I watched Lucas Mann's video addressing his miming. On that recording the sound we hear is his monitor that has a harmony guitar backing track playing. Not what he's playing. There is another video of the same gig further up in the crowd and you hear like 4 guitars being played. Lucas says that there is no sound that comes from stage apart from their monitor's backing tracks. Dude's legit. :)
People needs to watch that video. This drama needs to end, if someone don't like the music is all right, that is our personal taste. But another thing is attacking and insisting into someone, there is a ton of videos of him playing but that last video, finally I hope, answered a lot of question. But people are already biased about RoS, they judge without even care to check and listen.
@@AzathothsAlarmClock damn that's so accurate, just move on. I usually don't waste my time on things, if I am into something it means that I like it, I don't want to waste my time in things that I don't like.. It's not that difficult.
Max Lastockin Lucas is just an amazing player, Is was skeptical at first and let myself fall into the bandwagon and assumed things I didn’t know what I was talking about, but I wholeheartedly watched his entire video and now I can truly say I respect the man, and the mining accusations are all false, he can just play technical and fast amazingly well
Ryan Miller Wow, harsh! Can't argue with it...but harsh nonetheless. ...I wonder what we'd see if we took it one step further and shone the spotlight on you...? I know if you spun it back onto me and put the spotlight to my life, scouring through it for inconsistencies or hypocrisies... you'd no doubt find all that and more. I am a deeply flawed human being, who cannot be regarded as successful by any stretch of the imagination...and I still stand up to say, "Faking guitar shred on social media by way of speeding it up or otherwise manipulating the video content is morally wrong and should be held to account - or at least condemned by the social communities therein."
@@chriszoupa7898 Lucas actually told about why his guitar sound was not coming, recently. The guy who shoot the video, was in the wrong position, as they are directly connected to the house speakers.
@@AzathothsAlarmClock not all shredders are bad. And I think it's a shitty name and is an insult to guitar players. Why? Because when you hear the word shredder, you think of someone playing really fast. Jason Becker, Jacky Vincent(for those who say he's robotic, please look at his solo songs like rain), Tony Macalpine, Jeff Loomis, Tosin Abassi, Jason Richardson etc. these all guys just don't shred. They write beautiful music. And that's why I just hate this term. It's like people saying"oh, you're a shredder, so you play really fast" like " Dude, please listen to my music, and tell me weather you like it or not". Some people need more notes to fulfill their music, and some need more. But in the end, if you phrasing is good, emotions will come out, weather you're playing fast or slow.
@@AzathothsAlarmClock I like these guys too. Am seventeen, going to be eighteen four months later. But what I mean is that when a common person hears the term shredder, they think of fast playing. Guys that I and you both mentioned, use those techniques to make music. That's what I'm taliking about.
Good word, Chris. Thank you. I've never been good at sweeping; I'm trying to learn how to simply make music. I do like to shred, but I guess I see shred as a spice, not the whole meal - or something like that.
Had to look up the song, and that solo was gorgeous. After hearing you set it up, and then hearing the spoken words just before the solo, it was heart wrenching. Melody and emotion trump speed 10 times out of 10.
i think yo onityan deserves a spot in the “best in the world shredders” category he never mimes a video and hes actually toured with rings of saturn before
I tend to agree. I personally don’t like Yo at all because everything sounds generic and soulless to me, but damn if he isn’t fast, clean, and talented
Hit the nail on the head my man. Being able to sweep at those paces is fine and a good tool to have when used properly but that's what it is - a tool. These guys are only able to exist because of TH-cam and Instagram because you can watch them do it, if it was just audio we'd be bored in seconds and even then how many times do we watch these things though? maybe 3 times? Then it's done, unlike music with emotional solos that you listen to for life.
So very well put, my Brother! Your very thoughtful vocal essay into this topical subject of guitar miming has just now led me to think: This current guitar mining phenomenon is kinda like the male equivalent of the competition females face in terms of beauty, across all social media but especially Instagram and also Utube. Funny that it's these same two social media platforms from which this new vile fad is evolving. Well, if we follow the same path that the female beauty competition path has forged before us... We are in for one hell of an ugly trip! And... If we're not careful..it won't just be a "fad", either...
@@chriszoupa7898 That totally reminds me of parts of Death's Voice of the Soul, which incidentally is probably my all time favourite guitar instrumental and one that you should totally do a lesson on!
Wow Chris I think YOU NAILED IT BRO! Thanks for for the great thoughts and the good feeling in my heart as I start the day, seriously thank you! Cheers from Santa Rosa California!
That Teramaze song was dope. I love the chunky rhythm tone, has a Boogie vibe...that solo too, real airy and articulate over the strings, its haunting. Has a bit of a Petrucci thing in the guitars to my ears, which is an honor. Good stuff Zoups, thanks for informing me.
“Who cares if not every single sweep or shred sequence... doesn’t sound as perfect as the cyborg that plays it on umm... guitar pro “ Hearing those words nearly killed me lol
@Gabriel Hirshman I'm a huge fan of John Petrucci because he likes to shred with emotion. He doesn't always overly sweep neither. He lets a note ring out for more than one measure sometimes.
Call me old fashioned, but guys like Jason Becker, Michael Romeo, Paul Gilbert and Jeff Loomis -- and more recently Tosin Abasi and Guthrie Govan -- have achieved pretty much maximum technical level and musicality in my mind and that's it for me. They -- with the sad exception of Becker -- continue to consistently pull it off technically and make great music. The problem is, I've seen very few TH-cam guitarists who can actually compose interesting music with any depth, and if I have no proof they're actually pulling off their stuff live, I'm not interested. I'm not saying the community has no value. But this whole issue just exemplifies the ultimate absurdity of the technical scene. Without musical ideas, it doesn't make sense.
@@gringochucha I gotta disagree. Even with his insane shredding, shredding left handed, upside-down, ECT, I still feel like he is very great musically. Just listen to his version of crazy train. It's nuts
@@trevorblackbirdguitar9952 Ok, I just listened (not watched) a video of him doing a tribute to Crazy Train and Mr. Crowley. And yeah, his playing is amazing. But I really had to force myself to listen to the end. I mean, I'm not going to be all "MAB suxx" like a lot of people. Each to his own. I've just never heard anything by him that keeps my attention musically. But that's just me. Cheers!
The end of this rant pretty much captures my mentality on technique. Being able to play faster and accurately is like having more paintbrushes and tools. They can help to better and more vividly express the idea, but do not in themselves make something good. But a evocative picture drawn with nothing more than a pencil and paper is still better than a sterile one made with a million colours and run through fancy photo-editing software
wrong analogy though. shredding does require skill, it is something akin to hyper realist art or sculpture, where a lot of skill is on show. photo editing software would be more analogous to DAW-based electronic music making.
I hear ya bro. Technical ability is only cool to those who understand it. I like it coz I play a little but it doesn't mean shit to people who just want to hear a nice tune. It's the age old conundrum of what the player wants to play vs what the audience wants to hear. There's gotta be some compromise or reconciliation. Great thought provoking vid mate \m/
I definitely use guitar pro to write music, but I never do it without having an instrument in my hand first and using innovation. I'm not sure if there is a arpeggio tool on gpro 7, but I think there is a difference between good technicality and being technical for the sake of being technical.
Chris, i gotta say you're one of my most respected TH-cam guitar teachers, but I'm a bit disappointed in this video rant. Did you get a chance to watch Lucas's reply to Jared's video? he explains very well the reason why it sounds perfect. It's because the audio recording was done front and center stage where all you could hear was the monitor which was playing a pre-recorded harmony guitar part. The FOH speakers clearly had his actual playing in the mix. Now, I'm not a fan of having any pre-recorded stuff going to FOH, but to say that he is faking it is just not true. And so what if displays of technical ability don't have "soul" or whatever? If you don't like it, don't listen to it. Besides, I see this is a problem that's going to solve itself eventually. If the audience is there to listen to a technical display, and they find out that some or all of it is pre-recorded, I'm betting that these audience members will not be attending any future shows!
I know this video is old but Lucas recently addressed this issue. Check out his video and if you haven't already done so, maybe issue an apology. Right now this bandwagon of TH-camrs calling out "fake" guitarists is hurting their careers and costing them endorsements.
Remember when the ladies complained about airbrushed models in magazine's saying that is putting unrealistic expectations on women's appearance. It feels like this is that for guitarists...
Hi Chris yep that's what music is all about what's inside the feelings inside and how you play that music from inside don't comment much but your right on i would love to see a song or two of your band performing thanks Chris love your way bro ✌👊👍
Im an advocate of shredding with Melody. I get that it gets mind numbing over time, but it can really sound good if it's placed in a song/solo right and melodic enough
This is why I'm not bothered that there are artists I enjoy that I'm just not good enough to play (yet). I want to get better so I can do more on the instrument, but that is just a function of my expression, not the pinnacle of it. If where I'm at today is as far as I ever get, I'm cool with it. It's better than I ever thought I'd be and I can play most things I love (and most that an audience would recognize or appreciate). Not really worried about impressing other guitar players. There's always someone better and it's a pointless exercise to spend all your time trying to get just a little better technically.
This got into my recommended, I don’t know much about you which is why I will preface this by saying I don’t mean this to be rude, but I don’t think you had the right direction here, if you watch the response that Lucas sent out he displays his skill quite well. He showcases and explains what is being heard in that recording and how he plays his stuff. You should probably check your sources and how backing tracks are actually being used today.
Pretty spot on. I'm kind of trying to look at this as natural selection for guitarists instead of being discouraged by these guys blowing up on instagram. Like Randy Savage said, only the cream of the crop rises to the top.
I completely agree. Although I play guitar i think the easiest way to understand is with singing. Blues and soul are not "perfect" but it thrive off of emotion and imperfections which allows people to feel and relate to the music. Although some pop ballads have heartfelt lyrics, they lack the ability to elicit pain behind perfect pitch and vocal acrobatics. Yes there is a time and place for everything but raw, genuine music is a personal preference for me
I think Guitar Pro can be helpful for writing in a similar way that learning keyboard solos on guitar is. It gets you thinking about composition in a different way, because when playing we tend to go into our little pentatonic/major/minor box and play what feels good to us, when compositionally it kinda sounds same-y and not that interesting. With guitar pro, you can just focus on perfecting a melody and then learning it on guitar which forces you to use different fingerings and note patterns, similar to learning parts on guitar that weren't originally written for guitar such as keyboards.
GREAT word of advice in this real world. Some people record stuff that they couldnt possibly just plug in and play... The emotion is far bigger than the theory. Being human gives us the advantage to have our own voice/sound... Hendrix,Vaughan, Trucks,Page... Nothing wrong with being a virtuoso musician! Jus don't fake it. It's art not a sport!!!
Great video Chris. Spot on man. I feel like it's getting to a point where it's ALLLLLL about technical proficiency and song writing in general takes a backseat. Guitarpro helped me learn beat subdivisions and phrasing for some solos I was learning but it's always been a reference to me, I never used it to write. I guess everyone will be different and write different....but I dunno.....solos need feels man. I've been through a lot of pain in my life and when I write I'm not thinking "Ok....how can i add a bunch of sweeps in here!!".....if it fits, fine.....but we need more feels back into playing otherwise where is the uniqueness of the musician? Regardless of musician when you are just running scales as fast as possible and sweeping as fast as possible it all sounds mechanically and similiar. Technically impressive, so I mean....for people into that, that is fine but for me....I need feels.
I think guitar pro can be a wonderful tool. I've found it extremely helpful for writing, partly because if I couldn't use it to write, the only things I could write would be really simple and really shitty riffs. I'm not very good at bass or guitar, so guitar pro allows me to write something and at least get a sense of what it sounds like. At the same time, the ability to write whatever you want regardless of technical ability does make it easy to start writing things without any sense of musicality and solely write for the purpose of complexity. Guitar pro is a really powerful tool, so it requires restraint to use effectively. I plan on playing bass in a band, but I still write out guitar and occasionally even drum parts, just to get an idea for the sound I want and to be able to hear it and explain it to others. The only difference is that I plan on rewriting everything by hand when I get other band members and relying on guitar pro solely as an example of the sound I want, and not as exact instructions for what to play. It allows for the best of both where you aren't writing blind and have a concrete idea to work around, but you're also able to improvise and change things.
I agree, I just started using it myself as a tool to be more analytical about music in general and maybe help me break out of some habits and routines. It's cool for experimenting with things. Obviously not just ripping up and down arpeggios though lol :)
@@kendalljones99 I've found that it's helpful for writing unusual things. When you rely on patterns that you know to write, it can be a bit difficult to write stranger riffs and melodies, so when you don't have to improvise everything, you're free to write whatever crazy riffs and patterns you want.
“Because Wonderwall makes people feel something you fucktard!” Summing it up pretty nicely. People always think technical proficiency is what makes good art. It’s the same for painting, music, photography etc. When they find out that art is all about human emotion they make the surprised Pikachu face.
GP can totally be a great tool for composition, but most of the time I spend using the program, I have my guitar in hand. Different strokes... but there's a very clear line between compositional assistance and computer composition lol. Don't feel like using GP is cheating, just DONT CHEAT WITH IT!
I would say aspirate to becoming one of those 3 guitarist that can pull those speeds and feels off :P never limit yourself, art is subjective. Some people love to hear and play super fast stuff. And some like the emotional side. I like to see both combined. but above all be careful and make sure your hands are up for it no matter what you want to tackle.
Nothing wrong on using GPro as a practice tool or to write down your ideas/songs there to have it for reference. (one can only remember that many riffs 😋). But use it as a compositional tool? NO F WAY. 100% with you on this Chris. This issue has gone big the last few days and as I've said in the past, although I like adding some intense shred/arpeggio in bits here in there I do only what I can. If I can play something I play it. If not i try to get there with practice. If it's way too hard I simply don't go there. I would never fake or speed up stuff it wouldn't have any value at all.
Lucas may do what he does but everyone needs to give credit to Joel Omans. I saw rings a few weeks ago and joel played his ass off and his heart out. They also blew a circuit at the venue controlling the subs and had to wait for it to be reset and i yelled: “play random sweeps” and Joel answered with some amazing shredding. Lucas is gonna be lucas and Joel is gonna be Joel. It’s been clear since he left and Ultu Ulla came out and Joel came back that Lucas is far from the main composer
6:36 Exactly! There's no reason for anyone to have to fake guitar playing. You'll never get away with it anyway! And there's absolutely NO REASON to obsess over speed! What the fuck is the hurry? MUSIC IS AN ARTFORM. MUSIC IS NOT A RACE! IT IS NOT A SPORT! IT IS NOT A MUSICIAN'S JOB TO BEAT ANOTHER PLAYER! THERE ARE NO RULES! PLAYING FASTER DOES NOT EQUAL PLAYING BETTER! CLAPTON, BB KING, DAVID GILMOUR, BILLY GIBBONS, ALL LEGENDS! ALL ARE OR WERE NEVER FAST! Personally my priorities as a songwriter/instrumental writer are feel and melody first, technical second. That's just me. I don't give a flying fuck if I can't play as fast as one of these joe shredders on Instagram. Good for them. But no thank you! I'll play my own way. That's been my attitude for decades. It works for me! And all of my You Tube performances are 100 percent REAL.
Honestly i agree composing with guitar pro is not the best way but i think its fine to compose that way or even record that way if thats the sound you want but just dont lie about it. If you cant play it or you cant play it as clean as it sounds on record fine, but dont pretend to be able to
Yeah, I really disagree with the guitar pro thing. If you actually use your ear and try to forget about playing you can write things you'd never play normally because you're not confined by your muscle memory. Obviously it gets to a point where if you can't play the piece it's pointless but I think your example is very poor
I am not a shredder ok, I want to but yeah it takes time but ! The most beautiful things I have heared on the guitar weren’t at a speed of 300 bpm , it were those slow melodic and well written songs. I write my own music and I try to put soul and emotion to it. Not technicality and things that should impress somebody (on how I am good at guitar(
What depresses me is Chris is only 2 years older than me but 200 years better than me. Now off to find a hacked version of guitar pro so I can pull chicks.
You mentioned the guy who wrote a guitar solo crying over the situation/condition of his father's health. Is there audio/video footage of that? I like honest and true music, not necessarily blazingly technical but with a certain flavour or transmitting the feelings of the moment. Cheers
Lucas has worked his ass off to be able to play so technical. That's a great accomplishment for sure. I've always been into guitar shredding. However, I just can't listen to this music. It's too shreddy for me. I guess I have a line when it comes to guitar shredding. I would rather listen to the guitar shredders in the gypsy jazz genre.
As we've all seen, even 12 year old kids can become terrifying bedroom shredders. Whether real or "enhanced" with effects doesn't really matter unless you're only in the bedroom shredder arena. Collaborating with others and playing with a band live, to take your music to the next level, is where the rubber meets the road. That's where the big fish from the little pond realize, WoW there are whales in the ocean!
I use Tuxguitar (free guitar pro) so I can easily program drums, bass, and a harmony guitar in a short amount of time and play with it. I don't have a viable setup to record my actual guitar (no midi interface, no decent mics) and I am broke, so this is pretty much as close as I can get right now.
I don’t agree that emotion can’t come through while using guitar pro. Some of the more emotionally-charged stuff I’ve written is in guitar pro. A lot of legendary composers (I.e. Beethoven in particular) essentially wrote with guitar pro. They wrote music down on paper, they didn’t sit with an instrument and noodle around until they liked it. It just depends how you’re using it. You shouldn’t use it to write insane stuff then try to keep up with it, you should use it to enable you to experiment more than you might be able to with an actual instrument or at least more quickly. That being said, I agree that insane shredding isn’t something that all guitarists can or should pull off. Shred doesn’t need to be insanely fast or clean to sound good. A perfect example are the solos from Like Clockwork and Decorus by The Eyes of a Traitor. Arguably a fairly sloppy performance, but the emotion/vibe/theme are clearly present. You’re not thinking “oh he’s a nutty guitarist” you’re thinking “damn that sounds good” and, to me, the latter is what makes a musician and music impressive. That’s why I always tell people that playing the guitar is a technical skill which requires little creative ability, whereas composition is the part which requires creativity and careful consideration and the latter is the part that contributes to culture and makes music an art form.
Riley Tucker Beethoven wrote for instruments: their register, timbre, number of note possibilities, and knowing their players limitation. All within his vision of his music. Nothing like guitar pro, nothing!
@@Pravdaband I disagree that it's nothing like writing in guitar pro. Like I said, writing in guitar pro should take all of those things into account (aka how music on paper will translate to music played on an instrument). People shouldn't be using guitar pro to write insane shred and then making fake videos/recordings saying they can actually play it because they typed in some cool numbers in guitar pro. Point being: it's a tool, people may use it for better or worse, but the use of the software itself has no intrinsic effect on the music written in it.
If you want to hear a killer solo with real emotion and skill, listen to the intro to Testament’s “Trial By Fire”. It has sweep picking and technical playing, but is still very expressive.
Back in the 70s I knew a studio engineer who would record his guitar tracks and speed them up in the final mix. I believe he was doing it as a special effect and not trying to come off as something he wasn't. I fell people should come out and say they've sped things up to change the sound and be honest.
Here is the thing... the actually really great guitar players can play insane stuff at insane speeds, but they will still sound like playing a real guitar with great tone, dynamics and feel. Anyone who doesn't have that and sounds like reamped overprocessed GPro files, can be as fast as they want, it doesn't really matter to me. It's just a red flag. As guitar players we generally spend tons of money and time on perfecting our gear and tone and can never satisfy our GAS. Why would you suddenly ditch all that for a thin $100 sound on your superspeed video? ...cue X-Files theme... That's just based on my personal taste though, I know many will disagree and that's fine.
“Look at those sweeps! I wanna have his babies”
-Chris Zoupa, 2019 colourized
Yea the "colorized" just ruined it
I watched Lucas Mann's video addressing his miming. On that recording the sound we hear is his monitor that has a harmony guitar backing track playing. Not what he's playing. There is another video of the same gig further up in the crowd and you hear like 4 guitars being played.
Lucas says that there is no sound that comes from stage apart from their monitor's backing tracks. Dude's legit. :)
People needs to watch that video. This drama needs to end, if someone don't like the music is all right, that is our personal taste. But another thing is attacking and insisting into someone, there is a ton of videos of him playing but that last video, finally I hope, answered a lot of question.
But people are already biased about RoS, they judge without even care to check and listen.
this. right here.
@@AzathothsAlarmClock damn that's so accurate, just move on.
I usually don't waste my time on things, if I am into something it means that I like it, I don't want to waste my time in things that I don't like.. It's not that difficult.
Michelle Chevalier kinda hard when it’s the “THANG” of today, otherwise it’s annoying to hear
Max Lastockin Lucas is just an amazing player, Is was skeptical at first and let myself fall into the bandwagon and assumed things I didn’t know what I was talking about, but I wholeheartedly watched his entire video and now I can truly say I respect the man, and the mining accusations are all false, he can just play technical and fast amazingly well
"I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures." - GEDDY LEE
In a decade, players will come back around to just bending notes, and playing blues once again......
It's probably cyclical
Ryan Miller Wow, harsh! Can't argue with it...but harsh nonetheless.
...I wonder what we'd see if we took it one step further and shone the spotlight on you...?
I know if you spun it back onto me and put the spotlight to my life, scouring through it for inconsistencies or hypocrisies... you'd no doubt find all that and more. I am a deeply flawed human being, who cannot be regarded as successful by any stretch of the imagination...and I still stand up to say,
"Faking guitar shred on social media by way of speeding it up or otherwise manipulating the video content is morally wrong and should be held to account - or at least condemned by the social communities therein."
@@chriszoupa7898 Lucas actually told about why his guitar sound was not coming, recently. The guy who shoot the video, was in the wrong position, as they are directly connected to the house speakers.
@@AzathothsAlarmClock not all shredders are bad. And I think it's a shitty name and is an insult to guitar players. Why? Because when you hear the word shredder, you think of someone playing really fast. Jason Becker, Jacky Vincent(for those who say he's robotic, please look at his solo songs like rain), Tony Macalpine, Jeff Loomis, Tosin Abassi, Jason Richardson etc. these all guys just don't shred. They write beautiful music. And that's why I just hate this term. It's like people saying"oh, you're a shredder, so you play really fast" like " Dude, please listen to my music, and tell me weather you like it or not". Some people need more notes to fulfill their music, and some need more. But in the end, if you phrasing is good, emotions will come out, weather you're playing fast or slow.
@@AzathothsAlarmClock I like these guys too. Am seventeen, going to be eighteen four months later. But what I mean is that when a common person hears the term shredder, they think of fast playing. Guys that I and you both mentioned, use those techniques to make music. That's what I'm taliking about.
Do you have a link to that super emotional solo you were talking about?
Reminds me of Death
Did you not watch the response video Lucas made?
masterful man - both from the heart, but also adding your trademark comedy!
Good word, Chris. Thank you. I've never been good at sweeping; I'm trying to learn how to simply make music. I do like to shred, but I guess I see shred as a spice, not the whole meal - or something like that.
Had to look up the song, and that solo was gorgeous. After hearing you set it up, and then hearing the spoken words just before the solo, it was heart wrenching. Melody and emotion trump speed 10 times out of 10.
i think yo onityan deserves a spot in the “best in the world shredders” category he never mimes a video and hes actually toured with rings of saturn before
He picks so clean and fast, even live 👌🏾
I tend to agree. I personally don’t like Yo at all because everything sounds generic and soulless to me, but damn if he isn’t fast, clean, and talented
Agreed. He's the definition of soulless shredder. His bends make me yawn, but god damn is he good.
TheSwampPrince listen to his guest solo on the new rings of saturn album it really shows his true voicing
@@grimg0r ehh, could care less honestly. Rings of Saturn makes me sick.
Hit the nail on the head my man. Being able to sweep at those paces is fine and a good tool to have when used properly but that's what it is - a tool. These guys are only able to exist because of TH-cam and Instagram because you can watch them do it, if it was just audio we'd be bored in seconds and even then how many times do we watch these things though? maybe 3 times? Then it's done, unlike music with emotional solos that you listen to for life.
So very well put, my Brother!
Your very thoughtful vocal essay into this topical subject of guitar miming has just now led me to think:
This current guitar mining phenomenon is kinda like the male equivalent of the competition females face in terms of beauty, across all social media but especially Instagram and also Utube. Funny that it's these same two social media platforms from which this new vile fad is evolving. Well, if we follow the same path that the female beauty competition path has forged before us... We are in for one hell of an ugly trip! And... If we're not careful..it won't just be a "fad", either...
Anyway we can hear this moving beautiful solo? I almost cried just listening to you describe it
th-cam.com/video/7GvQDyHe_WA/w-d-xo.html
Almost cried? Give me a break lol
My god, that Dean Wells is one hell of a guitarist. Quality.
@@chriszoupa7898 That totally reminds me of parts of Death's Voice of the Soul, which incidentally is probably my all time favourite guitar instrumental and one that you should totally do a lesson on!
@@TotalMeltdown2 how about you acknowledge that genuine human emotion is possible? Or are you above that?
Wow Chris I think YOU NAILED IT BRO! Thanks for for the great thoughts and the good feeling in my heart as I start the day, seriously thank you! Cheers from Santa Rosa California!
Thanks for everything over the years and my $2 for MY comment
Lucas is the Mann ..rings of Saturn is dope !
On a different note, have you tried Chris Broderick's pick clip?
That Teramaze song was dope. I love the chunky rhythm tone, has a Boogie vibe...that solo too, real airy and articulate over the strings, its haunting. Has a bit of a Petrucci thing in the guitars to my ears, which is an honor. Good stuff Zoups, thanks for informing me.
“Who cares if not every single sweep or shred sequence... doesn’t sound as perfect as the cyborg that plays it on umm... guitar pro “
Hearing those words nearly killed me lol
I agree maybe just a little cheeky sweep and that’s all u need
Thomas Harden this might be the most underrated comment of all time
I love you Thomas. You get it.
Hehe soldier of fortune by Loudness.
Akira does the most fastest and cheekiest sweep ever right towards the end of the solo
@Gabriel Hirshman I'm a huge fan of John Petrucci because he likes to shred with emotion. He doesn't always overly sweep neither. He lets a note ring out for more than one measure sometimes.
@@daoyang223 JP for the fucking win. Forever.
Call me old fashioned, but guys like Jason Becker, Michael Romeo, Paul Gilbert and Jeff Loomis -- and more recently Tosin Abasi and Guthrie Govan -- have achieved pretty much maximum technical level and musicality in my mind and that's it for me.
They -- with the sad exception of Becker -- continue to consistently pull it off technically and make great music. The problem is, I've seen very few TH-cam guitarists who can actually compose interesting music with any depth, and if I have no proof they're actually pulling off their stuff live, I'm not interested.
I'm not saying the community has no value. But this whole issue just exemplifies the ultimate absurdity of the technical scene. Without musical ideas, it doesn't make sense.
Couldn't agree more! The artists you mentioned actually use their skills as tools to create music not to impress people on the internet.
Can't forget Michael Angelo batio. That dude is arguably the most technical guitarist ever.
@@trevorblackbirdguitar9952 Technical, yes. Musical, no.
@@gringochucha I gotta disagree. Even with his insane shredding, shredding left handed, upside-down, ECT, I still feel like he is very great musically. Just listen to his version of crazy train. It's nuts
@@trevorblackbirdguitar9952 Ok, I just listened (not watched) a video of him doing a tribute to Crazy Train and Mr. Crowley. And yeah, his playing is amazing. But I really had to force myself to listen to the end.
I mean, I'm not going to be all "MAB suxx" like a lot of people. Each to his own. I've just never heard anything by him that keeps my attention musically. But that's just me.
Cheers!
The end of this rant pretty much captures my mentality on technique. Being able to play faster and accurately is like having more paintbrushes and tools. They can help to better and more vividly express the idea, but do not in themselves make something good. But a evocative picture drawn with nothing more than a pencil and paper is still better than a sterile one made with a million colours and run through fancy photo-editing software
Agreed.
wrong analogy though. shredding does require skill, it is something akin to hyper realist art or sculpture, where a lot of skill is on show. photo editing software would be more analogous to DAW-based electronic music making.
I hear ya bro. Technical ability is only cool to those who understand it. I like it coz I play a little but it doesn't mean shit to people who just want to hear a nice tune. It's the age old conundrum of what the player wants to play vs what the audience wants to hear. There's gotta be some compromise or reconciliation. Great thought provoking vid mate \m/
I definitely use guitar pro to write music, but I never do it without having an instrument in my hand first and using innovation. I'm not sure if there is a arpeggio tool on gpro 7, but I think there is a difference between good technicality and being technical for the sake of being technical.
Wise words for me guitar pro is like a note pad to wright down riffs so I don't forget them.
Do your research about Lucas, before making these claims. He explains everything. Not cool...
Chris, i gotta say you're one of my most respected TH-cam guitar teachers, but I'm a bit disappointed in this video rant. Did you get a chance to watch Lucas's reply to Jared's video? he explains very well the reason why it sounds perfect. It's because the audio recording was done front and center stage where all you could hear was the monitor which was playing a pre-recorded harmony guitar part. The FOH speakers clearly had his actual playing in the mix.
Now, I'm not a fan of having any pre-recorded stuff going to FOH, but to say that he is faking it is just not true.
And so what if displays of technical ability don't have "soul" or whatever? If you don't like it, don't listen to it. Besides, I see this is a problem that's going to solve itself eventually. If the audience is there to listen to a technical display, and they find out that some or all of it is pre-recorded, I'm betting that these audience members will not be attending any future shows!
"And so what if displays of technical ability don't have "soul" or whatever? "
Wow.....just wow.....
I know this video is old but Lucas recently addressed this issue. Check out his video and if you haven't already done so, maybe issue an apology. Right now this bandwagon of TH-camrs calling out "fake" guitarists is hurting their careers and costing them endorsements.
Exactly what I needed to hear! Thanks Chris! Love what you do!
Remember when the ladies complained about airbrushed models in magazine's saying that is putting unrealistic expectations on women's appearance. It feels like this is that for guitarists...
man, theodore zeras was my teacher for a short period of time about 8 years ago, you reminded me of him so i'll be into some videos of him, thnx!
Hi Chris yep that's what music is all about what's inside the feelings inside and how you play that music from inside don't comment much but your right on i would love to see a song or two of your band performing thanks Chris love your way bro ✌👊👍
Great Video man I agree 100%, too many people get caught up in techniques rather than writing something good or heartfelt.
What about Tosin Abasi and Guthrie Govan? Al Joseph, Rick Gram some other great people.
I feel like Tosin is not that clean live.
Very well said. Needed to be said.
Thank you!
Rock on brother!
Love your rants. Without feeling, those things sound like exercises, nothing more. Far from being a solo. I'm with you - guitar pro = total pants.
Your video makes me feel better about being an average guitarist, I focus on songwriting and feel instead of shredding because I can't do it anyway.
Im an advocate of shredding with Melody. I get that it gets mind numbing over time, but it can really sound good if it's placed in a song/solo right and melodic enough
don't judge Lucas for miming if you haven't watched his recent video entirely.
5:20 The highlight of zoupa rants. Someone tell me how to bookmark this video with this timestamp so I can listen to it over and over, lol.
This is why I'm not bothered that there are artists I enjoy that I'm just not good enough to play (yet). I want to get better so I can do more on the instrument, but that is just a function of my expression, not the pinnacle of it. If where I'm at today is as far as I ever get, I'm cool with it. It's better than I ever thought I'd be and I can play most things I love (and most that an audience would recognize or appreciate). Not really worried about impressing other guitar players. There's always someone better and it's a pointless exercise to spend all your time trying to get just a little better technically.
And it would be amazing to make a lesson on the Ordinary Dream solo ...it’s really really gooood
Been waiting u for talking about this mass issue.
Well said. Thanks for weighing in.
This got into my recommended, I don’t know much about you which is why I will preface this by saying I don’t mean this to be rude, but I don’t think you had the right direction here, if you watch the response that Lucas sent out he displays his skill quite well. He showcases and explains what is being heard in that recording and how he plays his stuff. You should probably check your sources and how backing tracks are actually being used today.
Pretty spot on. I'm kind of trying to look at this as natural selection for guitarists instead of being discouraged by these guys blowing up on instagram. Like Randy Savage said, only the cream of the crop rises to the top.
I completely agree. Although I play guitar i think the easiest way to understand is with singing. Blues and soul are not "perfect" but it thrive off of emotion and imperfections which allows people to feel and relate to the music. Although some pop ballads have heartfelt lyrics, they lack the ability to elicit pain behind perfect pitch and vocal acrobatics. Yes there is a time and place for everything but raw, genuine music is a personal preference for me
Great points made, Chris. Without the heart, it's just noise.
Jason wrote follow the signs on GP and the rest is history
Sorry for the stupid question, can anyone tell me what he's doing with his pick? Taped it to his thumb?
Is there a clip of this sad solo u spoke of?
Next thing we know, Chris is gunna knock Cubase and Finale. All classical composers had better quit because we all write music we can't play :p
THAT emotion is why i play..i love the instrument...i love the feeling..i play for me
Great video yo
I think Guitar Pro can be helpful for writing in a similar way that learning keyboard solos on guitar is. It gets you thinking about composition in a different way, because when playing we tend to go into our little pentatonic/major/minor box and play what feels good to us, when compositionally it kinda sounds same-y and not that interesting. With guitar pro, you can just focus on perfecting a melody and then learning it on guitar which forces you to use different fingerings and note patterns, similar to learning parts on guitar that weren't originally written for guitar such as keyboards.
Exactly!
Yeah that was a really poor take.
How did I never hear of Teramaze until i saw this video? I've been missing out.
Would buy a shirt with the score for "some shit thing I wrote" on it
the guitar pro thing sounds like "terminator 2" for the old nintendo nes.
Ok, but what's the model of that Jackson? Looks really cool
GREAT word of advice in this real world. Some people record stuff that they couldnt possibly just plug in and play... The emotion is far bigger than the theory.
Being human gives us the advantage to have our own voice/sound... Hendrix,Vaughan, Trucks,Page... Nothing wrong with being a virtuoso musician! Jus don't fake it. It's art not a sport!!!
Much Arpeggio, Many Virtuoso's!
Lucas Mann can play anything he writes and so can the rest of the band
Music is all about feeling
Me after nonutnovember 6:17
Great video Chris. Spot on man. I feel like it's getting to a point where it's ALLLLLL about technical proficiency and song writing in general takes a backseat. Guitarpro helped me learn beat subdivisions and phrasing for some solos I was learning but it's always been a reference to me, I never used it to write. I guess everyone will be different and write different....but I dunno.....solos need feels man. I've been through a lot of pain in my life and when I write I'm not thinking "Ok....how can i add a bunch of sweeps in here!!".....if it fits, fine.....but we need more feels back into playing otherwise where is the uniqueness of the musician? Regardless of musician when you are just running scales as fast as possible and sweeping as fast as possible it all sounds mechanically and similiar. Technically impressive, so I mean....for people into that, that is fine but for me....I need feels.
Spot on.
I don't know why you critique guitar pro composing while you cite Stephen, Sims and Jason who all 3 use GP for writing
Also mateus asato, he is godhood level when he does into rage mode
I think guitar pro can be a wonderful tool. I've found it extremely helpful for writing, partly because if I couldn't use it to write, the only things I could write would be really simple and really shitty riffs. I'm not very good at bass or guitar, so guitar pro allows me to write something and at least get a sense of what it sounds like. At the same time, the ability to write whatever you want regardless of technical ability does make it easy to start writing things without any sense of musicality and solely write for the purpose of complexity. Guitar pro is a really powerful tool, so it requires restraint to use effectively. I plan on playing bass in a band, but I still write out guitar and occasionally even drum parts, just to get an idea for the sound I want and to be able to hear it and explain it to others. The only difference is that I plan on rewriting everything by hand when I get other band members and relying on guitar pro solely as an example of the sound I want, and not as exact instructions for what to play. It allows for the best of both where you aren't writing blind and have a concrete idea to work around, but you're also able to improvise and change things.
I agree, I just started using it myself as a tool to be more analytical about music in general and maybe help me break out of some habits and routines. It's cool for experimenting with things. Obviously not just ripping up and down arpeggios though lol :)
@@kendalljones99 I've found that it's helpful for writing unusual things. When you rely on patterns that you know to write, it can be a bit difficult to write stranger riffs and melodies, so when you don't have to improvise everything, you're free to write whatever crazy riffs and patterns you want.
@@hyperbiscuit2284 Exactly!
“Because Wonderwall makes people feel something you fucktard!” Summing it up pretty nicely. People always think technical proficiency is what makes good art. It’s the same for painting, music, photography etc. When they find out that art is all about human emotion they make the surprised Pikachu face.
Nailed it.
Thank you, I have a whole new perspective on playing guitar.
GP can totally be a great tool for composition, but most of the time I spend using the program, I have my guitar in hand. Different strokes... but there's a very clear line between compositional assistance and computer composition lol. Don't feel like using GP is cheating, just DONT CHEAT WITH IT!
I would say aspirate to becoming one of those 3 guitarist that can pull those speeds and feels off :P never limit yourself, art is subjective. Some people love to hear and play super fast stuff. And some like the emotional side. I like to see both combined. but above all be careful and make sure your hands are up for it no matter what you want to tackle.
PS. please send me that sweep pattern you wrote :) It sounded cool
Nothing wrong on using GPro as a practice tool or to write down your ideas/songs there to have it for reference. (one can only remember that many riffs 😋). But use it as a compositional tool? NO F WAY. 100% with you on this Chris. This issue has gone big the last few days and as I've said in the past, although I like adding some intense shred/arpeggio in bits here in there I do only what I can. If I can play something I play it. If not i try to get there with practice. If it's way too hard I simply don't go there. I would never fake or speed up stuff it wouldn't have any value at all.
Lucas may do what he does but everyone needs to give credit to Joel Omans. I saw rings a few weeks ago and joel played his ass off and his heart out. They also blew a circuit at the venue controlling the subs and had to wait for it to be reset and i yelled: “play random sweeps” and Joel answered with some amazing shredding. Lucas is gonna be lucas and Joel is gonna be Joel. It’s been clear since he left and Ultu Ulla came out and Joel came back that Lucas is far from the main composer
Preach!
6:36 Exactly! There's no reason for anyone to have to fake guitar playing. You'll never get away with it anyway!
And there's absolutely NO REASON to obsess over speed! What the fuck is the hurry?
MUSIC IS AN ARTFORM. MUSIC IS NOT A RACE! IT IS NOT A SPORT! IT IS NOT A MUSICIAN'S JOB TO BEAT ANOTHER PLAYER! THERE ARE NO RULES! PLAYING FASTER DOES NOT EQUAL PLAYING BETTER! CLAPTON, BB KING, DAVID GILMOUR, BILLY GIBBONS, ALL LEGENDS! ALL ARE OR WERE NEVER FAST!
Personally my priorities as a songwriter/instrumental writer are feel and melody first, technical second. That's just me. I don't give a flying fuck if I can't play as fast as one of these joe shredders on Instagram. Good for them. But no thank you! I'll play my own way. That's been my attitude for decades. It works for me! And all of my You Tube performances are 100 percent REAL.
Honestly i agree composing with guitar pro is not the best way but i think its fine to compose that way or even record that way if thats the sound you want but just dont lie about it. If you cant play it or you cant play it as clean as it sounds on record fine, but dont pretend to be able to
can you show that song?
th-cam.com/video/7GvQDyHe_WA/w-d-xo.html here is Dean's Solo LIVE FROM PROG POWER 2019!
Yeah, I really disagree with the guitar pro thing. If you actually use your ear and try to forget about playing you can write things you'd never play normally because you're not confined by your muscle memory. Obviously it gets to a point where if you can't play the piece it's pointless but I think your example is very poor
I am not a shredder ok, I want to but yeah it takes time but ! The most beautiful things I have heared on the guitar weren’t at a speed of 300 bpm , it were those slow melodic and well written songs. I write my own music and I try to put soul and emotion to it. Not technicality and things that should impress somebody (on how I am good at guitar(
That's what it's about dude!
What depresses me is Chris is only 2 years older than me but 200 years better than me. Now off to find a hacked version of guitar pro so I can pull chicks.
Where thy de emotional guitar solo ye spoke of?
You mentioned the guy who wrote a guitar solo crying over the situation/condition of his father's health. Is there audio/video footage of that? I like honest and true music, not necessarily blazingly technical but with a certain flavour or transmitting the feelings of the moment. Cheers
Lucas has worked his ass off to be able to play so technical. That's a great accomplishment for sure. I've always been into guitar shredding. However, I just can't listen to this music. It's too shreddy for me. I guess I have a line when it comes to guitar shredding. I would rather listen to the guitar shredders in the gypsy jazz genre.
Lucas legit posted the DI tracks for this. He's just a monster.
He's got to feel stupid after his response video.
@@Babs42 I damn well hope so. Lots of silly ideas and a few good ones.
As we've all seen, even 12 year old kids can become terrifying bedroom shredders. Whether real or "enhanced" with effects doesn't really matter unless you're only in the bedroom shredder arena. Collaborating with others and playing with a band live, to take your music to the next level, is where the rubber meets the road. That's where the big fish from the little pond realize, WoW there are whales in the ocean!
MY MAN
I use Tuxguitar (free guitar pro) so I can easily program drums, bass, and a harmony guitar in a short amount of time and play with it. I don't have a viable setup to record my actual guitar (no midi interface, no decent mics) and I am broke, so this is pretty much as close as I can get right now.
Who’s the guy in the clip after Taranto?
Dominic Airola it is i
Sims Cashion well damn sick playing. Cool Tigran video, subbing now.
What song has that sad solo in, I really want to hear it now
I don’t agree that emotion can’t come through while using guitar pro. Some of the more emotionally-charged stuff I’ve written is in guitar pro. A lot of legendary composers (I.e. Beethoven in particular) essentially wrote with guitar pro. They wrote music down on paper, they didn’t sit with an instrument and noodle around until they liked it. It just depends how you’re using it. You shouldn’t use it to write insane stuff then try to keep up with it, you should use it to enable you to experiment more than you might be able to with an actual instrument or at least more quickly.
That being said, I agree that insane shredding isn’t something that all guitarists can or should pull off. Shred doesn’t need to be insanely fast or clean to sound good. A perfect example are the solos from Like Clockwork and Decorus by The Eyes of a Traitor. Arguably a fairly sloppy performance, but the emotion/vibe/theme are clearly present. You’re not thinking “oh he’s a nutty guitarist” you’re thinking “damn that sounds good” and, to me, the latter is what makes a musician and music impressive. That’s why I always tell people that playing the guitar is a technical skill which requires little creative ability, whereas composition is the part which requires creativity and careful consideration and the latter is the part that contributes to culture and makes music an art form.
Riley Tucker Beethoven wrote for instruments: their register, timbre, number of note possibilities, and knowing their players limitation. All within his vision of his music. Nothing like guitar pro, nothing!
@@Pravdaband I disagree that it's nothing like writing in guitar pro. Like I said, writing in guitar pro should take all of those things into account (aka how music on paper will translate to music played on an instrument). People shouldn't be using guitar pro to write insane shred and then making fake videos/recordings saying they can actually play it because they typed in some cool numbers in guitar pro. Point being: it's a tool, people may use it for better or worse, but the use of the software itself has no intrinsic effect on the music written in it.
If you want to hear a killer solo with real emotion and skill, listen to the intro to Testament’s “Trial By Fire”. It has sweep picking and technical playing, but is still very expressive.
Yeah... "feeling" is not an excuse to rely only on the pentatonic stuff already heard a million times either, okay?
while there's truth in this, you also don't need to overcomplicate things
I get that man. Listen to Marty Friedman. He can play heaps of notes and still make me feel something.
@@chriszoupa7898 That obviously wasn't meant for you Chris 🙌🏼 More for the "shredders-don't-have-any-feelings" crowd.
One name:
Andy James
Can melt your face off,but also comes up with the most melodic shit you will ever hear,like "After Midnight" for example.
As God Guthrie said, if it's not musical it's just a trick, a gimmick. You can't guitar pro Koch, Nuno, Guthrie....
Back in the 70s I knew a studio engineer who would record his guitar tracks and speed them up in the final mix. I believe he was doing it as a special effect and not trying to come off as something he wasn't. I fell people should come out and say they've sped things up to change the sound and be honest.
I agree with you completely!
Here is the thing... the actually really great guitar players can play insane stuff at insane speeds, but they will still sound like playing a real guitar with great tone, dynamics and feel.
Anyone who doesn't have that and sounds like reamped overprocessed GPro files, can be as fast as they want, it doesn't really matter to me. It's just a red flag.
As guitar players we generally spend tons of money and time on perfecting our gear and tone and can never satisfy our GAS. Why would you suddenly ditch all that for a thin $100 sound on your superspeed video? ...cue X-Files theme...
That's just based on my personal taste though, I know many will disagree and that's fine.
Crescendo at 5.50 min !! Well said.