I have so much info here guys.  Thanks again.  Danny, I have much to listen to based on your comments.  I am going to try to find some YouTube on this stuff.  I am such a beginner with lead technique.  I first have to learn all the technical terms.  Remember that I was a drummer for decades!  Ha, life is good.
 
Oh, Danny, my group Sue Saad & The Next opened for Ratt in Orange County in early 1980 at some bar in Orange County (south of L.A.). They were just getting started.  I remember their big silky RATT sign they hung in back of the drums on a fairly small stage.  You are right that there were many good players and not enough good songs.
 
Rimshot

@ Rain - Definitely. Viv blew a lot of people away when Holy Diver came out.

Speed is great, and I wish my fingers on both hands could move faster. I personally would never trade speed for soul, however. If I could play with the soulful feel of Gilmour, I would be totally content.

Danny Danzi
The worst thing is going too fast too soon because then you can pick up habits that are really hard to break.
 

,


This has been a recurring theme, but it cannot be overstated.
Practicing badly is a real bugger to overcome.

Yes, an incredible amount of wisdom in that statement. It's taken me decades to correct bad habits.

MakeShift
Speed is great, and I wish my fingers on both hands could move faster. I personally would never trade speed for soul, however. If I could play with the soulful feel of Gilmour, I would be totally content.

Well said Mike. The thing with Gilmour though...as opposed to *some* of the other blues players is...he doesn't just play the stuff, he lives it and sort of has a theme within his solos. You know like....beginning, middle, climax and end....sort of how I try to write songs. The hardest thing there is....it's VERY hard to teach emotion/feel.
 
I hope this makes you smile more than make you cringe...as it is a bit sacrilegious but hey...you gotta have fun in life, right? :) A cover band I was in needed to hear the backing music for The Wall minus the solo. So I created a midi of the solo section for the keyboard player especially as he couldn't quite hear the chords. After I sent it, he's like...."great, you send me that and not a version with the solo, ****?!" So I real quick fired up my stuff, threw out a solo from what I remembered in my head from hearing the tune for so long and of course, improvised and called it "brick wall solo ****" for him. LOL! Gilmour I am NOT....fun...I DO have. :)
 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4909348/BrickWithSolo.mp3
 
One thing about that solo which is another reason I'm posting it is....it combines all the stuff we have talked about. Legato, tapping, arpeggios, (not the sweep kind as that would be a no no in this passage...I ruined it enough as is lmao!) picking every note, bends, trem bar stuff, vibrato bend expression with bar and fingers and a little speed.
 
Speed of course is sort of an emotion, but it's more repetition at first until you master the "stop and go" as I like to call it. Now that said, quite a few of my older buds bash the faster players as well as myself. In some cases, they are right because there's nothing worse or more boring than a one-trick-pony. However, there are some fast guys that have learned when to step on the gas and when to be emotional. I try my best to be that type of player in my own material. To me, that's what makes it interesting....the ability to change it up. It's like...there's only so much of those old blues guys I can take doing the same old pentecostal scales (as Dweezil calls them lol) at the same speed using the same vibe. I mean, ok they invented a style and they have every right to keep playing exactly the same things in every song and they are great at what they do. But after 25 + songs of that, I've had enough in the same way after hearing 3 Yngwie albums. I've just heard enough.
 
As for the too fast too soon comment....we all can agree there that it's crucial to not fall into that hole. This is also why I think it's super important for Rimshot to sort of pick out a "speed" style before just jumping into a bunch of different things and the exercises that go with them. For example, Angus Young is a good representation of some good speed that isn't too difficult....he works out of the pentatonic scale (blues scale) and does some really cool licks. Even Ace Frehley from Kiss had some nice solo's that were quick.
 
See, that's the thing....Angus and Ace are decent in the speed area. Guys like Guthrie Govan or John Petrucci take it to an entirely different hyper speed level. This is why it's nice to shoot for something. Going in "speed steps" is a good thing too. For example, when I started playing guitar for me it was Terry Kath/Jimmy Page/Brian May....then when I heard Eddie Van Halen....whew....my world changed. Then the 80's guys all started entertaining me. Randy Rhoads, Warren DeMartinni, George Lynch, Yngwie Malmsteen, Richie Kotzen, Vinnie Moore, Jason Becker, Tony MacAlpine, Steve Vai, John Sykes.
 
After that movement...my dumb butt was fast enough but I had 0 feel...no emotion, no taste....no ability to write a real solo that complimented the song. So I had to go back in time and I did everything backwards. Gilmour, Gary Moore, Hendrix, Eric Gales, George Harrison, Neil Schon....all dudes that took you on a journey within their soloing. They played fast too, but they painted a picture. In most instances, you could hum their solos. It wasn't just a bunch if quick scale licks...they literally told a story to me.
 
So that's how I did it. Was it the wrong way? It's tough to say really. I'm happy with how I turned out as a player and a writer even if what I do isn't for everyone. That's the most important thing in my opinion....being happy with yourself first and foremost. To stay that way.....remember, never go too fast too soon because those possible bad habits will kill ya! :)
 
-Danny

Feel is the most important part of playing guitar otherwise you might as well just be using MIDI. That's the one thing us guit wranglers have over many other instruments that can now be easily duplicated by technological wizardry (like bass, drums, piano and if done well even orchestral instruments to an extent) and I do not see going away anytime soon (if ever). Even if the tech does make it possible (and I've seen some very convincing MIDI guitar tracks on youtube recently) it would actually be a hell of a lot easier to just learn how to play a guitar than to program all the nuances that constitute "feel".
 
Again I'm going to bring up Kurt Cobain (because I seem to be on a Nirvana kick these past few days). Love him or hate him how the heck would you create a program that could make all that racket? The same goes for many of the dirtier styles out there. Most of the really nice sounding MIDI guitar material you hear is either ultra clean/tight metal stuff or ultra clean/tight acoustic stuff. You try to program an Albert King solo and it's gonna sound like computerized garbage no matter how good the program and programming is.
 
My point? Yeah, speed is cool. I'm fast. I can be real fast when I'm practiced up but I'm also dirty by design. I used to emulate Vai, Satriani and Friedman. After a while though I started leaning toward raunchier stuff like punk, nasty thrash, old timey rock and blues. The former was fast and clean but kind of boring to listen to after a while. The latter had character and life and was ever changing. Combine the two and kabingi... now you've got some control and more importantly something that is more likely to be interesting to listen to than "noodle noodle noodle noodle noodle noodle ad infinitum".
 
When discussing speed I think the order of importance for being a good guitar player goes something like this...
 
Knowledge > Strength/Technique >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Speed

There's something about imperfection that is more interesting than perfect. Some of the string benders like Albert will actually, purposely bend a little flat or sharp, because it creates a little more interesting tension. How about Keith Richards who has mastered the art of playing in a controlled sloppy manner. Cobain is another example of that style. As you say Beep, guitar is feel.

MakeShift
There's something about imperfection that is more interesting than perfect. Some of the string benders like Albert will actually, purposely bend a little flat or sharp, because it creates a little more interesting tension. How about Keith Richards who has mastered the art of playing in a controlled sloppy manner. Cobain is another example of that style. As you say Beep, guitar is feel.

I can certainly agree with that … my profile has this little phrase I made up a long time ago   .
 
perfection is not the absence of flaws ... it is the blending of the flaws where a unique expression has been expressed perfectly
 
Kenny 

Nice solo Danny!
 
Have you guys been keeping up to date with Troy Grady?  He developed a type of guitar cam and has been studying various guitar virtuosos in an attempt to de-mystify the act of "fast" guitar playing.  Quite interesting.  He's has taught himself along the way and has developed some great chops.  If you want to learn to play "faster licks" you may want to check out some of the work he's done with some of the worlds greatest guitar players.  This is just an introductory video.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGqesXrhXxw