"There's no emotion in speed" (guitar playing)

Speed and emotion are totally different things. How can you even relate them?

In my personal opinion, if you can fly all over the fretboard, thats cool.... but your not really a good musician unless you appeal to the emotions of your audience. Your just a machine.

Being a musician myself, emotional quality is most important, over everything else. At the end of the day, its all about who you affected, not how awesome of a technical player you are.

Thats my opinion.

There can be emotion in speed, its just hard to do.

Grodus5

[QUOTE="Grodus5"]

There can be emotion in speed, its just hard to do.

Kruiz_Bathory

john petrucci and buckethead can play with emotion, even michael angelo batio. i think rusty cooley plays fast because he can.

[QUOTE="lonewolf604"]

Don't you kind of hate it when people use this argument? I think most people say this because they themselves can't play fast.

I think its a pretty ridiculous depending on how you look at it.

A guitar player will spend years on his technique, just for people to say "there's no emotion" in that.

Sure, simplicity (and emotion) shouldn't be over looked, but then that's just too easy.

Thoughts? Opinions?

xaos

Depends entirely on the genre, if you play metal there obviously needs to be speed but that doesn't mean there's no emotion. But there are genres such as grunge where speed is not important and it depends on simplicity and emotional power. Everyone has different taste in music and people often forget that, so let's not criticize one another (unless someone listens to modern pop).

Speed and emotion are totally different things. How can you even relate them?

In my personal opinion, if you can fly all over the fretboard, thats cool.... but your not really a good musician unless you appeal to the emotions of your audience. Your just a machine.

Being a musician myself, emotional quality is most important, over everything else. At the end of the day, its all about who you affected, not how awesome of a technical player you are.

Thats my opinion.

Shmiity

Speed can definitely reflect emotion. It is best when there is a crescendo or such and the speed is the sort of release after the buildup.

Couple good examples from good ol' Metallica would be the end solo's of Fade to Black and One.

Speed is also great in general when it comes to expression agression and anger. The only example of slow yet agressive that comes to my mind is Walk by Pantera which also happens to be one of the greatest examples of great simplicity.

Technical ability does not inherently mean emotion. LJS9502_basic

That would depend on precisely what emotion you're looking for, wouldn't it?

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]Technical ability does not inherently mean emotion. Lonelynight

[QUOTE="Lonelynight"][QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]Technical ability does not inherently mean emotion. LJS9502_basic

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"][QUOTE="Lonelynight"] Yes, it is a tool to express emotion.Lonelynight

Basically he means that if you play a scale super duper fast you are not giving any emotion in which case he is right.

[QUOTE="Lonelynight"][QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"] No...it's a technique.Nifty_Shark

Basically he means that if you play a scale super duper fast you are not giving any emotion in which case he is right.

fast does not mean emotionless, speed is not the only thing that determines what you all call "playing with emotion" (if you think this, you may need to do some restudying of music)

John Petrucci/Jeff Loomis, these 2 play with a lot of emotion, and these 2 are some of the fastest playing people I have heard.

its not a clear cut question, i can shred without emotion... or i can shred with emotion. it all depends on the person holding the guitar and what he wants to convey at that particular time.

if your asking "is it possible to shred and still convey emotion" then the answer is yes.

its not a clear cut question, i can shred without emotion... or i can shred with emotion. it all depends on the person holding the guitar and what he wants to convey at that particular time.

if your asking "is it possible to shred and still convey emotion" then the answer is yes.

incred_davis

This, like I said before, speed is not the determining factor for with or without emotion... Though speed can add or take away some emotion, (depends on the emotions conveyed)

but playing fast is emotionless, is a fallacy, usually used by people who a) can't play fast, or b) don't listen to music where they do play fast...

It is an argument however which degrades other play techniques, to justify the importance of the ones they prefer.

Shredding is a lot like playing chords in a sense. It is not about the individual notes, it is about the main idea being produced. Shredding, believe it or not, is perfectly capable of creating an atmosphere and adding color to a piece. An experienced shredder is not just trying to shred up and down musical scales. A truly great shredder chooses his notes carefully and the outcome will be far from "mindless shredding" as is the common stereotype of shredding. Here is a great example:

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Black Star

This piece contains a lot of really technically impressive guitar playing, but not for one minute is it not expressive and "emotional". Notwithstanding all that, it is not important to play "beautifully". Music is not about expressing beauty at all, and if the specific moment calls for really chaotic playing, and it is appropriate, then that can also not be called mindless.

Shredding is a lot like playing chords in a sense. It is not about the individual notes, it is about the main idea being produced. Shredding, believe it or not, is perfectly capable of creating an atmosphere and adding color to a piece. An experienced shredder is not just trying to shred up and down musical scales. A truly great shredder chooses his notes carefully and the outcome will be far from "mindless shredding" as is the common stereotype of shredding. Here is a great examples:

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Black Star

This piece contains a lot of really technically impressive guitar playing, but not for one minute is it not expressive and "emotional". Notwithstanding all that, it is not important to play "beautifully". Music is not about expressing beauty at all, and if the specific moment calls for really chaotic playing, and it is appropriate, then that can also not be called mindless.

ex-mortis

yeah yngwie malmsteen (I love his flamenco diablo) is a great guitar player, him Jeff Loomis and John Petrucci are all 3 examples of the Fallacy : fast is emotionless.

All 3 of them can and often do play very fast, and also have some of the most beautiful/emotional guitar passages/solos/riffs (regardless of the speed)

[QUOTE="incred_davis"]

its not a clear cut question, i can shred without emotion... or i can shred with emotion. it all depends on the person holding the guitar and what he wants to convey at that particular time.

if your asking "is it possible to shred and still convey emotion" then the answer is yes.

Lach0121

This, like I said before, speed is not the determining factor for with or without emotion... Though speed can add or take away some emotion, (depends on the emotions conveyed)

but playing fast is emotionless, is a fallacy, usually used by people who a) can't play fast, or b) don't listen to music where they do play fast...

It is an argument however which degrades other play techniques, to justify the importance of the ones they prefer.

I just wanna say that you two's avatars makes your having a discussion pretty amusing:lol:

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

[QUOTE="incred_davis"]

its not a clear cut question, i can shred without emotion... or i can shred with emotion. it all depends on the person holding the guitar and what he wants to convey at that particular time.

if your asking "is it possible to shred and still convey emotion" then the answer is yes.

LostProphetFLCL

This, like I said before, speed is not the determining factor for with or without emotion... Though speed can add or take away some emotion, (depends on the emotions conveyed)

but playing fast is emotionless, is a fallacy, usually used by people who a) can't play fast, or b) don't listen to music where they do play fast...

It is an argument however which degrades other play techniques, to justify the importance of the ones they prefer.

I just wanna say that you two's avatars makes your having a discussion pretty amusing:lol:

yeah yngwie malmsteen is a great guitar player, him Jeff Loomis and John Petrucci are all 3 examples of the Fallacy : fast is emotionless.

All 3 of them can and often do play very fast, and also have some of the most beautiful/emotional guitar passages/solos/riffs (regardless of the speed)

Lach0121

As I stated earlier...emotion is not inherently part of technique. Someone who works to perfect a technique does not by osmosis acquire emotion. Not to sat that every musician is an example of not having emotion....but it's false to say the technique causes emotion in and of itself.

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

yeah yngwie malmsteen is a great guitar player, him Jeff Loomis and John Petrucci are all 3 examples of the Fallacy : fast is emotionless.

All 3 of them can and often do play very fast, and also have some of the most beautiful/emotional guitar passages/solos/riffs (regardless of the speed)

LJS9502_basic

As I stated earlier...emotion is not inherently part of technique. Someone who works to perfect a technique does not by osmosis acquire emotion. Not to sat that every musician is an example of not having emotion....but it's false to say the technique causes emotion in and of itself.

No now this I agree with you on(malmsteen aside), though it is the technique which gives you the tools/abilities to convey your emotion... Music is the language of emotion, and techniques playing stiles (misspelled I know gamespot is a turd with that word) are what give you the tools to convey said emotion.

but your right, technique does not mean emotion.. but having technique can help you better utilize/transpose/and convey the emotions.

[QUOTE="Lach0121"]

yeah yngwie malmsteen is a great guitar player, him Jeff Loomis and John Petrucci are all 3 examples of the Fallacy : fast is emotionless.

All 3 of them can and often do play very fast, and also have some of the most beautiful/emotional guitar passages/solos/riffs (regardless of the speed)

LJS9502_basic

I think his first album combines emotion and skills very well, then it was all mostly pure showoff crap.

It really depends on the artist/song... emotion does not depend on how quickly the music is played.chessmaster1989

bingo, as well as the perception of the audience/listener.