I think everyone of us has it’s own perception of what quality music means. Did you notice that each time you speak with someone about music of high quality vs music of low quality your music and the music you listen and appreciate come as quality music?

I have even heard of really bad, kitsch music singers saying they make quality music, being proud with what they do and sing. They are artists, making good, quality music. Not like the others…

I ask myself if is there anyone out there, making music, saying that he/she is making low quality music. Really, if there are so many making quality music, not like the others, there must be somewhere “the others” making bad music…

So, what is bad music? Who could actually say which are the criteria used to judge this low quality music? Classical music artists and critics? Technical rock artists? By the way, ask Malmsteen what he thinks about Nirvana or Smashing pumpkins…go on, ask him!

Is complexity a criteria? How about Knocking on heavens door then or No woman no cry? These could not be considered very complex from a technical point of view, right?

The easiness to reach audience? Well, is it being commercial a sin? Actually I think everybody would looove to sell million of records by night and to make it big. They will probably say that they sold so many records cause their music is good. Right! So being commercial is not it. What is it then?

Man, I feel like in Seinfeld, it was one evening when he was speaking about doctors, something like “go to my doctor, he’s the top of his class!” Everybody will say the same about his/her doctors, right? But (Seinfeld was asking himself) “what happened to those finishing medical training on the last position of the class. What happened to them? Nobody will say go to my doctor, he was the last of his class!!” 

Let me hear you people!! Say it! What makes good music and what makes bad music?

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I was not a big fan of YouTube. To be honest, in the beginning I could not understand what is all the fuss about. Some people uploading their stupid videos with their dogs at the pool or some idiots drinking Cola while eating Mentos…

That was in the beginning. Now I heavily use YouTube for watching cool concerts, songs, videos and guitar lessons, I almost all the time find something interesting to watch there and my most important (like 95%) usage of YouTube is for music.

I have seen there a lot of wannabes, a lot of people trying to play the guitar like their idols, I have seen people trying and people failing and also some of them succeeding. But what really impressed me is this guy, Gustavo Guerra!

When I have first seen him on YouTube I couldn’t believe my eyes. Or ears. Really! He seems to be in absolute the same league as Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen, Gilbert, etc. He plays guitar with an amazing easiness and feeling, speed and technique. Using specific electric guitars for specific artists made him look more than cool and built him a brand image. He must have money and a lot of passion for electric guitars, since he owns custom models of famous artists, playing Satriani on Ibanez Joe Satriani models (I have counted about 3 of them, including the chromed model), Vai on JEM model, Malmsteen on his scalloped Fender, Eric Johnson on his model, damn, he seems to have them all, he must feel like a child in a toy store, really.

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I was reading this post about air guitar championship and watched 2003 World Champion “playing the guitar”. I must admit it was a “thrilling” experience, just that I couldn’t see myself doing this. I am not such expansive on stage with a real guitar, he is without any. I must admit he reminds me of Yngwie a bit, but only just a bit…

And also I must admit that he looks less like an idiot if you compare it to me doing the same thing…

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Did you ever notice that famous guitar players have their own way of producing the vibrato? Take for example Eric Clapton, he has some fast, almost one finger vibrato. Also if you consider the fact that he has also an unique way of keeping the guitar neck in his hands, when soloing, I would say that if I would only see his hands playing the guitar, I would know it is him. Pay attention to his solo here.

OK, let’s take Steve Vai also: when  I have seen Vai vibrating a note, I was confused, he has some large, round way of vibrating a note. His (looooong) finger does at the same time a vertical and an horizontal moving, kind of a circle; I could say that he massage that particular string, like when your head hurts and you press your forehead circularly. See here in order to understand. It may be a show thing, it is more interesting for the camera, but this also gives him a low frequency vibrato that is “sweeter”.

To also consider a third  type, take Malmsteen, which has his violin like vibrato, probably because of his violin backgrounds. If you have never thought about that so far, pay attention next time you listen Malmsteen and also listen a violin player after listening Malmsteen.

Any other examples you could think of?

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