showing my age now) music. 

Late 70s disco bands had awesome bands playing the music . 

Now it's all samples or artificial EDM (and no cost of having musicians to pay).

I think you just summed up my feelings as well...

Danji

Pat Metheny - even 8th note approach to jazz
Alan Holdsworth - expanded the harmony (reaching for the uncommon chord)
Ted Greene - Baroque like improvisations

HAL9000

Re the original question, my guitar playing has, sadly, hardly progressed at all since the late 70s.

BigLicks67

For acoustic Michael Hedges developed a style in the 80's that is widely used now.
For Rock Tom Morello did some weird and wonderful stuff for RATM
For Jazz If you listen to say Wes Montgomery and then Pat Metheny you can hear transition and modernity of Metheny's approach.
For classical the world now seems to teem with talented guitarists, rather than just Bream, Williams and the ghost of Segovia in the old days.

Also, I vehemently reject the idea that EVH changed the face of guitar playing, but let's not open that can of worms again.

koneguitarist

VimFuego said:

koneguitarist said:

I think quite a few names mentioned have made a small impact on guitar playing, yes they are great technically proficient etc but their impact was minor in the scale of EVH bursting on the scene. 
Like I say I am not a rock fan, but EVH just blew everyone away, even to the layman in the street who didn't play guitar, this was something way out there, same with Jimi Hendrix etc.

ah, so no we're moving the goal posts. OK. Has guitar playing advanced since an arbitarily chosen date? yes, undoubtably. Have the mindless plebs that queue up to watch X factor heard of any of them? No.

No, my point still stands, who has really changed guitar in a huge way, all these other guitarists are all great, some even far superior to EVH but did they change guitar playing in a genre or across all borders and seriously giving a wow factor to everyone involved. 
Take for example, Albert Lee as part of the hot band, yes he was pretty amazing to most who heard him, but when you know the genre you know of other players around at same time to see where Alberts style came from and was influenced by. Speedy West, Don Rich, James Burton etc. 
I can understand how some guitarists who have studied the guitar so much that they can play pretty much anything they think of, and also their style is probably influencing other players, but I personally fail to see any that have had same impact than EVH.
Maybe it's because we have seen so much, that we fail to be so amazed anymore? 

Winny_Pooh

^ amongst guitarists SRV was huge in influence. You will still see many players copping his style whereas EVH-isms have largely disappeared. 

koneguitarist

Winny_Pooh said:

^ amongst guitarists SRV was huge in influence. You will still see many players copping his style whereas EVH-isms have largely disappeared. 

Actually that's a good point, although I personally didn't think he did anything particularly new, just did it all better. He did really influence a lot of musicians.