Marty Friedman Thinks We Should End The 'Traditional' Guitar Solo

Wow I read th article and thought about it, see the link below. Interesting subject!
So from my perspective, I grew up idolizing the old style guitar gods, but main influences were Peter Green, Dave Gilmour and Robin Trower, so not necessarily high speed guitar demons. I have for sure done a lot of tracks where it was just an ego thing showing off whatever I had to show. But I was always a "song" guitarist, and although I have sinned on 4 minute instrumental solos here and there I try to use the solo guitar as an embellishment to the singer and the song, and therefore I seldom solo over a singer.

As I have zero knowledge of scales, chords or any music theory, I play by ear, and try to make it interesting for the listener - Mrs. Gee hates my playing, and if a solo is longer than a piece of string her eyes start drifting - so this made me shorten stuff :D . So melodic playing is what I try to do, sometimes it comes off:

I am adding two samples of songs where it worked:
Here is an old with nice in between licks and a solo at the end:

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and here a more recent one, solo starts at 2:50 but listen to the whole thing if you can.

[wl]259045[/wl]



https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/marty_friedman_thinks_we_should_end_the_traditional_guitar_solo_all_that_eight-bar_amp_tapping_stuffs_got_to_be_over.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1aDUBds63t5cQpNaz-2-sMR8MUkV_XiKzC6FPjzgWOhIEN_yznDbur9Fc#Echobox=1706724367

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A world of cans and worms here. But overall, I'm inclined to agree. In rock, in particular, there is often a formula for guitar heroics: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, shred-time, last chorus with more shredding underneath, outro with louder shredding...

The main problem for me, and I may upset some players saying it, is about musicality: welting out notes at 32 to the beat, or fast-sweeping up and down the strings is all very impressive but is it adding to the music? For me, no most of the time. And I'm an Eddie Van Halen fan. But I love his riffs, not so much his solos.

But then there's a multitude of examples where a guitar solo has added to a song. You mentioned Dave Gilmour - to me, a player who makes more music from what he leaves out than plays. Every solo, a voyage of emotion and feel.

I guess it's down to time and place. A technically impressive note-fest can work in the right place. But then so can Dave Gilmour bending one string for a bar... Horses for courses.

You talk about your perceived lack of specific musical knowledge or understanding. For me, it doesn't matter. Some very fine songwriters I've had the pleasure of working with are from the same camp - they wouldn't know a semiquaver from a semillon... The very thing some might consider a hindrance is actually the door to creativity. Rather than thinking about something being technically correct, you're more concerned about playing the music. To me, this is a blessing, not a curse because you're focused on what just 'works' for you rather than what is 'correct'.

For me, I like to hear melody and soul. I like to hear solos that, perhaps, bring in the themes from the vocal or other instrument lines and advance them. But I'm also an old git.

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I always thought guitar solos were invented to shut up the lead singer.

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For me when the uk punk thing happened and killed off endless pointless guitar noodling I was soooo happy.
That said I do like a succinct to the point bit of soloing. If I had to pick an example of a perfect guitar solo it's this. :)
[youtube]ilDD5SeHxXE[/youtube]

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