Can you play yesterday by the beatles?

ThePrettyDamned

thegummy said:

This video is a good example of the thing where a talented person can put a lot of effort in to really developing a particular skill that is impressive to just about everyone; anyone who sees him playing that will likely be impressed and think "wow, he is great at guitar".

But then almost no one would actually sit and listen to the recording just for musical enjoyment the way people listen to their favourite artists. On that same vein, when they are listening to the music they enjoy they don't even consider if the guitar parts are all played in real time by one guy with fast hands or if it's done over several takes or with several musicians doing different parts each (and they wouldn't care if they were told).

It's similar to those people who can do millions of keepy uppies while doing handstands and all sorts - it's impressive but wouldn't actually be useful in a football match.

I don't think that either example should be doing something different, impressing people might be a goal of theirs - that was a goal of mine when I was a teenager and first started making music - and I'm sure it brings him lots of enjoyment which is reason enough to do it.

But when we get away from the extremes shown in the examples, we can all take the theory of it on board; for example, when playing guitar or bass in a band it can be tempting to choose to play fancy bits that are difficult to play to show off skills to other musicians but maybe a simpler, easy to play part could have suited the song better.

I think the thing I'd enjoy most - if a genie suddenly gave me this boy's skills - would be going to guitar shops and trying out guitars but hitting out with that kind of thing on the shop floor. I think I'd probably start touring round cities to do that for attention as well as trying out loads of great guitars.

I disagree - he's writing and playing his own music. 

He's featured on some songs, like Death Note by Polyphia. That's good music - doesn't matter if it's technical or not, good is good (in the ear of the beholder). 

I think he's working on an album, which I think is exciting - it's not technical for the sake of it at all. He's squeezing bass, chords, melody and embellishments onto one instrument. There was a time when people thought Hendrix was needlessly noisy and complex no doubt, because he used embellishments a lot. 

How about this - is this music, or is this just showing off? 

DrJazzTap

tone1 said:

Imagine how good he’d be if he got his haircut and could actually see the fretboard 

To be fair my mum used to cut my hair when I was kid as well.

hotpickups

Yes I find this kind of playing amazing a d can’t imagine how many hours they had to sit at their instruments to achieve that standard. Personality I have to say that after seeing people like Stanley Jordan years ago I got a little bored with the gig and it felt a bit like a circus act after 3 or 4 songs. However I can’t deny how amazing these musicians can be at guitar 

LastMantra

I certainly don't think he's wasting anyone's time. Just not my cuppa of tea. If others enjoy it it's all good 

LastMantra

One thing I would say is the polyphia one has a lot going on but is actually a very basic tune. If you get me?

ThePrettyDamned

LastMantra said:

One thing I would say is the polyphia one has a lot going on but is actually a very basic tune. If you get me?

Yup - main influences seem to be hip hop and pop tunes. It's not that boring, jazzy, lounge music - these guys write catchy pop songs that are guitar focused is all. 

Ichika is the same, but he seems to do a bit more funk. The beatles cover I thought was such a good arrangement of a simple choon. 

thegummy

ThePrettyDamned said:

I disagree - he's writing and playing his own music. 

He's featured on some songs, like Death Note by Polyphia. That's good music - doesn't matter if it's technical or not, good is good (in the ear of the beholder). 

I think he's working on an album, which I think is exciting - it's not technical for the sake of it at all. He's squeezing bass, chords, melody and embellishments onto one instrument. There was a time when people thought Hendrix was needlessly noisy and complex no doubt, because he used embellishments a lot. 

How about this - is this music, or is this just showing off? 

My post was a general point based on the Yesterday video, I wasn't damning the boy for anything he ever puts out that might be totally different lol

When you say "it's not technical for the sake of it at all. He's squeezing bass, chords, melody and embellishments onto one instrument" though, that seems like a contradiction to me. The only point of doing all those elements in one take on one instrument is to show off that he can, it doesn't actually make the music any better than if he did it in several takes or had other people doing each part.

You clearly love the guy, which is cool, but I think calling a solo guitar piece a catchy pop song is a bit of a misnomer.

LastMantra

ThePrettyDamned said:

LastMantra said:

One thing I would say is the polyphia one has a lot going on but is actually a very basic tune. If you get me?

Yup - main influences seem to be hip hop and pop tunes.

It actually makes more sense when you look at it like that. 

Bluebeard

This topic/video reminds me of this amazing rendition of Live and Let Die at the start of a video demo for a £50 booster pedal