Anyway, have any of you guys ever wondered how someone came up with the concept of a guitar? How did they think it up? Perhaps: "I know, I'm going to stretch a few strings of different thickness across a hollow wooden frame, wind them around small knobs at the top and stick them through the frame at the bottom, pluck the strings whilst holding them at different positions with my left hand and see what happens"? Yeah, right.
I have no idea who actually came up with the principal guitar - or the lute, or whatever it was. I'm not too great on the history of guitars, just guitars in general. Anyway, surely it was somewhere in the Roman era, an era of invention and revolution, of music and entertainment. Perhaps it took ages and ages to think it up, or perhaps it really was quite simply, spontaneous. I'd like to think its conception was in the method of the latter - since there's so much to do with guitar that is spontaneous. Improvisation in particular.
It seems I'm the only one in our year group capable of improvising an intermediate solo on the spot, with or without backing musicians/tracks. I don't know why - it's probably down to my classical guitar roots. I'd learned classical guitar from a very good teacher called Mr. Everitt since the start of primary school. I stopped and switched to the classical's electric counterpart somewhere between primary and secondary school. However, during the half-hour classical guitar lessons we did a huge focus on three aspects of guitar - a) fingerpicking (the main form of classical playing, since no players use picks), b) rhythm and c) scales and arpeggios. The last of those is what comes into effect the most when I improvise - I really would be as helpless at improv as my mates are without my training. Indeed, even the Year 11s seem incapable of, what seems to me, a very simple talent. All you need to know is what string to be on, what fret to hold and when to hit the string. Once you have that down well, you can go faster and faster. But improvising isn't ALL about the melody.
Rhythm is very important too. Can you imagine a solo that went "wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa" in a constant beat without any variation? Let me give you an example of how boring that can be.
(By the way, I'm a Paramore fan and Josh Farro is... well, a good guitarist. But he could have done SO much better on Misery Business' solo. It's at 2:13.)
Now, compare that to a heartfelt and compelling improvised solo from the great John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in this live performance of their song off By the Way if I remember correctly, called Don't Forget Me. Listen to that solo and tell me it's worse than the Misery Business one.
Also note that eerie sound John makes through that Strat, and you can really see his Hendrix influences. Flea, the bassist, is also coming up with some brilliant improvisation that perfectly meshes with John's guitar. And the way the band just flows from improvisation to the song itself is true nirvana in my opinion.
Now, the top 3:
1. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
2. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) - AC/DC
3. Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers.
And that's all for now, folks! Oh, wait, a lolcat!! :D
Gets me every time.
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