# Technical skill



## Defender (Mar 9, 2009)

Technical proficiency is the only thing that matters in any art form. This is why the faster you play any instrument, the better you are at it. This is also why photo-realistic oil paintings will always be much better than any work of impressionism, cubism, or any other genre of art you can name.

How about The Great Gatsby? Did you think that was a great work of literature? Think again, it is obviously the formal Mandarin Chinese edition of whatever encyclopedia currently has the most pages. It is more difficult to write a book such as that and it has the most pages, so it is the best.

To determine the worth of anything related to art, you need only use the equation f(X)=X where X is the difficulty involved in creation of the piece. If you are dealing with audio, you can use the equation f(X)=Xâ€¢L where L is the length of the guitar solo. This is infallible if you argue with me I will beat you up.


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## ShaneO))) (Mar 9, 2009)

LOL


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## Ooxman (Mar 9, 2009)

...you may have a point.  

I'm going to go kill myself now.


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## Takun (Mar 9, 2009)

I rofled.  Nice try, troll.


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## Endless Humiliation (Mar 9, 2009)

Yeah man I listen to Dream Theater and Rush all the time bro 

BEST. BANDS. EVER.


 <------ This is me rocking out to a Neil Peart/Mike Portnoy solo


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## Sinister Exaggerator (Mar 9, 2009)

Words words words words.


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## Endless Humiliation (Mar 9, 2009)

The Great Fatsby by Rush Limblob.


EMMY PLEASE


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## Ishnuvalok (Mar 15, 2009)

If this was true then Michael Angelo Batio would make the most beautiful songs ever.


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## Endless Humiliation (Mar 15, 2009)

Ishnuvalok said:


> If this was true then Michael Angelo Batio would make the most beautiful songs ever.



You mean he doesn't???


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## kamunt (Mar 16, 2009)

That was brilliant satire. :3 Outstanding. Really, I just can't stand people who try and tell me that Dragonforce is the greatest thing ever invented just because they can play their instruments REALLY FAST FOR A REALLY LONG TIME.


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## Ishnuvalok (Mar 16, 2009)

John_Galt said:


> You mean he doesn't???



The guys amazing sure, but he doesn't write these absolutely beautiful pieces like say, Slash or Marty Friedman.


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## Aden (Mar 16, 2009)

I disagree with the OP. It's of my opinion that any technical skill makes things sound pretentious and bad. It's all wanking anyway, there's no meaning behind it, just shallowness and vapidity. Those with technical skill have no ability to make anything beautiful. If you want some real music with soul and feeling, listen to the simple stuff.


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## Endless Humiliation (Mar 16, 2009)

Way to effortpost in a Defender thread.


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## Whitenoise (Mar 16, 2009)

Aden said:


> I disagree with the OP. It's of my opinion that any technical skill makes things sound pretentious and bad. It's all wanking anyway, there's no meaning behind it, just shallowness and vapidity. Those with technical skill have no ability to make anything beautiful. If you want some real music with soul and feeling, listen to the simple stuff.



Couldn't agree more :V .


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## virus (Mar 16, 2009)

Aden said:


> I disagree with the OP. It's of my opinion that any technical skill makes things sound pretentious and bad. It's all wanking anyway, there's no meaning behind it, just shallowness and vapidity. Those with technical skill have no ability to make anything beautiful. If you want some real music with soul and feeling, listen to the simple stuff.



Tell that to steve vai. His whole gig is technical prowess and its not even musically inclined.


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## Defender (Mar 17, 2009)

Aden said:


> I disagree with the OP. It's of my opinion that any technical skill makes things sound pretentious and bad. It's all wanking anyway, there's no meaning behind it, just shallowness and vapidity. Those with technical skill have no ability to make anything beautiful. If you want some real music with soul and feeling, listen to the simple stuff.



Aw man, you got my hopes up with that first video, that was actually really nice! But then you linked to Dream Theater and my face sank firmly into my palms further and further with every tired wanking endless solo after there. All these guys have the same boring guitar tone so it's just kind of a big pot of homogeneous babyshit. That John Petrucci song sounded like the kind of flaccid sample they give you when you're checking out an effects pedal on a website... except instead of being 30 seconds long it stretched out for several minutes. Oh, but he decided to keep the lame repetitive basic drum beat and bass line that take a backseat to his playing like audio vestigial organs.

What those guys are doing is like taking a salad and filling it with sliced tomatoes so much that you can't see any other components in the salad. You come to a party and go "Wow! That's a lot of tomatoes! And they all look very nice and ripe and delicious!" but then you poke around a little and find one leaf of wilted-ass lettuce and maybe a sliver of onion lurking at the bottom. And then you notice that the bowl holding the salad is made out of petrified batshit. And then you realize everyone you are hanging out with has been lobotomized.

My terrible analogy can be summarized as follows:
-Even a wealth of the finest tomatoes atop some other meager ingredients is not a substitue for a finely blended salad
-Context is important
-I am spending far too much time arguing with furries about guitar music which is like being a 100 year old man trying to punch through a brick wall covered in boiling tar and broken glass after both of your hands have been smashed with a hammer.


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## Aden (Mar 17, 2009)

Aww man, you didn't even like Guthrie Govan? There is no hope.

:C


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## Defender (Mar 17, 2009)

As an addendum, let me present an example of a use of awesome skill for the powers of good. Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers will probably be scoffed at by the "I AM SO ESOTERIC" and "I AM SO METAL" members of the board because it's a hit single or whatever. BUT: it has one of the most deceptively difficult guitar parts I have ever heard in my life. Skip ahead to 0:58 in the video and listen to the playing.

Doesn't sound hard, does it? Go try and learn to play that with the same level of precision and cleanliness that John Frusciante has there. He has some of the most incredible chops in modern rock music, but he knows how to keep them under control and make them work with the rest of the band and write parts that fit into the context of the song instead of making the whole band and tune a vehicle for his guitar solo shit. This is the best way to make use of instrumental prowess.

How about Stevie Wonder? Did you ever know he was a harmonica virtuoso at age 12? Probably not, because he normally keeps his skills under wraps and uses his talent to write tight pop songs like I Wish, where composition and lyrics are the central focus. I can pull up plenty of examples like this if you want, but I personally think that this is a whole lot more interesting than Steve Vai or Joe Satriani or John Petrucci etc etc etc etc.


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## Endless Humiliation (Mar 17, 2009)

THIS GUY, THIS NIGGA: SUPA TECHNIKAL PIANOz


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## virus (Mar 17, 2009)

Defender said:


> As an addendum, let me present an example of a use of awesome skill for the powers of good. Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers will probably be scoffed at by the "I AM SO ESOTERIC" and "I AM SO METAL" members of the board because it's a hit single or whatever. BUT: it has one of the most deceptively difficult guitar parts I have ever heard in my life. Skip ahead to 0:58 in the video and listen to the playing.
> 
> Doesn't sound hard, does it? Go try and learn to play that with the same level of precision and cleanliness that John Frusciante has there. He has some of the most incredible chops in modern rock music, but he knows how to keep them under control and make them work with the rest of the band and write parts that fit into the context of the song instead of making the whole band and tune a vehicle for his guitar solo shit. This is the best way to make use of instrumental prowess.
> 
> How about Stevie Wonder? Did you ever know he was a harmonica virtuoso at age 12? Probably not, because he normally keeps his skills under wraps and uses his talent to write tight pop songs like I Wish, where composition and lyrics are the central focus. I can pull up plenty of examples like this if you want, but I personally think that this is a whole lot more interesting than Steve Vai or Joe Satriani or John Petrucci etc etc etc etc.




Your kidding me right? Under the bridge is pretty simple hendrix chords. Infact Frusciante is pretty hendrix inspired. I could out play him any day.

Already knew stevie was a harmonica player. Also your not looking at "technical" the same way. Your looking more at how things fit together. Because technically Vai, Satch and Petrucci can outplay Frusciante anyday. The stuff they can actually play and the stuff they make are two different kin.


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## ShaneO))) (Mar 18, 2009)

I could go on about this for days but........I'm not.


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## Lyxen (Mar 28, 2009)

why dont you get a horse


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## ShaneO))) (Mar 31, 2009)

An excellent example of mad technical skillzzzzzzzzzzzz..z.z.zkjasdjlnadklfjk.sdjfgklajsg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_eCIjr1Mb0


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## emptyF (Apr 3, 2009)

virus said:


> Your kidding me right? Under the bridge is pretty simple hendrix chords. Infact Frusciante is pretty hendrix inspired. I could out play him any day.
> 
> Already knew stevie was a harmonica player. Also your not looking at "technical" the same way. Your looking more at how things fit together. Because technically Vai, Satch and Petrucci can outplay Frusciante anyday. The stuff they can actually play and the stuff they make are two different kin.



you intentionally missed the point i hope.

of course stevie wonder is a harmonica player.  the point was that at age 12 he was a certified virtuoso.  

of course vai, satch and pterucci could outwank fursciante any day of the week.  because frusciante doesn't wank, he plays exactly what the song calls for like ALL GOOD GUITARISTS DO.  the stuff those asshats can play is so incredibly boring, though technically very good.  those are very good tomatoes on that shit salad.


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## Endless Humiliation (Apr 3, 2009)

Forgot to say 

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## Kellan Meig'h (Apr 3, 2009)

So, by this 'formula', Lynyrd Skynyrd wins because it's long solos times 3 guitars.

Well?


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