Polyphia with Vai

[ShredmasterD]

Add me to the list of people who hadn't heard of "boomer bends" before now

I hesitant to believe it's a real criticism because its a core technique of guitar playing that new players will want to incorporate into their style at some point as well. It doesn't mean it's the right fit for every song, but I find it difficult to believe anyone who plays guitar will look at bends as being exhausted of their creative potential.

An important part of the evolution of rock and metal since the 80s has been the incorporation of harmonic and rhythmic complexity from other styles of music. Petrucci is an obvious example of someone who pushed his music to have greater underlying variation for him to exploit as a soloist.

I assume everyone has seen Paul Gilbert's take on bending. The title is clickbaity...his point is basically that rock and metal had to evolve in the direction of blues and jazz to remain fresh. But suffice it to say that bending and vibrato are as essential to guitar playing in 2022 as they ever were.

first heard it as a youtube thing. look up 'boomer bends'

 

[profwoot]

"Boomer bends" was something Tim Henson said group in the group interview with Tosin and Misha by Rick Beato. He was off-handedly referring specifically to a certain kind of bending, not all bending.

 

[littlebadboy]

It's funny, because I hadn't actually heard the term "Boomer bends" until in this thread. But idk, I like to bend, AND I'm tryna learn this gaht-dang thumping thing everyone since Tosin is doing. I'm Gen X, though, so maybe I'm allowed to like both?

bends are part of the the guitar vocabulary. to omit them only truncates the players ability for expression. it's not a well thought out derogatory term used by confused gen z'ers

Add me to the list of people who hadn't heard of "boomer bends" before now

I hesitant to believe it's a real criticism because its a core technique of guitar playing that new players will want to incorporate into their style at some point as well. It doesn't mean it's the right fit for every song, but I find it difficult to believe anyone who plays guitar will look at bends as being exhausted of their creative potential.

An important part of the evolution of rock and metal since the 80s has been the incorporation of harmonic and rhythmic complexity from other styles of music. Petrucci is an obvious example of someone who pushed his music to have greater underlying variation for him to exploit as a soloist.

I assume everyone has seen Paul Gilbert's take on bending. The title is clickbaity...his point is basically that rock and metal had to evolve in the direction of blues and jazz to remain fresh. But suffice it to say that bending and vibrato are as essential to guitar playing in 2022 as they ever were.

"Boomer bends" was something Tim Henson said group in the group interview with Tosin and Misha by Rick Beato. He was off-handedly referring specifically to a certain kind of bending, not all bending.

You guys know that I'm not the one who coined up "boomer bends", right? I'm close to boomer age myself actually.

 

[Sermo Lupi]

You guys know that I'm not the one who coined up "boomer bends", right? I'm close to boomer age myself actually.

No one said you did. All the quoted comments simply said it was the first they'd heard of it.

From the video you posted, I can see why. It was just some stupid comment Tim (?) made and backtracked on. Doesn't seem too widespread an opinion (although, as with most things, there's probably loads of teenagers using it as a pejorative in Youtube comment sections).

 

[ShredmasterD]

when I fist heard the term boomer bends...I thought is was in reference to old guys getting nitrogen narcosis aka 'the bends' after a long dive hunting treasure

 

[RevDrucifer]

"Boomer bends" was something Tim Henson said group in the group interview with Tosin and Misha by Rick Beato. He was off-handedly referring specifically to a certain kind of bending, not all bending.

Yeah, I took it more as a generalized comment towards recycled blooze lawyer licks than bending specifically.

 

[PF Chang]

Add me to the list of people who hadn't heard of "boomer bends" before now

I hesitant to believe it's a real criticism because its a core technique of guitar playing that new players will want to incorporate into their style at some point as well. It doesn't mean it's the right fit for every song, but I find it difficult to believe anyone who plays guitar will look at bends as being exhausted of their creative potential.

An important part of the evolution of rock and metal since the 80s has been the incorporation of harmonic and rhythmic complexity from other styles of music. Petrucci is an obvious example of someone who pushed his music to have greater underlying variation for him to exploit as a soloist.

I assume everyone has seen Paul Gilbert's take on bending. The title is clickbaity...his point is basically that rock and metal had to evolve in the direction of blues and jazz to remain fresh. But suffice it to say that bending and vibrato are as essential to guitar playing in 2022 as they ever were.

But metal came from Sabbath which was already blues based. I think it goes in cycles. When metal shed the blues influence, you got thrash, death, black metal etc...

 

[Dooky]

Heard one Polyphia song, you've heard them all.

 

[Zhysick]

Three things:

1- Vai can do all range from boomer to omega generation in the same bend.

2- Vai is the only thing that made this song not be terribly boring 100% of the time and only because of the expectation to see/hear something cool because his solo is as uninspiring as the whole song.

3- I still don't like Vai but that PIA is awesome.

 

[Xiphos68]

50 seconds in, and all I can think about is how squeaky clean the production is. The guitars are so heavily edited that they might as well have been programmed. I feel like that is the whole reason the song doesn't click with a lot of people. Music is about invoking emotions, right. Clean electric and acoustic guitars are pretty well established by the masses as *the* way of channelling emotion through the instrument. So it comes off as disingenuous when all the feel has been edited away. It does sound a lot like Polyphia made with the latest guitar VSTi.

That said, Scotty's guitar solo was dope. Vai's parts were cool and very Vai. The last 1/3rd was definitely my favorite part.

Literally, everything I was going to say.
The melody toward the end is great.

But yeah they should have done the intro on an actual Classical.

 

[littlebadboy]

According to Vai's interview on Guitar World...

But as Vai recalls, he was taken aback at how chopped up and manipulated his original contribution was when he heard the edited track for the first time.

“Usually when I do something for somebody, they just take it the way it is,” he explains. “These guys are very creative, and they like to manipulate things. Which is fine, I told them, ‘Do whatever you like. Here’s what I’ve got.’”

So, I guess it was chopped, manipulated, and edited to fit in.

 

[ShredmasterD]

According to Vai's interview on Guitar World...



So, I guess it was chopped, manipulated, and edited to fit in.

Vai's response is gratious and classy. I guaranty Vai's accomplishments and body of work will far outlive polyphia's.

 

[Thrashman]

The chopped up part most likely refers to the intro and outro of his solo where there's multiple guitar lines playing at once.

I like the track, but then again I'm also a huge Polyphia fan as well and you really cannot deny that Tim and Scott are the leaders of the next generation of guitar players out there. They're absolutely unreal and ridiculously talented.

 

[sonoftheoldnorth]

Why does the guitar player look like some weird sex doll?

 

[A.JohnHayes]

Why does the guitar player look like some weird sex doll?

Because you're old.

 

[Ross82]

Heard one Polyphia song, you've heard them all.

This is pretty much spot on. The same over-compressed, quantized plink-plonk stuff.

Like nearly every "Virtuoso" player out there, I appreciate and respect the technical ability but the songs are incredibly un-interesting, perfect elevator music but 'To each his own'.

GG is about the only virtuoso I can listen to for more than 5 mins.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

*voiceover narration*

And it was at this moment that Vai knew his career was over...

...unless he performed one last hooray before finally going out quietly...

...thus, he made his decision to collaborate with the modern, younger generation of fleetingly trending names...

 

[Hollowway]

 

[Alberto7]

The car horn at around 2:15 is killing me

 

[Matt08642]

I've been enjoying Polyphia a lot more in my car while driving around than I do sitting at home or with headphones. Might be because the production sounds way punchier there, or it's just the vibe of the music. Either way, I've been humming some melodies from this song since it came out so at least that's memorable to me lol.