When did you decide you didnt want to be Yngwie Malmsteen ?

Wolfetone

Don't know anything about this guy but is he playing with a Stanley blade????

horse

I think I decided at the point at which I realised how much practice it would take, and I was far too lazy

Gadget

I like Yngwie's playing.
Each to their own and I absolutely understand that his personality / his playing / his music isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I'm amazed at the lack of respect from a forum of guitarists for a fellow guitarist.
Being honest, Hendrix and Clapton aren't my bag, but I absolutely honour and respect their innovation, body of work and inspiration to those who followed.

DulcetJones

I also got tired of his non-stop soloing that felt like repeated jackhammer blows to the head about half way into the 3rd song.   As one critic put, so many notes, so few melodies.

usedtobe

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him.

Skipped

I am old to enough to remember when Alvin Lee was making a few jaws drop.

Of course....the early admirers may not have appreciated that each note did not equate to a  pick stroke.

Bucket

When I saw him live at the Marshall 50th Anniversary concert a few years ago.

Did about 15 minutes of his own material, which was relentless non-stop shred. He was the only one who didn't even speak into his microphone and gave no indication he gave a toss about the audience. Then he came back on at the end for "Smoke on the Water" with loads of other guitarists, and Glenn Hughes singing. He was shredding throughout the verses and choruses, and clearly found it impossible to shut up for even ten seconds. He made the whole song impossible to enjoy.

He's the main reason shred guitar has a bad name. Whereas another guest at the Marshall concert, Paul Gilbert, put on a wonderful set which displayed everything that is good about technical guitar playing.

clarkefan

rsvmark said:

Might have posted this before so forgive my indulgence.

it was the Grand National weekend in Liverpool in the very early 90's and me and 4 mates had a great long weekend on the sauce culminating in Jeff Healey playing in town.

he was epic all night. Some girl down the front was shouting for 'Angel eyes' off the first album. She was bloody relentless and would not shut up. He patiently ignored her calls in between every song until she came out with this:

'Jeff, Jeff, play Angel Eyes for me and then make love to me'

sharp as a tack he responded:

'I would love to but the wife's backstage and I don't think she would like it.'

Classic

ps. Never wanted to be Yngwie either. Jeff Healey is far funnier!

I remember something similar, he was talking to the audience so it was quiet, then someone shouted, "shut up and play yer guitar, son!".

He came back immediately with, "glad to see my Dad was able to make it tonight"

Stunning gig.  Yeah him standing up and blasting, totally in the moment, going berserk... passion, wow.

57Deluxe

when I couldn't even pronounce his name...

Skipped

guitarfishbay said:

When I discovered Chopin and came to the realisation guitar can’t touch what a virtuoso pianist can do. Power, speed, beautiful melodies and thunderous accompaniment at the same time, massive dynamic range. Fast harmonic minor runs on a guitar are kind of wimpy in comparison.

At least 6 people very much agree with that.

Moving slightly off topic (sorry), I listened recently to a R4 discussion about Beethoven.
Beethoven had a reputation in Vienna as a musical "genius". But at this point his compositions skills were less well known.
He was hailed as a genius for his improvisation in his live performances.

At some point perhaps we will discuss the relative merits of a classically trained musician against another musician. Miles Davis studied music theory but his reputation is based on improvisation. A classical musician clearly has considerable skill (both mechanical skill and ability to  "interpret").
But if this musician cannot improvise, where should we rate his/her overall skill on a scale of 1 to 100?
And would Miles Davis rate much higher on this scale?

Telejester

Skipped said:

guitarfishbay said:

When I discovered Chopin and came to the realisation guitar can’t touch what a virtuoso pianist can do. Power, speed, beautiful melodies and thunderous accompaniment at the same time, massive dynamic range. Fast harmonic minor runs on a guitar are kind of wimpy in comparison.

At least 6 people very much agree with that.

Moving slightly off topic (sorry), I listened recently to a R4 discussion about Beethoven.
Beethoven had a reputation in Vienna as a musical "genius". But at this point his compositions skills were less well known.
He was hailed as a genius for his improvisation in his live performances.

At some point perhaps we will discuss the relative merits of a classically trained musician against another musician. Miles Davis studied music theory but his reputation is based on improvisation. A classical musician clearly has considerable skill (both mechanical skill and ability to  "interpret").
But if this musician cannot improvise, where should we rate his/her overall skill on a scale of 1 to 100?
And would Miles Davis rate much higher on this scale?

I have 3 miles davis cd's and have never got past halfway on any of them, just not my cup of tea. Worst I ever owned was a free jazz abomination by ornette coleman......damn that was a tough listen and a half.

stratman3142

I saw Yngwie Malmsteen close up at the Marquee and was totally blown away. I still remember he picked up an out of tune guitar and tuned by ear it in about a second during the start of the first number. I couldn't believe how fast and fluent he was and yet he didn't appear to be playing fast (almost like a magic trick).

I have huge respect for him and he spearheaded that particular style, but it wasn't something that was totally my thing.

I suppose a better question for me is: When did you decide you didn't want to be a cross between Robben Ford and Nuno Bettencourt?
To which the answer is: Not Yet. I'm still trying.
   

stonevibe

Sums up Yngwie...

digitalscream

stratman3142 said:

I suppose a better question for me is: When did you decide you didn't want to be a cross between Robben Ford and Nuno Bettencourt?
To which the answer is: Not Yet. I'm still trying.
   

Exactly. Hearing Nuno's playing on Porno was the exact moment I stopped being in awe of Yngwie; Nuno can basically do everything Yngwie does just as fast, but with actual style and groove. Crucially, he doesn't do it all the goddamn time, either.

RandallFlagg

When did you decide you didnt want to be Yngwie Malmsteen ?

January 1st 2018

JayGee

prowla said:

This is good too - apparently he calls his preferred guitars "Number 1", "Number 2", "Number 3", and so-on; I laughed when he'd done one, two and three and picked up the next one and said "I call this one Number 4"!

I can’t believe nobody’s made the obvious comment about it always sounding like number 2 whichever one he’s playing...

AlexC

Interesting point made (I’m paraphrasing) about as guitar players should we respect all professional guitar players? I would say an emphatic “no.” Someone can have better technique than you, and I applaud the work that went into that but I also applaud the work of builders and architects without always enjoying the finished building, or know that there’s skill in rapping without wanting to listen to rap. If someone puts themselves in a public arena - ie a stage - then they are as open to criticism as they are praise. Heck, even the low key kind of gigging I do adheres to those rules. Malmsteen does not earn my ‘respect’ because I don’t see him as particularly original - he extemporises on part of Blackmore’s playing style - and from what I’ve heard of his playing he is not someone whose music I wish to explore further. I will listen to anything and everything from any genre of music, but I don’t like all of it and I’m certainly not going to gasp in admiration just because someone is making a living from show biz. Same as any other profession. All about personal choice and taste. That’s all. No right or wrong.

Phil_aka_Pip

@P90fool he's good at what he does. For me he's the ultimate shredder, and there are times when I do like to hear some good shred. Most of the time I'm in the mood for something else though.

Danny1969

One thing I would add is his vibrato is pretty impressive as well, I like that single coil tone too.

Danny1969

Not many people know but BB King was a huge fan