Anyone here NOT listen predominantly to metal?

[Nick1]

I hardly listen to metal at all to be honest. I play it quite often. But most of the time I listen to movie soundtracks, jazz, progressive rock, bluegrass and classic rock and lately Ive really been digging celtic music. A lot of stuff that isnt totally dominated by guitar.

 

[Nightside]

I started with Metallica and got heavier and heavier as time went on until I just couldnt get heavier anymore. Then I got good and bored with it all. All the metal bands do the same shit nowadays and it really bores me. I always did listen to classics like Floyd, Zeppelin and stuff as well as metal but now metal just doesnt interest me like it used to.

Lately Ive gotten really heavy into The Shadows, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Link Wray, and all that old school rock sound from the late 50s early 60s. Ive also gotten into the Les Paul Trio (from like the 40s?) and what Les Paul and Mary Ford were doing together. You can really hear some amazing things going back in time like that. It made me realise that all the musicians I worshipped from todays music really arent as great as I thought they were.

 

[McCap]

Well, apart from Devin, Pain of Salvation I don't really own any metal CDs.
But I do occasionally listen to metal here and there.

 

[Wi77iam]

Yeah I've been getting bored of metal lately, picking up on the jazzy fusion shit.
Listening to lots of Guthrie, Adam Nitti, Greg Howe and shit like that.. but I WANT MOREE!! Any more recommendations?

 

[Nightside]

Yeah I've been getting bored of metal lately, picking up on the jazzy shit. Any more recommendations?

Ive been getting into that weird old jazz shit like gypsy jazz (I think??) and stuff guys play on expensive ass archtops. Trouble is I have ZERO references

I need recommendations! Like stuff with those weird chords and solos that sound all out of tune and random and stuff.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Alan Holdsworth would be the natural Jazz-fusion reccomendation, though his music maybe incredibly dense and can be daunting at first listen. Still, great music overall. Other Jazz fusion stuff would be Veritu (IIRC that's how you spell it), with Ritchie Kotzen playing with Stanley Jordan.

There's Alex Skolnick Trio. It's familiar territory (the guitarist from Testament doing Jazz renditions of Rock/Metal classics) so it may be a good start. Another one would be Andy Summers (The Police) and his Jazz moments.

Django Reindhart would be the obvious gypsy-jazz starter too. Amazing player. And of course everything with Al Di Meola, John Mcglauchlin and Paco De Lucia (or all three of them together! ).

 

[Nightside]

Thanks!

 

[Holy Katana]

Are you specifically looking for guitar-centric jazz, or will anything do? Because Brad Mehldau is perfect, since he's incredibly harmonically advanced (even by jazz standards; seriously, the dude's on a completely different level than everyone else, save maybe Kurt Rosenwinkel), and as an added bonus, he plays a ton of covers of rock songs. Particularly Radiohead and the Beatles, but he's also done a great version of Black Hole Sun, and did a killer jazz-funk cover of Wonderwall that kicks the living shit out of the original song. The only problem is that he's a pianist.



This isn't his most impressive reharmonization (it's just a fairly basic blues turnaround for the verse, with some other stuff for the chorus), but I love it because it has serious groove.

I also recommend Kurt Rosenwinkel. Fantastic player, one of the best guitar tones in jazz, and with the harmonic sense of a piano player. He also uses alternate tunings a lot, and I mean a lot.

 

[Nightside]

I was really talking about those guys jamming on old ass acoustic archtops (just found out that MEDIUM size strings for them are .013-.057!!!!! tuned to standard!!!!!) with a lead and rhythm player. I really like piano jazz stuff too. Does anyone remember the original Gran Tourismo on PS1? That music that was always playing when you were changing wheels and buying cars and shit. That was sweet.

 

[kung_fu]

Alan Holdsworth would be the natural Jazz-fusion reccomendation, though his music maybe incredibly dense and can be daunting at first listen. Still, great music overall. Other Jazz fusion stuff would be Veritu (IIRC that's how you spell it), with Ritchie Kotzen playing with Stanley Clarke.

Fixed, good recommendations though

I haven't posted here yet for some reason, but i'm mostly a jazz and rock guy these days. Just not much in the metal realm i find interesting these days.

 

[Holy Katana]

I was really talking about those guys jamming on old ass acoustic archtops (just found out that MEDIUM size strings for them are .013-.057!!!!! tuned to standard!!!!!) with a lead and rhythm player. I really like piano jazz stuff too. Does anyone remember the original Gran Tourismo on PS1? That music that was always playing when you were changing wheels and buying cars and shit. That was sweet.

.013-.057 is medium for acoustics, too. Most jazz guitarists use heavy strings, with .013-.057 being a popular choice. Even fusion guys tend to use heavier strings than their rock counterparts. There are still a bunch of small companies and luthiers making old-school acoustic archtops, although I tend to be partial to more modern-styled acoustic archtops.

I'll show you some fingerstyle solo jazz guitarists, since they fulfill both lead and rhythm duties. Generally, jazz doesn't have two guitar players unless it's gypsy jazz. Fingerstyle jazz guitar is a bitch to learn at first, but it's fun as hell to play.

Joe Pass is the god of this style:



There are several guys who play sevens, too, since the extra string really helps with playing basslines while you're playing melodies and chords high up on the neck.

 

[Nightside]

I LOVE his hair and moustache. Manly baldness. He is definitly badass.

 

[Holy Katana]

Jody Fisher is a monster, too. I wish I took his class when I went to National Guitar Workshop, since they don't have it in Nashville anymore

I did get to meet him and see him play, though, which was cool.



Plus, he plays a Klein! He gets an awesome jazz tone from EMGs in a solidbody, which must be applauded.

If you're feeling ballsy enough, check this old Hot Licks video lesson out from Joe Pass and try to play along. Here's part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4:



Part 5:



It helped me out a lot earlier on. In fact, I'm probably going to have another look at it now that I have it up in a window.

 

[Nightside]

Ok so I am officially a Django Reinhardt convert. Holy shit that was exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for.

 

[SirMyghin]

I listened to a lot of metal 4 -5 years ago, not so much now. I still like it usually, but a lot of the bands I like fell out. Never anything with screaming vox though, more a power metal guy, you know where the singers can actually sing (I do not see grunting as a talent, more something I do when I am really tired/pissed) It really ruins to stuff for me, not to mention oversaturated tone is a huge no no for me. The brutals sounds like the poops imo. Dynamics are pivotal, and when there is so much gain you don't have any, you lose.

I listen to tonnes of 70's rock, particular fancy is Jethro tull
Classical I like Strauss Jr, Beethoven, and Vivaldi a fair bit. I have a soft spot for Paganini also (I listen to much more these are just my favourites).
Country is something I appreciate, man these guitarist rip and it is generally so much more relevant than shred. Danny Gatton, Brent Mason, Braid Paisley.. These guys could eat most of us alive I think. Not to mention the Hellecasters....
Folk!, a particularly interesting folk artist has evolved a lot, I would kind of call him Alt/folk now, Iron and Wine. Very good stuff.
Ayreon was metal I really enjoyed but he has really moved beyond metal.
Rush is and will always be my favourite, saw them the 3rd time this summer (R30 at 18, S&A leg 1, Time Machine)
Jazz, I like fusion and old school hot club type stuff.


I guess the unfortunate truth is the majority of the ERG market is into metal and just wants lower power chords. I noticed a fair bit are younger though so they will likely grow into something more over time. The old axiom rings true often, it takes 6 months to make a rock star, 10 years to make a musician.

 

[JohnIce]

^^Those Joe Pass videos are solid gold, thanks for posting!

-edit- I'm currently listening to a lot of stuff that kind of use ambient influences in more down-to-earth, often acoustic music. Kaki King does this really well, it's very spacey and ethereal but it does in no way sound "electronic" or synth-based.



I also really like the new Alicia Keys record... it has the same vibe, very atmospheric and ambient but with a distinct vintage vibe. Kind of like a mellow acid jazz thing...

 

[metalmonster]

used to listen to tons of metal music , but turns out i try to play jazz , classical ...

d i do quite a lot of mixes in drum&bass style (about to release some stuff , don't care if i'm still underground , as long as my tracks don't die on a computer's disk drive) and even trip-hop by now (and that's a very serious project even if it's recent , i'm so into it ! )

but really , listening to more and more "other" music made my flame for guitar live through years ...

 

[natra_vedrov]

So much good stuff here, thanks for sharing
Especially I enjoyed Ivo Papazov's band and the finger style guitarists of course.
When I'm listening to metal these days it sounds boring mostly(with some exceptions), even a so called prog/tech metal-concert lately felt like the same band playing the same rhythm over and over with slight variations, but in fact there were 3 bands, I just don't feel it anymore
I like post-rock, breakcore and anything I might find interesting, I'm trying not to ignore any new music.
From jazz I like also Petrucciani and some, who were already mentioned in this thread, Hiromi Uehara("time out" with David Fiuczynski on guitar) is a discovery from not long ago. Also bands like "Lye by mistake" or "Panzerballett"(mentioned below) sound like an interesting mixture of heavy guitars and jazzy solos to me.
Anyway, I wanted to share some stuff I find interesting:
1. Panzerballett - jazz-metal, jazz musicians performing meshuggah-style with heavy guitars, yet live it's like real jazz, many solos, also themes one might recognize. The projects' mastermind Jan Zehrfeld told us at the concert that he wrote his diploma about Meshuggah(maybe he studied musicology, I don't know): http://www.myspace.com/panzerballett
2. Hans Lüdemann - piano with quarter-notes(triggered per midi), really interesting concert lately, check him out: Myspace

 

[scoot]

I do listen to a lot of metal, but I listen to lots of other genres as well, I'm definitely not metal exclusive. Good music is good music, and a lot of the music I like shares similarities between all the genres, whether it's metal, classical, jazz, funk, fusion, whatever.

Music that blends multiple styles and genres into a cohesive whole is my favorite

 

[StratoJazz]

I'm getting a degree in jazz performance, however, i'm also a guitar player. I like the music that my instrument dominates, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Metal, Country, etc. I like the Guitar and almost any music in which it features.

While there are alot of Jazz guitar purists that keep the tradition alive, i think there are many guitar players traditional jazz players can learn from, Yngwie Malmsteen, Danny Gatton, Paul Gilbert, Pat Metheny, Segovia, and Jimi Hendrix.

If you play multiple styles, you slowly figure out that your still playing a guitar, if that makes sense. You don't really apply any particularly radical new way of playing, if you do, it's primarily conceptual. An example might be improvising over a funk groove vs. rhythm changes vs. playing over Autumn Leaves.



I went of on a tangent, however, yes, it's GOOD to listen to other styles. Apply what you learn in one to the other. It also helps if Jazz gets boring, because it does.