about the perhaps idiotic sounding statement I made...well...why do you think analogy and analysis have the word anal in them? That's the root word there...analysis means "reverse-engineering" - studying sh!t to find out about the thing that moved its bowels - going inside an anus to learn about the person (which will never teach you about them in full), it's very simple, that's what those words are based on. Analogy is direct comparison, again in a reverse-engineering fashion, for the thing being "studied" already is there in all its fullness, the study is trying to learn fully about it, similar to analysis...but you don’t have to analyze anything if you are playing around and stumble upon things that sound intriguing, they are simply there and weren’t a moment ago, and you don’t have to debate or configure anything, it is just there and usable.
What I might have said instead is one might want to play around lots - I mean PLAY AROUND, not just mix and match others' licks, and when you find a cool lick, maybe practice it for technique, otherwise you will only be a parrot following others that had made some licks (or who play simple scales all day)...I hope I made myself clearer...think about it...the BEST players didn't just learn someone else's licks and play them faster...they stretched out and then it is a culmination of everything, the speed, the improvisation, etc, but most people that talk of improvisation don't really IMPROVISE, like true improvisers such as Charlie Christian, Django, Jimi and McLaughlin, etc...there are so few true innovators...simply because no-one wants to risk sucking ass for a while at the new thing even if they can already go real fast with scales and other things they are established with - this is why extremely close to all the top speed virtuosos will never get into some real hardcore improv, and never really access their highest level of musicality, for they have that pure essence as a secondary accompaniment to their speed, that's why the shredders for the most part suck balls, and can only do that same sh!t forever...but they can at any time stop and re-start with the improv thing, and be a total beginner again, but they have that speed in other areas anyhow, every time they come up in technique or anything with the true improv style of writing/soloing, etc, they can access that speed they already have and perhaps modify it for the new thing they stumbled upon...but these dudes that are titans at shredding won't let it go...they are stuck sucking balls and just flying around aimlessly...so they rot away...
The bit about goals not being the means to achieving anything - I was pointing at originality there.
"How do you get anywhere if you don't know where you are, and where you are going to get through?"
I don't mean that this is not going to do anything, I mean that this will put you into one solidified mould, that's what a goal is, trying to get a certain skill or sound down...perhaps in stages, for various things, one at a time, what can be wrong with that? I'm just pointing out that it is a pre-determined limitation if that is all you think about is your goal - or a series of them if you want to get good at various things. I never had goals. I heard Satriani a few times in 1998 (the first really fast playing I'd ever heard), got into guitar (I had one since 1991-1992, but never played it really ever except to pick off some melodies by ear, like Call of Ktulu and Holy Wars and other easy beginner stuff, then pretty much never touched it for years with the odd playing once in a blue moon). When I started listening to Satch, I never really tried to emulate him, while watching music tv stations, I started legato for speed with only left hand for simple 3-notes per string scales - even to Whitney Houston and any songs. I didn't play much after that for a bit, and even now I don't play that much at all compared to "serious" guitarists...sometimes a few days in a row...but I'm not hellbent of keeping up a rigorous routine. I'm not accomplished in all forms of guitar playing, not at all like that, I just play and I can cruise if I want to...but cruising is a means in itself - cruising is cruising for cruising's sake, you know? If you cruise, maybe warm up with some blitz sh!t, then go around and feel for some other stuff, you will benefit from whatever you might encounter from playing around, otherwise you're just cruising so you can say you have the ability to cruise. That's a good thing to have technical skill, but the greatest barrier to real soulful playing is if you get too far into speed first and can't let go even for a moment, again the not playing for a day or a week really helps you open up from this kind of thing.
I've heard your stuff, you rock, I must say, I'm not saying I can take you on in all kinds of things you play, hell even you call yourself an "ex-shredder" which tells me you must see the same thing I am talking about, with the "stagnation" of only playing fast for speed's sake.
As far as "influence" from certain players, I pretty much just listen to the scales they use, sometimes a definitive sound or maybe one or two little licks, I go only by ear, maybe the "awkward" changes and strange flamenco improv jumps I might try out, things like that, but I don't have any set "goals" in mind, I just play around, and I keep getting faster...so all I'm saying is that anything's possible with or without goals or strive and determination to "get there". I've "written" some classical guitar songs (jazz/flamenco style, I mean on the classical guitar I played and recorded them), but they are like jazz/flamenco freesytle, not writing at all, total improv, sounds a lot like the guitar trio and egberto, I must say, but I don't even know the chord I play or what transitions I am making, I just play pretty much totally random and then react to it and somewhat try to make it fit, to come back to the “base” key or whatever, like all the great jazz masters do, even an "off note" you can make the perfect transition if you "resolve" it well, and doing this, every aspect of it, on the spot, is the best way to develop the improv side. There's still the fact that this makes one sound a bit like those other guys, but I’m not trying to, I’m stretching a bit, the coming back into key thing just happens to be what those guys do, and I don’t like total free-form jazz, so I must live with the fact that I sound a little like those guys (okay lots at times), but I’m not really striving for that, I just go along and the next thing comes…and yes my soloing does seem repetivie, but I can only add to it with more and more things to use each style/technique less often and perhaps get a nice personal touch going, although I am already pleased with my tone (but not at all with my songs, sometimes a great sounding song, then one bad chord ruins it, but again I don’t even know what a chord will sound like I play it totally random ,the weirdest chord, and lots of times it works…I have a strange way of doing things I guess, but it seems to work for me, and I slowly progress…)
"I only ear this kind of thing (no goals) in rehearsal places, not in actual places where bands play concerts..."
That's understandable. Most pros are educated in music, with theory, knowing how to read notes, I don't have a clue about any of that - I know the basic modes names - phrygian, etc, but I can't even tell you which pattern is which mode - I am totally detached from all that - not on purpose, I have no desire to learn any of it - I go strictly by ear - I confounded by guitar teacher that I had very briefly 10 years ago (who is awesome by the way) and I would bring in tapes of metal bands and that stuff to pick off by ear with him, but I'd be getting it all 10 times faster than him, and he could do jazz improv stuff sounding like Metheny, but I had the much stronger ear - I don't even care about anythying else, and you osurely know that the ear is the most important thing - without it, you need to sit there and read all the notes, you can never just join in and play along with something in progress.
I might actually consider doing a whole recording or show (if I start playing live sometimes) with absolutely no pre-determined music at all - total improv of everything, a one-man guitar show like Egberto - I guarantee he writes all his intriguing melodies this way, all the top improvisers do this kind of thing...and I must admit the chances of a total fiasco from doing this kind of thing on the spur of the moment are outrageous, but hey, it's no big deal - you can never get good at it if you don't try it...
You're probably the best guitarist of all the tricksters here. I think we can learn from eacdh other...we're both virtuosos, you're more hardcore into technique and dynamic soloing (or you simply are better at it of the two of us, whether or not you feel you are that into it), I'm more into feeling out some melody or feel from scratch, and flamenco warp speed licks (but I'm not even started on the true bouncing around that the guitar trio do, I don't want to follow them too closely, I do my own thing a bit, and maybe find some of their things that are intriguing and go along). We might even want to write a song together, email one idea, the other guy does a solo or an example of how to change things up a bit (or provide a key/tempo change making it a suite or something), we might challenge each other to new heights...
...maybe you can give me a lesson or two as well ;)