OCP - I would need a backing track from Christian for that. I don't wanna go over the backing for that song and record it. All the timing and the fact that I have no ability to make drums makes it crappier. I should wait for his backing track if he ever sends me one. The song is as fun as hell though.

MELODIC/DEATH METAL

Matt - Listening to the new melody. Now, I don't know if you realized this but this song sounds way too much like Joe Satriani - Home. The similarities are just too much. The melody is similar and even some of the chord root changes. The only thing different honestly, is the strumming pattern. I think it's a little too predictable/corny of a pattern though. You've done the rhythm before in Celestial love song. Actually aside from a slight tempo difference, the strumming pattern is almost exactly the same. Sorry man, reminds me way too much of songs already done.

Plum - Only a half hour lunch? That's crappy. How do you ever make it?

greg m - Yup, Red Album.

Matt - Giving you the same honesty you would give me.

Fusion5000 - You're bashing Paul's playing? Haven't you realized that he's been doing the instrumental guitar shred thing for a decade now and it's getting old? You are attempting to play now, what Paul was playing before Racer X even existed. Just because someone is sick of shred and won't play for the people who think neo classical shred is the "highest form of art". Shred is over and done with. If it's used anymore, it's not noticed.

Look at Christian Alsing, he uses shred techniques and his debut album is incredible but will a record company sign him? Who knows. One thing is for sure, he's truly venturing into a new guitar era, I suppose, some will argue, already set by Mattias IA Eklundh.

Matt - I would've totally jumped in on your side but I wasn't here on time. I understand you didn't pour your sweat and blood into creating "new_melody". Things do get a little ridiculous around here. I don't know what else to say other than, people's truer thought come out in times like these.

OCP - Oh, aren't you a warm kind boy. Thanks for the honourable mention. Until I actually touch a guitar again, my name doesn't deserve to be mentioned with those 3.

Matt - I am really digging this rhythm track on "g test". The phrasing is brillant man. This is the best to date i've heard you. Now you sound more like a guy who has Joe as an influence rather than a guy who covers Joe note for note and sounds much like him.

The phrasing in the lead is like I have not heard you before. The rhythm is one of the best i've heard you write.

Matt - Oh, heh, yeah the rhythm guitar work was quite a change from your normal progression writing. Well, like I said, I was impressed by the phrasing and could feel the melody, which is important when talking about leads.

Fusion - You know, if you like shred, fast playing, whatever, that's fine with everyone but do not try to make it something it isn't. You seem to not like Gilbert's new stuff but you seem to very much like his old stuff. Now if you call Racer X solos and 80's shred "not mindless", you're making it something it's not.

MAYBE the solo you posted wasn't tasteful, MAYBE??? Buddy, you're talking like it was borderline tasteful. That was so far beyond wanking, it makes the solo for Superheroes look like the solo for Rubina.

If you listen to Impelliteri for tasteful solos, ... I can't even finish the sentence.

On several occasions, guitarists from that decade came out and stated that now, they cannot believe the things they did back then. Look at Richie Kotzen. The later in his career, the less wank there was. It's got to the point where he doesn't play fast at all anymore.

Fusion - No, he really is mindless. He plays the same 3 licks over and over again. Let's take a bass rhythm track, write a simple progression and play every single note of a scale over each note. What is special about that really?

It's just shred, playing many notes of a scale over a bass note. It doesn't go anywhere.

link: http://yngvaitriani.tripod.com - link for fast mindless playing

Narface - Yes! Cars dude, nice ones. Nissan is not so popular around here in the performance scene. It's all crappy 4 banger civics which are not fast and look like crap. Haha, i'm actually helping a buddy fix up his.

I love the picture of the Porsche 944 drifting the corner. Looks like a Volkswagen just behind it? Looks like a Cabrio?

...and the tail lights look better over there. In North America, kids buy "Euro" lights which look like crap to me. Clear light housing. Looks so bloody cheap to me.

My favourite car is the VW Corrado SLC (2.9L VR6) I'm sure you know the car, it is big in Asia. Stock, the car was doing 0-60mph in under 6.1 seconds. The hottest looking car I have ever seen. Or maybe I should say the hottest looking Sport Coupe ever.

Fusion5000 - Jason Becker is amazing, absolutely amazing in most of his work. End of the Beggining, Air, Opus Pocus, Altitudes... etc...

Chris Impelliteri phrases NOTHING. No phrasing, none what so ever.

Do you know what phrasing means? because it doesn't not mean play a different group of notes fast at a different speed.

Who are you to say "appreciate good music"?

You can't listen to a guitarist unless they're playing 10,000 notes per second. "To phrase perfectly here, I took it down to 5000 notes per second."

I guess you've never heard Paul Gilbert's version of "Fly Me to the Moon"

It's absolutely breathtaking but you wouldn't like it because he doesn't phrase with anything over 3 notes per second.

http://www.tomleemusic.com/AV/event/p_gilbert/video.htm

Neo-classical players who wank: Micheal Romeo, Yngwie, MacAlpine, uh the guy from Reptilia- don't know the name, Micheal Angelo, Joe Stump, George Bellas, Gabriel Hidalgo, Vinnie Moore but only sometimes, the guy from Silent Force... David T. Chastain... i'm forgetting a lot of the neo classical guys, it's been a long time since I bothered with that stuff. Lots of bad lead phrases from these guys, if they cut out certain notes from their "phrasing" it might sound ok.

Phrasing and shred really don't go together. Why try to fit 10 notes into a lick when you could play 2 notes in a certain way.

Shred is really a mindless thing because it leaves out so many other cool techniques that can be done with a guitar. I mean, take Country bends for one, hold a note while you bend it, then grabbing another note and give it vibrato. Shred eliminates all this.

Matt - So your point is that music absolutely cannot be mindless to attract people.

Let's take an example of phrasing: Each note in a scale has a different feel in relation to it's root note. When you take a chord or bass note, each note has it's own feel over that note. Depending on which note you play over the chord or root note being played constructs your melody and feel of what you are trying to express. EXPRESS.

WHEN you take every single damn note in the scale and just rip over one chord, what are you expressing? WHERE IS THE PHRASING? WHERE, I WANT TO KNOW.

I mean, you still think that Impelliteri video had SOME phrasing in it, at least a little bit right?

I must be deaf or retarded because it was hilarious to me that he or anyone else thinks that was musical phrasing.

How original can you be playing all these notes really fast? How expressive could it possibly be?

Boyd - Crazy circles man. How could someone do that in the time of a few hours where no one was looking? And in the dark? And so perfectly?

OCP - Yeah the vibrato, I know what you mean. It doesn't bug me too much but he could be a little more versatile with it. One of my favourite vibratos is Joe's. The way he holds the note for just a little bit then slowly and gradually adds vibrato to it. It gradually comes in and increases. Love it, love it, love it.

Olly - Yup, Paul really is a great musician but he just doesn't show it. Actually, my favourite material of his is shred free music. Alligator Farm, Beautiful Girls are Insane, Flamengo, The Jig (Bach cover), Gilberto Concerto.

Paul Gilbert - Beautiful Girls are Insane - CHECK IT OUT

and again... http://www.tomleemusic.com/AV/event/p_gilbert/video.htm - Fly me to the Moon

Mick - Thanks. Haha, FTLOG, one of the most unsatisfying performances I gave. Aactually THE most unsatisfying. That video was a rehearsal, the rehearsals went better but even they sucked.

Mick87 - Thanks very much for checking it out. The video is far worth seeing because I really tried to make it a visual performance aswell. I can send through MSN or ICQ. Unfortunately, 35mb mpeg or somewhere close to that.

Do the Stu - In the dark? With what, just little flashlights and not be seen? To smash them down that flat? With just a board? And make circles that perfect. I'd have to see that done. I can't imagine a board smashing them down that flat, the perfectly shaped.

Pete - I'm listening to that Rock Rhythm mix. The extended version of 'justcause'.

Dude, this riffing is amazing. Oh man, and that solo, I can't believe how you progressed since your older songs. Technically that is. This is so amazing man. I'm now listening to the slowing legato part ... and the picking just came in.

This is amazing song man. Now I know why you were so excited about it.

How did you get this good since last year. Tell me everything you learned and how you went about learning it so I can learn it too.

Mick87 - Thanks very much for checking it out. The video is far worth seeing because I really tried to make it a visual performance aswell. I can send through MSN or ICQ. Unfortunately, 35mb mpeg or somewhere close to that.

Do the Stu - In the dark? With what, just little flashlights and not be seen? To smash them down that flat? With just a board? And make circles that perfect. I'd have to see that done. I can't imagine a board smashing them down that flat, the perfectly shaped.

Fusion - Holy f### buddy, yeah I made that site to show people how tasteful my playing is. They're fast licks I came up with. I put them on the net. Therefore, I know nothing about playing fast.

Did you think there was a competition and I was competing for a medal or something?

Have you even been listening to my arguments? I'm saying, shred is mindless and defeats emotion in many cases.

You're saying my shred was mindless. GEEEEEE, I wonder why. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that it was shred? Patterns of 6 notes, ascend, repeat. ... to no backing track. I wonder if I was playing licks just for the hell of playing licks and not trying to be the greatest player of all time, yeah, kinda like you.

You didn't by any chance notice that in song demos I come up with, I don't play fast at all, did you? Do you realize how off the edge the are you are now? You're trying to continue an argument I haven't even started.

Austin / Sharif / Boyd - Alright, you've convinced me.

Sharif - Haven't touched guitar. Nearly at all. But thanks for asking. My hand is fine to play, just no interest in it.