As for my opinion on shred, well, as Luigi so eloquently put it, it should be a means to an end (where the end is a great peice of music). If it is just an end, like Yngwie hitting as many notes as he can in a second, then it seems the musical process has been slightly distorted. Can anyone honestly say that Yngwie has made a profound, powerfull and moving song? I'm talking about the type of song that is timeless, meaning that no matter how many years pass people still listen to it because it has all the makings of a great song. Granted I don't know that much of his stuff, but is his very style enough to inspire non-guitarists? Sure, I enjoy shred occassionally. I'm still young, and still aspire to achieve that kind of technical profiency, but the bottom line is, I started playing the guitar to be able to make beautiful music and move people. When I picture myself in 50 years, sitting under a tree playing the guitar- to my grandchildren perhaps, I picture myself playing something like blowin' in the wind, not some shred peice.
Now for my favorite guitarists (in no particular order). I
Hendrix
Slash
Rhoads
Al Di Meola (damn... this guy moves me)
Satch
Vai
EVH
That's about all I can think of now, I'm probably missing a few, and I definatly anticipated this list changing dramatically over the course of my life. I'd be damn frightened if it didn't.
