I didn't see Petrucci smile once. James did eventually when Abasi turned to him. Abasi the only one really actually enjoying it and not feeling emasculated.
Guthrie truly is a gold standard to applying technical and highly advanced concepts to music, as well as just enjoy making music to begin with, as everything contributes to making music, no matter how simplistic or complex the style is! A once in a lifetime sort of musician if I may.
Breakdown Buckethead and use all his genres not just the crazy shred stuff! He’s got a lot of really chill and groove stuff that he improvises over as well. He doesn’t get enough credit for his more thoughtful compositions IMO!!!
His solo at the end of Drive Home (Steven Wilson) is possibly my favorite of all time. So emotional and technical simultaneously. Just on another level.
The best description of Guthrie's playing that I've read is that it seems like his ideas get from his brain to his fingers without any friction whatsoever. He's amazing 👌🏻
It's fantastic that Hans Zimmer recognised Guthrie's stunning virtuosity, giving him some fantastic AAA time on his stage. You can see Hans' joy with Guthrie's otherworldly improvisation skills. Just as maestro jeff Beck, RIP, was a genius...a Guitarists Guitarist, then so is Guthrie for the same 'unique' reasons. There will never be another JBeck...or GGovan.
I saw the Aristocrats live last year, and even got to hang out with Marco and Guthrie after the show at a pub for about 2 hours. Truly the best musical experience of my life. Guthrie
Guthrie seems like a nice guy, also highly intelligent. I think he was originally studying English Literature at Oxford when he left, so he didn't even study music.
For those curious, the guys in the thumbnail at 0:43 are Gonçalo Pereira (guitarist, left) and Dikk (bassist, right). They're absolute ducking legends.
Generally, yes. But I think he also feels intimidated when he looks at Max Ostro or Matteo Mancuso who at their age can play any of his songs with their eyes closed.
@@alegutierrezmusic well, that's exactly what they're very good at, improvisation. They're not great composers, they don't have well-known songs. They are just very skilled at what they do, much more skilled than Govan was at their age. And it is not just my opinion, Al di Meola or Vai think the same.
@@davidderoux7552 I don't think so, Guthrie worked in Guitar techniques magazine playing rock, funk, jazz, blues, country, pop, soul, tropical, classical. Just show me those guys playing that variety. Also Erotic Cakes is one of the best albums ever.
That's his best stuff. In any order, pick Ancestral, Drive Home and Regret. It doesn't get much better than that. Honourable mention to "Silver Tongued Devil" - a collab with Nick Johnston where they have a guitar duel at the end. Imo it's some of Guthrie's finest work. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DoKdeDkYTv0.html - 7:05 here. Just listen to that. Probably improvised too!
Sorry you have to re-upload, but that just gives us a chance to watch it again! Your channel gives me hope for the future of guitar. Your analysis of the instrument, its place in the world of music, the future of music's ability to sustain itself when people don't want to pay for it anymore, is so spot on. Keep it up!
That level of improvisational skill that comes from having a complete understanding of the instrument, the theory behind the songs he's playing, and being able to play exactly what he hears in his head. This is why we shouldn't be afraid of theory. His use of jazz concepts and processes in his playing in a rock and prog context is amazing. Practice targeting those chord tones people! (myself included!) He's also such a great and humble guy. I got to interview him before an Aristocrats show a few years ago. The "you have a 10 minute slot" turned into a half hour chat about all sorts.
No one improvising is thinking of music theory. Or at least they shouldn't be. If you're standing there as the guy in the video suggested thinking about what scale you should be playing then it's not a surprise you'd struggle. Note too a lot of this supposed "Improvisation" has been rehearsed. He's very good but the best way of getting better is to look at what he does objectively rather than creating myths. Because you can become a stage magician only after you realise that the guy has learnt a bunch of skills to shuffle cards, hide things in his palm, misdirect etc which you can certainly obtain some or all of these skills even if you ultimately fall short of their level of skill. If you think the stage magician is doing actual magic then you'll obviously never be able to do what you think he is doing. One of the most important things to realise is that Guthrie didn't pick up the guitar, watch a few clips of some advanced guitar player and then think "That's what I'm going to do" - he learned to play the guitar by listening to a ton of records and playing along. A lot of that playing seems far easier but the temptation to skip learning it and go straight to playing Eruption should be avoided. The biggest mistakes beginners make in guitar is (a) Thinking they're not a beginner and (b) Trying to skip learning everything they perceive as somehow lesser than the music they like (even though they can't play it well), (c) Believing that a skilled players ability is unobtainable and the result of some mystical mojo (not a surprise if you tried to play it as a beginner) and (d) thinking that because they bought a guitar in 1994 they've been playing "for 30 years" and believing this proves that the kid on the internet who is playing better than them age 10 must be hugely talented because "I've been playing for 30 years and I didn't get that good" But if you have some kind of backing track and you want to play over the top : listen to the backing track, imagine a solo that fits - now play what you're imagining. Before playing it, sing it. Now find those notes on the guitar and play them. Make sure you're playing what you're singing not singing what you're playing. The former is how you will (eventually) be able to play whatever you imagine. The latter is where you end up just noodling the same Am pentatonic riffs you've played for 2 decades because you're being led by the patterns you've already learned. Remember : if the notes you play don't sound like the music you want to hear then you have to learn a different pattern of notes (without going too deep into every other aspect, obviously there's more than just the pitch, there's a ton of nuance to how notes are articulated - well here's the thing the more nuanced your imagined aural sound and the more time you spend making the sound coming out of the guitar be exactly what you're imaging, the better your improvisation will be) It's like can you pick up a guitar and play 3 blind mice? Find the tune? If you can then you obviously have some of the skill already, but there's a ton more to learn to develop this skill other than just playing the right notes in roughly the right order. That's why if you're trying to play someone else's solo throw the transcript in the bin and listen to it and then find it on the guitar - and really listen - listen to every nuance. Think about how many people have sat listening to the comfortably numb solo and they know every nuance - they go to a pink floyd gig and Dave plays a note and they think "Nah that was wrong" - that's the level of listening. The other thing is when you're playing don't just listen to your own playing and start noodling your fave riff because your playing will sound out of time, possibly out of tune too. In your head you'll think it was great but listen back to the recording and it'll suck. Listen to the drums and bass and play with them. When I play in my mind there's 2 basic ideas, one is I'm actually making the drum sounds and the snare and kick really make my notes punch - it's like when you play a First person shooter and you press the mouse button and there's a big shotgun sound, well that makes me think my click had a lot of weight and power behind it. Or the drummer plays a fill and I'm playing my notes on the fill - you can see the Aristocrats doing that all the time the drummer is playing every note guthrie is. The other thing is where I wait for the drum and then play - for syncopation. And of course, start everything on the and of the 4 not on beat 1 and when you finish a phrase, pause and then play another small motif. Do the same with any and all melodies or stuff you hear. Find it and play it on the guitar. Don't go near tab. Note here : there's no musical theory, no chords are being named, no notes are being named. You're listening to noises, imagining noises in your head and singing and playing those noises. It's entirely about sound. That's what music is. Later when you're playing at Milton Keynes bowl someone else will transcribe it and say "Eww, he's playing a secondary dominant minor arpeggio with a flat 9 - genius" but you will know that you just played what you heard in your mind. Just like when Beato grins and says to Sting some dumb thing about music theory to sound impressive and Sting just shakes his head and says "Nah, I didn't write the songs like that" Watch Paul McCartney figuring out Get back, he's just strumming a guitar, finding a couple of chords to play back and forth and singing over the top whatever he hears in his head. The creative process really isn't about music theory. That's not to say you can't do that or write to some formula or rules - in the way that some baroque music did, or 12 tone music can sometimes follow rules, or math rock might just pick a pattern and play it on the neck somewhat independently of how the result sounds. You can do anything you like is the only rule - but if your goal is to be able to listen to a backing track, or a group of other musicians playing and add something to that then the skill is pretty much entirely based on sound, real (in terms of what you hear) and imaginary (the aural image you create in your head) and developing the skill to be able to play the notes you're imagining - it's not about thinking "Mixolydian Lydian dominant whole tone arabic scale can be played over a Gm(b5) add 9 #11 chord" because by the time you've decided that they are 5 bars further along playing an Ab Maj 7 / F and you're googling on your phone for the scale to use. Guthrie has also talked at length about why the scale doesn't tell you what the right notes are or what you should play - and quite often contains several "wrong" notes. The way to improve you imagination, i.e if you get to the stage where you think "Well I can play everything I imagine, but I only imagine Am pentatonics" is to listen to lots of music - especially the music you wish you could sound like. Listen to their solos and melodies - and your imagination should be expanded. If you listen to nothing but Yngwie for several hours a a day eventually you'll start to imagine similar ideas. And that is the idea, it's not about trying to play wonderful slippery thing note for note, albeit that is a valid way of learning some guitar related stuff. Think about classical musicians their reason for existing is typically being able to play, to an extremely high standard, the repertoire of the world's greatest composers, note for note, to near perfection. If you put a piece of extremely complex sheet music they'll sight read it - but if you asked some of them to "play something over this chord progression" they'd be stuck having never improvised before. Improvisation isn't the sign of a great musician vs a bad one - it's just one particular skill that a musician can develop. Really the only trick to this is getting it to real time. i.e if you do this properly at first you're probably not going to proceed very quickly. You're going to put the start of the backing on a loop, imagine something and then spend some time trying to play it, trying not to forget what you thought (again, sing it - put a mic and record that if need be) you might even find that you can imagine sounds or playing that you lack the technique to play, so you have to develop that as well. If you're used to noodling Am pentatonic and feel like you've taken a step backwards. Eventually you will find you are playing what you're imagining with less delay, less hitting wrong notes, less effort - and then your friends will think you're magic, but you'll know that all you did was sit down for a few hours a day working on the skill.
He is one of the best improvisers I have ever seen in my life, but when he starts playing fast, he gets desynchronized most of the time. When he plays some fast, long licks, he starts to lose control. He touches unnecessary strings after he gets tired or played for a long time. For instance, I have (almost) never seen Paul Gilbert touches unnecessary strings, even when he plays the same licks over and over again for like one min (actually he touches, but he mutes the strings at the same time I forgot to say that). I'm obsessed with his works, especially since the beginning of the pandemic. I love listening to his works, and apparently, I can't play like him. But in my humble opinion, it's not fair to say that he is the GOAT. I'll be waiting for your comments, lads, and ladettes 11:06. I've never noised these words around, I hope you don't get mad at me for that. 10:58 anyone/band you wanna roast🤘
You're very brave to make something resembling a criticism on anything about Guthrie. Personally, I think he's an incredible guitarist and a great human being, but l just don't feel his playing the way I do guys like Jimi Hendrix, Tony Macalpine, Gary Moore, George Lynch, Marty Friedman, Terry Kath, Greg Howe, Paul Gilbert, and Jason Becker, just to name a few. Again, he's extraordinary and very versatile, but a bit too much of an exhibitionist
Guthrie is in a complete different level, in my opinion the best ever. It's such a same that he's still not being fully appreciated by the guitar community, I've seen videos of people covering his songs on tiktok and the viewers are completely oblivious to who this great man is. He gets a lot of praise but for what he does and who he is he is and probably will always be underated.
If you are on social media where adult guitarists hang out, you will see Guthrie in every guitar conversation. I wouldn’t expect much from kids on tik tok but it’s great that people are doing his covers and sharing his work with a younger generation. 🤷🏻♂️
Of all the greats that exist Guthrie is at the tippy top of that mountain… he can do whatever he wants on the fretboard but most of all he has the tastiest of licks ALWAYS. Never a repeated phrase unless it’s called for and intentional.. just simply a brilliant soul
Had a chance to see The Aristocrats back in August, it was an incredible experience. Every guitarist NEEDS to see this guy live. You can watch videos of him playing thousand times, but seeing him do it right in front of my eyes is one of the most incredible things I've ever witnessed
Had the pleasure of meeting Guthrie years ago before he was even remotely famous (1990, I think) at the YMCA in Chelmsford. We were both in bands at the time and one of my bandmates was saying you have to meet Guthrie - he's a guitar god in the making. We had a nice chat but we were both fanboying over the Phil Hilborne Band more than anything else. I remember he was wearing an Yngwie Malmsteen Rising Force T-shirt - he worshipped Yngwie back then.
great choices to show off how masterful guthrie truly is. another one of my favorites is his improv over a Larry Carlton style backing track from a JamTrackCentral youtube video. truly mind blowing what he can come up with!
The track that got me hooked to Guthrie was the live playthrough of Fives he did ages ago that was uploaded on RU-vid, that's the first ever thing I saw by him and became an instant classic in my book. I haven't really dug too deep in his stuff actually, but Erotic Cakes is right up there with Rising Force, Surfing With The Alien and all the other "must have" guitar achievement albums. I'm seeing him later this year in London with Hans Zimmer though, very excited for that.
This video also really demonstrates your own musicality--I think it's easy to think of metal guitarists as not having a deep well of knowledge of phrasing in particular, but the fact that you could analyze his phrasing and distill it to show just how advanced Guthrie's playing is was an awesome thing to see!!!! Superb video! Sorry RU-vid pooped on this. I would love to see this type of video on maybe some of the same people in the Petrucci video--particularly Petrucci, Abasi, or even a non-guitarist such as Portnoy (I love his phrasing as a drummer)!
This is great content, and I love your explanations about style, technique and WHY a guitarist sounds cool and unique. I would love to see one on Alexi Laiho!
I discovered Guthrie through his columns in Guitar Techniques years ago, when I was a student (early 2000's). Εven by the demos in the magazine I singled him out as an astounding musician. That was even earlier than the early YT days and I desperately searched for clips of him playing or doing other work. Eventually things picked up and he burst onto the scene. How could he not? I also met him once... you could not find a more down to earth, cool, encouraging person. Cracking dry humour as well. What would we do without Uncle Guthrie...
I used to play way more than I do now, but it was always an improvisation. If I wasn't coming up with my own riffs, it was jamming an improvised solo over my favorite bands. I read the book "The Zen of Guitar" when I was a teenager and it gave me the information I needed to recreate the "magic" I was hearing from my guitar idols. I kept thinking "these guys are human just like me there has to be a way to play like that!". The book taught me the art of trusting myself in the moment, and how to play a feeling more so than a defined phrase or melody. Reminds me of the movie The Last Samurai where the other samurai keep telling Tom Cruise "Too much mind" when he keeps loosing in practice sword fights to the master. He was thinking too much. When I improvise I'm trying to not think and let the solo "play me". Of course that don't mean I never have ideas, but I let it flow with the goal of getting back to no mind and using emotion. If there is to much mind going on I'll wait and try to deliberately play the next note when I least expect it with feeling. Over time you learn to "talk" (you are mostly in a flow state when talking, occasionally thinking of the next thing to say) and the feeling you get in this zone is unreal. Pure joy! Guthrie has a technical mastery and can also "talk" which is extremely rare. People who I used to jam with were amazed that I seemed to always be able to hit the "right" notes. Nothing amazing about it at all, it was easy to me! And the more I could be in the zone the better it felt, which is how I judged how well I played. I would be willing to bet if you asked Guthrie how well he thinks he played in any given performance he would probably answer with something like "It felt pretty good." I was chasing a feeling, not some clever riff.
I really like this format! A great way to highlight what makes great guitarists so amazing, with your informed help for us mere watchers and guitar appreciators. Guthrie certainly is unbelievable. Hopefully the analysis of Jason Becker and Shawn Lane are also on their way 🤘😁
his talent is only equalled by his humility ^^ He's by far the best guitarist i ever heard but he doesn't go all Malmsteen about it. What i also like about him is that he doesn't play for the audience, for fame or for money but he plays on all kinds of projects he likes for the sake of music itself.. which is precisely what got him his following and recognition (and hopefully money !) If music is an universal lenguage that talks to the soul, then by Jove is his playing witty.
He’s just inhumanly good at everything. I remember hearing him do transcription for a guitar magazine back in the late 90s, especially one part where he said “…and now a little bit faster” before seemingly moving his fingers faster than light. Also seems to be one of the nicest guys ever.
Great Video - and explanation - I can hear that you that you have some good chops and ear to get the sound and notes. looking forward to checking out some more of your vids.
@Tele_gram_me_The_Bradley_Hall sure anytime... just had a look at your lord of the rings rendition from last year....not only enjoyed it and will no doubt rewatching with guitar to learn and play along.... many thanks
Very much Agreed! and it's not even subjective, Guthrie is the BEST i've heard, there are very few others who are faster like (Shawn Lane), very few more technical (Bumblefoot), and very few more iconic (Yngwie), but no one has a better command of all the musical nuances of the instrument more than GG, he is the master of "textbook" musical theories, modes, key change, etc and he is also master in breaking the rules of the textbooks, always combining the right notes with those "wrong notes" that sound good with the right notes, he can practically play it ALL👍
The thing for me with Guthrie is that his note choice is always a perfect fit while being colorful and original. He always sounds as if what he's playing was arranged and rehearsed when he's improvising and his bag of tricks never seems to run out of new magic. Truly an imaginative player that never misses a note unless it's the one he doesn't want it in a millisecond phrase. Hands down, IMHO, the best player to ever pick up the electric guitar and a humble and engaging orator to boot.
the thing is, he can play anything. i'm not too familiar with his work but what i've seen is just mind-boggling, always enjoyable to watch and listen to. guthrie seems to be a cool and humble guy as well. the way he talks and tells stuff is very unique. you just know this guy has lots of brains and talent. hoping to see him live one day
I’m sure most have already seen it, but for those who haven’t: The end solo is the waves loop section of “words of wisdom with Guthrie Govan at G4 part 5/5.” The whole thing is great.
Guthrie is on another level. Finished convincing myself of that after listening him play alongside Kiko Loureiro, a very technical but clever phrasing guitarist and made him look like a 12yo from a school talent show. Guthire speaks with his guitar, and he is a master in storytelling.
I stumbled upon Guthrie Govan yesterday while browsing on Spotify. When I heard the first track on West Coast Grooves I was astounded by the virtuosity of this guitarist. My immediate reaction was why have I never heard of this guy before, why isn't he as famous as Eric Clapton, Jeff beck or Joe Satriani. To my ears his playing style at times is very reminiscent of Walter Becker. Why isn't this guy playing to stadiums?
I love the way the camera periodically pans away from Guthrie to Hans Zimmer, and the look on Zimmer's face, ...it's just like he's sitting in the audience!
'I regret writing that' -GG on that Waves loop video, a better example would be Regret #9 where he played with Steven Wilson, arguably one of the best improvised solo.
I would love to see a video like this on Alexi Laiho! I feel like his songwriting and soloing has some quality that others lack that I just can't put my finger on. Absolutely my favorite metal songwriter/guitarist.
I love Alexi because he had an almost fuck you/ punk attitude to playing. It was very rugged, yet articulated beautifully and you can hear in recordings it’s in single takes most of the time. Composing of the songs was made with a lot of syncopated rhythm in mind and shock value sounds like harmonics
I discovered Guthrie back in 93/94 when I used buy guitar techniques magazine and you could listen to his lessons on the CD that came with it. Been a fan ever since and would listen over and over again just for his playing. You could just tell from those CD lessons that he was on another level. His lessons would sound better than the original recordings he was transcribing.
There are guys that do a thing better, but none that do it all better. The GOAT. The thing that blew my away the last time I saw The Aristocrats was on top of everything you point out, he also matched the pitch and tone of Minnemann's drums. Hearing the guitar and drums in tune with one another.... 🤯🤯🤯
I love his emotion when he plays, too, like the idea travels from his brain to his hands, and then back into his ear and directly to the brain's pleasure center haha
For me he is unique with all his ideas and nuances in his playing, creating stuff I have never heard previously from other guitarplayers! Beautilful stuff! And with the ease he plays, must have been blessed at birth really!😍
got to see him live once. you know that shook stunned feeling when seeing great live playing? yea that whole system blew a gasket and i just stood there drooling.
I think a huge development of Guthries ability of incredible phrasing & spacial awareness comes from his time of playing jazz and particularly beep bop. Where you can be very musically open but have to be so aware of what is musically in terms of changes & rhythm. There is quite a few old videos of Guthrie playing things like Charlie parker, and I bet he played a ton more unrecorded. Now he's just managed to adapt those styles into just about any genre and make it sound oh so good.
Dear Bradley, There used to be clip, where Guthrie is a guest for Zappa plays Zappa. Dweezil Zappa gives Guthrie various tasks in the video (play blues solo, play classical etude, play super-funk) and Guthrie performs these. Finally, Dweezil and Guthrie go for harmonized solo?!!! I think that Guthrie follows Dweezil's playing and creates harmony line.
I knew Guthire existed but never heard any of his pieces, now because of your video I can see why he is sooo mentioned as one of the great guitarist of all time, thanks Bradley for this video, and also this new type of video of yt commentary + explanation is really cool! Keep it up!
There is so much going on in the field of electric guitar playing.So much wonderful players appear somehow out of nowhere.Matteo Mancuso,Jakub Żytecki,Julian Lange,David Micic,Plini.I don't know where to end.We shouldn't talk about the best but rather be glad about the abundance of talent. And let's not forget there once was a guy called Shawn Lane.
I've seen Guthrie play with the Aristocrats a couple of times in small clubs and you can see in his face the feel he has for the music! He knows where every note is on the guitar neck and he just plays whatever he wants! I agree that he's probably the GOAT!
I've already seen these clips but it never gets old! Guthrie is so awesome! I love that Waves clip. There's actually a video with a tab on screen of that clip. Someone took the time and tabbed everything in that performance :D
Great video dude😀& yeah would be interesting to see you do more like this for sure have you heard a 90's band called Autumn Leaves?their guitarist was incredible
Jamming with good improvisers is one of the most fulfilling experiences that a musician can have. Guthrie is by far the greatest improviser I've ever heard.
I really liked the keyboard comparison, in a way thats all guitar is, you hear something in your head and your hands are just "typing" it out in a sense.
To be honest, I think that cheeky phrase was one of the very few times when we hear Guthrie messing up a line (and now there is actual proof, lol!). Something slips from under his fingers or he has a momentary brain-hiccup and is not sure what to play. But he saves it immediately and then goes into that blistering flurry of notes. You are right though, he can use quirks and cool phrases and make them sound like it is the most natural thing.
Every guitarists “first time Guthrie experience“ is the same. Regardless of what year you discovered him, we hear the same report. It’s a life changing thing. It changes what you thought was possible, and your trajectory on the instrument. All of the sudden no other hero matters. You will spend days, weeks, months, even years trying to learn as much as you can from the guy. He is the master.
