Michael Angelo

To all those who have seen Michael Angelo you will be sure to remember the parts where he sought of flicks his left hand over and under the neck very fast and wild.

I was wondering does anyone else think that is just for show? When i listen he seems to just sort of tremelo pick open strings with his right hand and the left just flicks wildly and doesnt really seem to fret anything.

What do you's think?

To all those who havent seen Michael Angelo (or Michael Batio, same person) i strongly suggest you do. He does some amazing things with the guitar, unusual things to, like play sometimes with his left hand on top of the neck as opposed to the normal come from the bottom of the neck.

Also possibly the fastest player ive ever seen.

He may not write as good music as some others but man he is technically impressive!

That is just for show, but he can do it, and he's damn good at it.

When I say just for show, he IS actually hitting notes, does he need to flip his hand over? No, but he can, so he does. It's like why does a dog lick it's balls? Cause he can.

I read an article about him somewhere saying how he was in a guitar shop and one of the workers told him he couldn't play the intro to "Master of Puppets" by Metallica, using the over and under technique, and well, he did.

He is quite amazing.

Yes it's just for show ... I was drooling the first time I saw it , and I couldn't understand it too , but I eventualy figured out that he's just tremolo picking and hiting some specific frets on that string ... It's not imposible to immitate , I managed to do it , but still it doesn't look as cool as he does (I need a bit more speed).

Yeah man, the idea itself isn´t hard, but to gain the flip speed is hell. However I can play stuff like intro to Wasted Years like that (perhaps a little bit slower) but I don´t practice it that much.

But reversed hand stuff seems impossible. It´s so ****ed up.

I played "Master of Puppets" both with fliping hands and reversed (fretting from above) ... It's realy cool to show off with , since almost every body recognize that song.

Dejan , try practicing the chromatic exercises you know with reversed fretting and you'll get your hand over it ... Guaranteed , it worked for me ;) .
I'm still working on someway to do these reveresed sweeps like him ... Looks like it's gonna be sometime till I get my hands on that ! :mad:

I can kinda play over the top like that, just because I've been dabbling in the piano lately. And you use your left hand like that on a piano, it kind of relates. It's still f@cked up and hard to play as fast as he can like that.

Pantallica1,

I dont mean when he plays it like a piano, have you ever seen the parts where he will play 1 note over the top and then the next from under and then back over and then under, its a real wild hand flick crazy thing he does.

Playing like a piano is obviously not as good as normal but ive tried it and is not to bad to play a simple tune.

Im still certain when he does this wild flick thing that its just a show and doesnt fret anything most of the time.

Originally posted by Ruyard
Im still certain when he does this wild flick thing that its just a show and doesnt fret anything most of the time.

I think he does play certain frets , but when he misses some , it's not a big deal.

You can play something more reasonable in tempo like "Master of Puppets" or anything else this way very clean and accurate , and it will still look cool too.

I know what you're talking about. He just plays a few frets here and there.

Who cares if he tremolo picks the notes (Wich he does!) or how many or little frets he plays while doing it! Try doing the over and under (No I don't mean the piano technique..the other one he does) michael angelo speed.....Not impossible but you'll be spending a few extra years with this technique to get it up to Michael Angelo speed (wich I practice for about 30 mins. a day). Yes it's all for show and looks damned cool live. When Michael is in the studio..he plays normally.

Is he the fastest? No! He even says he does not care about being the fastest. The fastest I have ever seen is Francesco Fareri:
http://www.francescofareri.com/main.htm
Download some of his sample videos and be ready to be HUMBLED! IN A BIG WAY! :-)

HOLY SH*T!

Well, the technique was out of this world, and the speed was the same.. Oh my god! Well, I'm gonna give up guitarplaying now =)

his playing is to fast..its a bunch of notes being blurred together..his stuff is real boring to..igf ur gonna play fast..least make it not so boring and differnt from the other thousands of shredding

I agree with you on that. His stuff does sound blurried (even his songs) I much prefer Michael Angelo, Rusty Cooley, and Yngwie Malmsteen. At least their stuff is musical. I would however, love to be able to play as fast as Francesco..just to say I can :-)