Scalloping..

Fraid I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. I've been listening to Yngwie and Satriani for roughly the same amount of time. Though Yngwie clearly knows his classical and his theory, this music is repetative and sometimes boring. Satriani's stuff is very original, and you can't argue with the guy who taught guitarists like Kirk Hammett AND Steve Vai (though granted, a lot of that goes to Frank Zappa).

Added to this, I counted up how many scales I know. Since I'm self-taught I only really know a few (though recently I have been trying to fix it) and even with this limited knowledge I can still impress women :D

Take one fret board and lightly simmer bout 12 hours, add garlic and butter.

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY POGOHEAD:Though Yngwie clearly knows his classical and his theory, this music is repetative and sometimes boring. Satriani's stuff is very original,
I counted up how many scales I know. Since I'm self-taught I only really know a few (though recently I have been trying to fix it) and even with this limited knowledge I can still impress women


Just like i said, "these kind of stuff are only for those who knows how it works". you cannot appreciate something if you dont know what it is? If you were into classical music then you'd understand. and I dont think that his stuff is boring. I have all his cd's (except for steeler and alcatraz which i dont like at all. maybe the same reason why Yngwie went solo) From 1984's "Rising force" to 2005's "Unleash the Fury", i even have some of his albums on cassettes and been listenin to some of it for 12 yrs and they never seem to bore me.I was trained in classical guitar because the school where i came from dont teach rock music, and I am also self taught when it comes to the electric guitar, and as a matter of fact i dont know any type of scales at all except for those modes dating back to the 14th century that i learned back in college which my professors say are different from the scales that most musicians are using today and of course the major and minor and all that stuff.. and that is where theory comes in, i make my own scales using chord tones, what i do is i gather all the chords and combine all the notes that they have inside of them into one large note salad. You will never go wrong with this tecnique, it will give you good sounding solos and melodies and you can also impress not just women with this tecnique but other guitarists as well. oh! and Satriani for me is boring, imagine playing 2 chord for 4 beats with just a little run of the second chord on the 4th beat going down to the 1st beat of the second bar then repeating it till the end of the 8th bar. man thats a very boring intro. I saw it when he played the Extremist in the G3 Live in denver video. and if you listen to Satch Boogie carefully you'll find out that the bass line is very similar to the bass line of the Extremist, boogie is just a little faster in beat. oh and the drums too. Im sorry man,guess im not agreeing with you too. :-D

I'm going to say this again, I haven't heard very much malmsteen. but you can't say satriani sucks! there is more to music then theory... don't try to think like I don't know my theory either, I may not know much right now, but I'm currently taking classes to learn it. and yes, I do appreciate a well put together song that has alot of theory put into it, which is why I listen to alot of metal (if you listen, you can see that it is very classically inspired, and they very often use uncommon time signatures) but sometimes there is more to a technically good song, it's the feeling and emotion put out through the music. and joe satriani does this very well.

well actually there's only one uncommon time signature that works in a song and that is the 5 beats per one bar (5/4) which the band Dream Theater always use.you can put 9/8 or 7/4 or 11/4 but in the end it would all sound like the 5/4.I also listen to a lot of metal bands like you do. Rhapsody,Symphony X, ManOwar,as long as it gives me what i want to hear.And i agree with you,there is much more to music than theory coz music theory is just one thing man. there's also the Composition class where you will learn to make good melodies out of the chords or even the bass lines that you're using( a branch of Music theory), the Music Appreciation and Ear training Class which trains you to have perfect pitch. The Chorus class where the whole class is a choir, it will help you in blending notes making it sound very very good. The Solfege class where you will be singing some pieces in perfect pitch while using the note names as the lyrics. I studied these for 7 yrs before i became a Music teacher and a critic. and still i want more training so im planning to take my Masters Degree after a year or so to become a proffesor of music.. so if you are still taking classes then all i have to say to you is please do your homework and always practice coz you still have a long way to go, and also because that is what i always tell my students.

what ever happened to being 12, sitting in your bedroom with your new strat replica and hitting your whammy bar and finding if you press it enough it sounds like an engine? :cool:

Well actually i started listenin to malmsteen's music at 12 but i didnt have any idea what he's doin at that time, all i knew then was that he plays very good music. My first record of him was Fire and Ice and when i first heard the song I'm my own enemy, I was awed by its arrangement. And at that time I was a beginner learning how to play some Metallica riffs with an acoustic nylon string guitar. I never cared about the solos back then. All i care about was the riffs and shreds.And since i only had an acoustic guitar i cant play solos coz my guitar only had 19 frets.. i cant do any bends so i said why bother, who needs solos anyway.but time went by and i started to wonder how the hell he plays those solos so fast., i was 15 when i got my first strat and started learning how to play solos from tabs i got from guitar magazines.but mamlsteens solos gave me a hard time. It wasnt until i was in my second year in college that i finally realized malmsteens way of playing with the help of some professor's explanation about the wonders of classical music.

when I said uncommon, I didn't mean like 5/4... I just meant anything other then the common 4/4, which is used soooo often...

3/4, 12/8, 2/4, etc. is the kind of thing I meant

I'm taking beginner's theory classes right now, which I am only taking to improve my guitar playing, I have no intention of a music major anymore, because once you analyze music too much, it's no longer music, it's like a math problem or something... and I don't think you quite got my point when I said that there was more to music then theory. I mean sure, any song can be broken down to "ok, this song is in the key of C#m, it is in 4/4 time, it uses a so-and-so diminished chord here, and a so-and-so augmented chord here" but do you really think that that is what was going through the songwriter's mind when he was writing the song? he was probably trying to express out a thought or emotion, or perhaps just a general wondering. now sure, he may have used theory to write it (especially in classical music) but that doesn't mean that only people trained in music theory can appreciate the song, even a complete nimrod could understand an emotion of sadness, or anger, or happiness.

I've got a 12th fret down scalloped 21 fret charvel/jackson neck on my LVL curved Explorer/destroyer body.I really like it because I found that one doesn't have to put much pressure on the scalloped part of the neck to play.Also I think playing faster on scallopeed is easier done,due to the lack of finger pressure needed.I just wish this neck had 24 frets(sigh...oh well)

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrs

I'm taking beginner's theory classes right now, which I am only taking to improve my guitar playing, I have no intention of a music major anymore, because once you analyze music too much, it's no longer music, it's like a math problem or something...

I like that right there. I think some analyze guitarists so much that they forget that its not a contest on who can be technically the best. For example, Im a HUGE AC/DC fan. Are Angus and Malcom the greatest technical guitarists in the world? No. But their music is fun and theyve came up with some good tunes. A song doesnt have to take a huge amount of skill to be a great song.

Originally posted by 6Strngs: "I have no intention of a music major anymore, because once you analyze music too much, it's no longer music, it's like a math problem or something.
sure, any song can be broken down to "ok, this song is in the key of C#m, it is in 4/4 time, it uses a so-and-so diminished chord here, and a so-and-so augmented chord here" but do you really think that that is what was going through the songwriter's mind when he was writing the song? he was probably trying to express out a thought or emotion, or perhaps just a general wondering. now sure, he may have used theory to write it (especially in classical music) but that doesn't mean that only people trained in music theory can appreciate the song"..

Ok, , when you're writing music you just dont put any chords on it like snap there it is a sad song. you have to think about how its going to sound when you play it, will it sound sad, or happy or angry or sexy?,depends on what you want to do. then after putting the chords you think about the solo, you go back to the chords to "analyze" what chords you're using to make the melodies for the solo. /so what you' re really doing is you're analizing a problem because you're trying to find a solution on how to make it sound the way you want it and yeah it is like a math problem. just playing and counting how many quarter notes or eight notes or even counting on what beat you're gonna do a pause or rest is math. And that's whats really going on inside the mind of a songwriter, Unless you have a really sad lyrics telling the listeners that that song is very sad, you cannot just put any chords on it to make it sound sad.. what if you're writing an instrumental and you want it sad and because its instrumental theres nothing to tell the listeners that its sad except for the music itself, so you dont just put A major and D major and G major on it cos it wouldnt sound sad because those are happy chords, you have to use something like Bm and F#m and A and E major to make it sound sad. you want it scary? use something like Em then Dm then Cm then B minor then C to make it sound scary or spooky. Every chord progression in the book expresses an emotion.

trust me, I write instrumental music constantly, and one of my more famous songs.. and by famous, I mean at least 5 people on the planet know what it is.. lol. but one of my more famous songs is a very sad song, using the chords: Dm, F major, Am, and Em. I wrote this song back when I knew next to no theory, which becomes obvious when the solo comes around and I go way off beat... but that's not the point.

with alot of things I write, I try to figure it out using theory, saying, ok, this chord fits in the same key as this chord, so they should go together... and they come out ok at best. other times, there is no theory going through my head, I am only playing chords that I feel are expressing my current emotion, I make chord changes when I feel like it, and my strum/pick pattern is as fast or slow as I want it to be... these usually end up being my best songs that I write. so no, there doesn't always have to be theory going through a songwriter's mind, there can be just pure simple emotion... and I mean, yeah, after the song is written you can find all the theory in it, but that doesn't mean the songwriter intended for it to be that way.

Originally Posted by: AkiraI like mine charcoaled!

I don't each Swedish food.

My Dad LOVES Malmsteen. He knows about as much musical theory as my cat. I liked Malmsteens music because it used to amaze me, but after years of tearing up my fingers playing 'Black star', 'Perpetual' and 'Vengeance' it just doesn't do it for me anymore. It still impresses others when you go mad on something like that, but neither me or my friends can tell you what the timing is or what scales are used, and I don't need any of that stuff to be able to play it, I just need to look like a pompous swede :D

I think it takes more skill to be able to teach yourself how to get to that level without any help and assistance than having someone sit and show you everyday. If anything it allows you to get your own feel for it.

I realize it appears that this thread has been dead for awhile now, but I'd just like to say that once you've sold over seven million albums worldwide, THEN you can make claims that Joe Satriani isn't good.

The man has mastered every technique on the instrument (and invented at least one of his own) and is an incredibly melodic composer. You say he only knows three scales, but hey, once you know one diatonic mode, you know them all. I personally don't like Yngwie, but I can't argue that he's not INCREDIBLY fluent technically. You know, it is possible for BOTH of them to be considered really good!

by that rationale, you can't say anything err of Britney Spears, N'Sync, 50 Cent, etc... because they fart that many sales...

Touche on the Britney Spears and co., lol. Too late to change that to "instrumental guitar albums"? But I see what you're saying.

Punk rock!!! :D

"Here's a chord. Here's another. Here's another. Now go start a band."

- Sniffin' Glue magazine, c. 1977, UK.

Bands like the Sex Pistols turned rock 'n' roll on its head. And they were pretty much on the opposite end of the spectruum from classical virtuosos who can fingertap Mozart's K545 with one hand while doing the dishes with the other. Steve Jones didn't even know how to tune the Les Paul that he stole from Rod Stewart's backing band when the Pistols started out. Just goes to show that you don't have to have a Master's from Oberlin or Berklee to make radical, mind-blowing music that shakes up everything.

Edited to add: So is it true or untrue that playing on a scalloped fretboard is no more difficult than a normal fretboard? What's the verdict? :confused: