Guthrie Govan Discussion

[tweezeroo]

My fav for a LONG time was Steve Vai...unfortunately he produces a huge amount of nauseating cheesy music

Then i head about Guthrie and yes he really is incredible, the album is great too...


Yesterday i discovered Tommy Emmanuel and i have to say (and agree with steve vai) that he is probably the best guitarist in the world...

Obviously its a totally subjective thing and to say anyone is 'the best' is pretty dumb.

heres a link to his myspace page

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=27708771

Judge for yourself !

[frankus]

[jordan]

Firstly, to quote Guthrie, "so much of what's great about music ceases to be when you start viewing it as competition".......so I won't join in a 'who's better who's best?' discussion, but for what it's worth.....

In the past 3 years I've had the opportunity to see Tommy play live a few times, and I've spent alot of time myself learning/playing/recording his compositions and arrangements. What I love about Tommy's playing is his sense of rhythm - it's possibly unrivaled, and he also plays with great feeling and humour. You can't help but enjoy yourself when seeing him play live, he really does play the crap out of the guitar. Also, for someone who claims not to understand "any of the funny chord names" and theory etc, he does a good job of creating harmonically interesting compositions/arrangements.

That said, I've occasionally thought his playing can be a little 'scruffy' at times. By that I mean it's very fast in places and very flashy in places, but a little messy and noisy at times. I personally enjoy his slower pieces. Check out his arrangement of Over The Rainbow for possibly my favourite solo guitar arrangement by any artist. However, his uber-fast-boom-chic pieces leave me a bit cold.....I kinda think once you've heard one, you've got the gist of them all.

If you're looking to check him out, the best thing you could do is go and see him live - he plays unfeasibly long shows which cover every facet of his playing, and there'll definitely be something to appeal. In terms of CDs, his albums "Endless Road" and "Only" are essential listening. The track 'Endless Road' is my favourite TE composition, and really is a gem of a piece.

In summary - I really like Tommy's playing, and would recommend it to anyone. There's almost certainly something for everyone to enjoy hearing, and I think every guitarist could gain something from spending some time tackling some of his pieces.

Best in the world? I dunno.....I'm not sure he could either play or compose Waves, but could Guthrie compose the tune Endless Road? (That's rhetorical, please don't try and answer it )

Just my 2 cents,
Jordan.

[Ant711UK]

[RavenR1]

[brody_in_ga]

Tommy is quickly becoming one of my top 5.

Guthrie Govan
Steve Vai
Eric Johnson
John Petrucci
Eddie Van halen
Tommy
Etc...

[tweezeroo]

love this stuff...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z37SjKLz97A

[frankus]

I like the way that Guitar Techniques refers to the Greatest Guitarist of all time (Hendrix this month ;^)

Greatness is fine, by me, as a measure of someone's impact on their sphere of influence. Best guitarist indicates some kind of selection criteria and slide-rule/yardstick thing against the playing of guitar and generating of the music - like they often make good bed-fellows.
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Fabulous powers were revealed to me the day I held my magic Suhr(d) aloft and said "by the power of great scale!"

I have the power!

[gtr]

Frank,

Good points! I agree to start with that you can't say who is "best" in the way we think of best these days - because it should be ART!!!

But it would be interesting to judge someone's impact - Kind of like the NBA evaluating players for the MVP award - lots of people look not only at the players personal stats, but also on their teams record and even on their influence on the game.

If we would use all of this criteria as well as their technical proficiency - then you would have to say cats like EVH would be right up there - as well as Hendrix, for they actually changed the course of guitar as we know it - where as my fav, Jimmy Herring can - at least I think take them both to task on shear technical capabilities and versatility, he will probably not change the way guitar players play from now on. (cept for me )

gtr

[jordan]

[frankus]

My dad would argue in terms of impact that Bob Dunn should be in the list, the guy sounds like a trombonist! But was one of the first to record electric guitar... one of the guitars used the strings instead of pole pieces in the pickup ... it had a button to run a current through the strings to give them a magnetic charge

I guess it's innovators, inventors and philosophers who'll shape the way we view guitar (many of them guitarists). To my mind no-one blends as many styles as Guthrie does and so seamlessly.
_________________
Fabulous powers were revealed to me the day I held my magic Suhr(d) aloft and said "by the power of great scale!"

I have the power!

[olivier castellat]

gutherie is the best my friend ,
he has the real maitrise of then guitar playin,
and he's one of my favourite musicien,

[Wickedpicker]

Over the years I have noted that my best list changed as I improved. As soon as I could pull off some of the stuff I was listening to, the player's stock dropped a bit. It's as if I subconsciously believed if i could play it, they must not be that good.

I like the idea of measuring a guitarist by his or her impact. Its not really a fair measure but any other method ends up in an argument about whether versitility means more than narrow mastery. My list would include, in no paricular order: Chuck Berry, Joe Pass, Wes, Lenny Breau, Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Metheny, SRV, EVH, Malmsteen. I'm not sure where a guy like Vai fits because his zenith occurred in an era when guitar virtuosity had little or no place in popular music. Interesting topic.
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It goes to eleven!

[tweezeroo]

[adrianclark]