I had this discussion with some guys last week and since they brought it up it has really made me think. It,s a deeper question than you may first think so please have a ponder for awhile before answering because, to be honest, I am not sure if its just subjective to personal tastes or more profound than that..
The premise is this; when guitar players reach a certain level of proficiency, when they can obviously play, then its personal taste that makes you prefer one player over another. It's the "feel' they put into their playing. The subtle differences in solo notes and bends and how one night they will play a solo slightly differently because that is what felt right to them at that time.
Then you have,for want of a better term, the next level of player. The virtuoso, I suppose you could say ,whose mastery of the instrument is frankly awe inspiring. Technically perfect, they can and do reproduce entire albums note perfect to the recording. Rather like a machine would.
Now as some of you will know I like Adrian Belews playing very much. He is an accomplished player but on reflection, with his power trio he really rips it up live. Robert Fripp on the other hand,even sits on a comfy chair to play note perfect renditions of King Crimson songs. I mean, I like King Crimson but it doesn't exactly get the pulse racing. I hope you can see what a subtle question this is with my clumsy explanation of how the conversation went.
I will try to give examples.
I happened to mention, while Queen was on the jukebox, that Brian May is a very skilled player and has a great sound but personally, I am not keen even though his playing ticks all the boxes that I would normally like. This is how it all started btw.
As it went on I found myself choosing Vai over Satch , Schenker over Blackmore and Slash over Buckethead.
Is there really just an X factor over this player versus that player , or is there something to their assertion that technical brilliance is at the expense of soul?
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