guitarists that say so much in so few notes...who moves you?

All those Simon Cowell shows just turn my stomach too.

I appreciate the skill and technical abilities of the likes of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmstein, I really do. They are light years ahead of me in every possible way, musically. However, I couldn't sit through one of their mindless noodling solos now if you paid me.

My favourite guitarist of all time is Jimmy Page. However for someone who just makes every note count, and mean something...maybe I'd go for someone like Peter Green from the late 60's period.

Vastly underated and overlooked by today's speed demons is George Harrison.  Listen to "While my guitar gently weeps"............................like Rembrandt with a guitar pick............... 

Refered to above as "mindless noodling" (everyone has their opinion) These pieces below were inspiration beyond words for me as a teenager while playing guitar.  I dont believe any of the pieces below would be considered "noodling".  Vai and Satriani have always been (in my opinion) very creative and expressive with thier songs and intruments, relying on melody.  Ygnwie..well, he plays harmonic minor scales really fast overandoverandoverandover.  Another person that is most likely stereo typed is Marty Friedman from Megadeath.  He did a solo album years back called "Scenes" Completely not Metal and probably wore out the heads on one of my tape decks.  For this example I picked a random song from the album (Scenes) but every song on it has an emotional feel, and not shredding.

Steve Vai
Edit - Cant get video to link - "For the Love of God"

Marty Friedman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSM4Tfb4rco&feature=related
Satriani
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjG620u8bmg <--played it at my wedding!

You can add me to the David Gilmour fan club, his playing, tone and note selection are inspiring. 
It took me a long time to get into Hendricks and Stevie Ray due to my own arrogance, growing up I heard soooo many guitarists playing the same 3 penatonic licks (horribly I'll add) and made statements like "Hendricks didn't read music man, he played by feel"  To me it just sounded like lazy people who did not want to come up with any other licks or voicings for the 1 key they "kind of" knew.
Now Im older and can put my arrogance aside and I actually enjoy Hendricks music.  I dont think he was a great guitar player, but was a great rocknroll songwriter. (my opinion of course).

Further adding to Yngwie, Al Di meola came first and was way more creative.  'Return to Forever' (1975), classic album
-Sorry for the long post, I love to talk guitar players
-Mike

Cool discussion, it reminds me of that scene in Eddie Lives
(scene starts at 9:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itDxcWHvVR4

(and ends here)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZH2kBGY2tc

I gotta admit while the kid's solo (part 1) knocks my socks off, it's eddie's solo (part 2) that I find myself humming the rest of the day.

My fave guitarists of few notes...
Jamie West-Oram (The Fixx)
Peter Banks (1st guitarist for Yes)
Hendrix
and one of the most underrated guitarists in prog... Steve Hackett (Genesis)

Back in the day... I wanted to be as fast as Ritchy Blackmore....   Highway Star.... I had that solo down note for note.....

As time went on... speed for the sake of speed seemed to rule the guitar world.....EV Halen, Satrianni, Vai, and many others with blazing speed and amazing chops.....

My wakeup call came in the person of Mark Knopler from  Dire Straits..... someone who actually intentionally allows phrasing and silence in his playing.....who didn't "need" to play with speed, but could.

My goal now is to play with feeling and artistry. And to me, that means I have slowed down considerably.... to allow for the expression to rule in my playing. I can still play fast if I need to, but often do not see that as a need.

just my 2 centavos.

chefmike8888


David Gilmore to me, is one of the more melodic and moving guitarist. That man knows how to get emotion out of the strings.

Mike  

Yes.  If the criteria is which guitarist says the most with fewest notes, makes every note count with the most feeling, Gilmore is the man.

Most of my faves have already been mentioned, David Gilmour, David Rhodes, Mark Knopfler, Dominic Miller..you guys have great taste! I'll add Martin Barre, who effortlessly slips from rock to jazz to blues to folk  (usually within the same song ), and is always supporting the melody, never drowning it.

For the sake of the post title, yes, it would have to be Gilmour, He could play one note, and bend it, hold if for five minutes and it would have so much feeling behind it, i think his effects had part in that, but that's part of the player.  He taught me a lot about how to do so much with so little.

I would say, for the sake of this also, i would have to go with Slash from his G n' R days.  He can play fast, slow, acoustic.  Either way, for me he does the same thing as Gilmour, every note seemed purposeful, and he knew when to be sweet and when to mean, and never played a bad note in any of those leads and solos on the those albums.

My favorite player of all time is Wes Montgomery:

 
ditto.
 
and then there's Robben Ford

A few that come immediately to mind (in no particular order):

+1 Gilmour
+1 Wes
EC
Jeff Beck (!!!)
Buddy Guy
B.B., Freddie, & Albert King
Albert Collins
Robert Cray
Steve Cropper
Jerry Garcia
Leslie West

drewfx

Northstar33


My favorite player of all time is Wes Montgomery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXvdU7f-q7I


He just cooks, plays with his thumb, no pick.

Listen to the track, the octave work starting around 1:27 is ridiculous.

He's self-taught and couldn't read music.

He's funky, bluesy, and jazzy, and tastey as hell all at the same time.


His chordal work is untouchable.

He is bad ass and every guitar player should know him well (IMHO).

Enjoy!
Northstar33

That's some awesome playing.

Gilmore is the master of the slow, melodic and moving guitar lead. No one does it better.

Odd no one's mentioned Carlos Santana yet. Who else can you identify from a single note?

If you like Wes, then you gotta check out George Benson.

This is sick!!!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn27IcAapPI

Solo starts around 1:48

Enjoy!

NS33

Check this out:

marcos69

Northstar33


My favorite player of all time is Wes Montgomery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXvdU7f-q7I


He just cooks, plays with his thumb, no pick.

Listen to the track, the octave work starting around 1:27 is ridiculous.

He's self-taught and couldn't read music.

He's funky, bluesy, and jazzy, and tastey as hell all at the same time.


His chordal work is untouchable.

He is bad ass and every guitar player should know him well (IMHO).

Enjoy!
Northstar33

That's some awesome playing.

Probably wrong genre but hands down for me is Albert Collins...the Iceman.
So much soul in a guitar phrase that you'd wonder why he ever needed to talk at all. 
  
My second is the late James Honeyman Scott....from the Pretenders.
Check out "KID"..(and all the rest of that great first album).
 

I grew up studying Clapton, Santana, McLaughlin, Benson, Chet Atkins, Wes, Harrison, McGuinn, Jeff Beck, Gilmore, Sid Barrett, Peter Green to mention just a few.... All great expressive guitarists. Some play it slow, some play it fast. It's the expression.. not the speed that matters.