What happened to Skill?

**Rhaps** · 06-16-2010, 06:05 PM

I was showing my cousin Kurikinton Fox the other day, an amazing guitarist who re-does some Final Fantasy songs with amazing metal form, almost like a blend of Van Halen and Metallica, but as soon as the shredding began, she called him a fag and switched it to Hollywood Undead >.<
Why do people no longer appreciate long hours of grinding and practicing until a point of skill is reached to where you are damn near god like and now choose something anyone can make with Garage Band software?

**Heartless Angel** · 06-25-2010, 11:53 AM

Because people suck. Shred is awesome. I always laugh at the tools trying to compare Buckethead with Slash on GNR vids. 98% of their arguments are based on 'soul'. Apparently showing up totally wasted and playing a ****ton of bends with a multitude of errors equals soul, whereas spending years of your life studying music, mastering your instrument, and composing things that a guy like Slash couldn't play in his wildest dreams makes you a robot with no feelings. Comparing most of the artists people like that enjoy, I've also stumbled on an interesting coincidence. Almost every musician with 'soul' does or has done some form of illegal drug... fancy that. So, the more acid you do before a show, the more retarded faces you make, and the more bends you play, the more soul you have. So... this is a good thing... why? I'll stick to my shred, thanks.

**Musashiden** · 06-25-2010, 01:23 PM

More or less, the masses want something that they can sing along to, a catchy hook, meaningless trivial harmonies my cat could write. There is a growing market for the face-melting solo, but it seems like ever since Necrophagist hit the scene, every twerp and their grandmother can sweep pick now so there's really crap on both sides of the fence. Good solid musicianship is just hard to come by these days.

**Heartless Angel** · 06-25-2010, 01:55 PM

There is some shit shred too, that I'll give you. Alot of people think that hitting as many notes as possible in one second makes you a great shredder. Not really, there's a fine balance between technique and tone which makes for a great guitarist.

**Rhaps** · 06-25-2010, 02:08 PM

To be frank some "shredding" just annoys me. Sure it takes practice to play that fast, but speed isn't everything. Skill and art need to blend. I like speed playing and all, but when it makes my dad regret funding my playing I realize maybe I should slow down and actually hit the notes lol. In fact no skill whatsoever is required to do fast picking, and it was only made to add an edge to some solos, not to be the meat of the song, like the sweep picking. I think that in a vain effort to get fans skill was thrown out by the new bands and replaced by simple solo techniques which make the song sound faster and harder when really its two or three notes and a sweep over and over and over

**Heartless Angel** · 06-25-2010, 02:16 PM

I actually like the sound of the constant sweeps, but they don't nescessarily make you a skilled guitarist. If you're into insane technique, this guy's about the best there is. Alot of people don't like his music, mainly soulfags. But there are others who simply dislike the constant shredding. Dude's in his 50s, and he tears Dragonforce's solos a new asshole.

**ZantetsukeN** · 06-25-2010, 04:45 PM

Music is so easy to make nowadays, skill isn't as necessary as it used to be. A lot of people can be successful with something that most of us can make on our computers, or playing 2 chords on guitar over and over again.

On the other hand, a lot of people's idea of skill nowadays is being able to rap really fast, or being able to do double bass drumming and sweep picking. The real skilled people get lost in the tornado of these ideas, which is quite sad actually. I know a lot of skilled musicians, but because they are lost is people's perceptions, they never get as appreciated as they should be.

**Taco-Calamitous** · 06-26-2010, 12:03 PM

I think a lot of shredding is self-indulgent, and a lot of songs that have those solos in them are too long and lose my interest really fast. What's the point if it isn't fun? I mean, yeah, some of it is fun, but I think my friend put it best just now when I showed him this: "Yeah, you hear some of this, and it's like, 'that's pretty cool!' But then it gets to a threshold where it falls over and it's just a cacophany of noise." That's the way I feel about a lot of 80's metal, in fact. At least it's better than that Nu Metal crap that came out in the late 90's, though. Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

**Jin** · 06-26-2010, 10:55 PM

I don't think the ease by which sounds can be created are directly related to how good a particular piece of music is. If the music is created, presented and arranged in a way that attempts at artistry, then the only important skill has been used. It's irrelevant whether someone is a fantastic guitarist or whether someone heavily uses synths. What matters is how the final product sounds. A skilled guitarist is nothing but a resource to play a role in a composition. If the composer's vision requires a skilled guitarist, then one is used; if "fake" music suits the composer's vision better, it is used instead. It's elitist to complain that certain styles of music require no skill because they utilize different musical resources. They just use different skills.

At the end of the day, music is art, not sport. It comes down not to what requires more skill, but what sounds better. And that is completely subjective.

**ultima_trev** · 09-21-2010, 01:51 AM

The way I see it, bands who are technical are just show boaters and don't really give a fark about making music beyond making a quick buck or two. I find a lot of technical music, from the likes of bands like Atheist, Hate Eternal, Necrophagist, Origin, Opeth, The Faceless to be quite boring at times. I like it better when bands find a happy medium between technical and just plain raw, something I believe Nile and Dying Fetus have done quite exceptionally.