Video of a solo I'm working on...

[Vince]

Alright, I'll try not to monopolize time on the board too much, but I would really dig some feedback from you guys on this solo here.

My bassist wants to shorten a part of one of our songs, and if we left the song like we had it now, he's dead on correct, it's too long and it's out of place.

...so I decided to solo over it

Here's a quick, low-budget vid of the solo. It's still in it's early stages, but this is what I wrote and recorded a few minutes ago.

I'm gonna whip it out at rehearsal tonight and see what happens.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's on a 6-string, but I'm tuned to drop-D so f-off

Here's the video, lame attempt at sweep picking and all:

http://www.vincelupone.com/video/VINCELUPONEitsimpossiblesolo.mpg (6.5 Megs)

 

[The Dark Wolf]

I like it! Exactly the type of playing I enjoy. Good sense of melody, and nice little pyrotechnics.

And don't be so self-depricating. Lame attempt?! Sounded good to me.

 

[Vince]

Thanks TDW, but to be honest, I'm trying to expand as a guitarist and I'm just now seriously getting into sweep picking. Right now I do it Satriani-style, you know, hit the first note, hit the last note and rake through the rest (actually, I love the Air Norton for this!), but I want to work on that. For my lead skills, being my harshest critic, I think from best to worst, its 1. Melody, 2. Alternate picking, 3. Legato, 4. Remembering my scale forms up and down the neck, 5. anything else

In other words sweeping is new territory, and I'm real damn rough at it.

Oh and that's my S-series 6-string, and I'm using the Air Norton neck pickup for everything there. The lead sound is the same one I used for "Spirits Rise" off my album.

 

[Digital Black]

Rawk! The overall solo seems to flow nicely, and the " fake sweeps" fit in nicely..

 

[The Dark Wolf]

I thought I recognized the sound of the Air Norton . Same pickup I have (and not with that damn ceramic magnet they put in the 7-string version. Took that out and put in an Alnico 5 like the original.

I do the sweep thing same as you, al la Sloptriani, lol (Not saying Satch is sloppy, but that my version of him is )

Any rate, sounds killer, tone (well., what I can distinguish of it, thanks to the impeccable quality of that vid ), style, phrasing. I think a great start! It'll be neat to see what the other members think tomorrow/later today.

 

[Shawn]

Vince, That kicks ass, man. Totally shredding. I like it.

 

[Regor]

Sounds great, but next time TURN THE LIGHTS ON!

 

[MyOwnEffigy]

That was nuts, Vince. A good feel to it, and I'll be damned if you didn't flow real well with the rhythm section. Your sweeps look way tighter than mine, heh. Does the self-doubt ever leave us musicians? =P

 

[Chris]

You fuckin' rip dude - I dig it.

 

[Drew]

Yeah, Vince, there's this thing called a "light bulb." Perhaps you've heard of it.

My thoughts? As usual, you burn, bro. Only critique is it's very much a "melody line/shred/melody line solo - if you're going to start off with that melody, I'd start gradually adding accents as you go, make it less and less straight and increasingly ornamented, rather than just holding back, holding back, and then going in for the kill. I mean, that works too, of course, but I'd like to ehar it with the line between melody and shred a little blurrier (this is, as an aside, one of the things I like the most about your playing, that you completely own that distinction, and it's very tough to tell where one stops and the other begins).

anyway, your gut instinct is of course dead on - if it's too long, well, add a solo.

 

[Vince]

There was a damn lightbulb in the room. Actually the room was well-lit, just the camera didn't pick it up well.

Drew, excellent comments, that's great feedback. I strongly agree.

 

[Drew]

There was a damn lightbulb in the room. Actually the room was well-lit, just the camera didn't pick it up well.

A likely story. Admit it, you're so metal, whenever you weild your axe and administer a badass fucking solo, the whole room dims in tribute.

 

[The Dark Wolf]

My thoughts? As usual, you burn, bro. Only critique is it's very much a "melody line/shred/melody line solo - if you're going to start off with that melody, I'd start gradually adding accents as you go, make it less and less straight and increasingly ornamented, rather than just holding back, holding back, and then going in for the kill. I mean, that works too, of course, but I'd like to ehar it with the line between melody and shred a little blurrier (this is, as an aside, one of the things I like the most about your playing, that you completely own that distinction, and it's very tough to tell where one stops and the other begins).

Hmm. I agree, Vince! Drew makes some good points here. It would make it 'flow' a bit more. Not that there's anything wrong with it the way it is. It's perfect! But us musicians, we can always make things 'more perfect'

 

[Vince]

A likely story. Admit it, you're so metal, whenever you weild your axe and administer a badass fucking solo, the whole room dims in tribute.

Line of the week. That was awesome, Drew

 

[Allen Garrow]

Are you a Marty Friedman fan? The melody sounded hauntingly like a Friedman tune.

~A

 

[Leon]

i think i'd have to agree with the Drew-consensus.

i'm also thinking... was the lighting in that room incandescent or fluorescent? that will make a difference in how it shows up on your camera, i think.

 

[Vince]

Are you a Marty Friedman fan? The melody sounded hauntingly like a Friedman tune.

~A

I'm definitely a Marty Friedman fan. Especially on his albums like Dragon's Kiss, Scenes, Introduction, and Rust in Peace & Youthanasia when he was with Megadeth. You can here his influence all over those two megadeth albums.

I've been told my playing is similiar to Alex Skolnick, mostly, which I've always found to be a great compliment.

 

[Shawn]

I love Marty Friedman's solo work on Rust In Peace.

 

[The Dark Wolf]

I'm definitely a Marty Friedman fan. Especially on his albums like Dragon's Kiss, Scenes, Introduction, and Rust in Peace & Youthanasia when he was with Megadeth. You can here his influence all over those two megadeth albums.

I've been told my playing is similiar to Alex Skolnick, mostly, which I've always found to be a great compliment.

You see the stuff Skolnick does nowadays, Vince? QUITE a bit different from Testament.

He's a great player, though.

 

[Vince]

I need to check out Skolnick's jazz trio, actually.

Testament is playing a gig in Phoenix in August I think. All the original guys. Murphy, Skolnick, etc. I'm really looking forward to that reunion show.