Is that music or circus?

gimik

gimik

Member
I randomly found the following video on Youtube. Forget the fact that the guy - J. Loomis - is playing a Kemper :roll.
My question is: is that music or circus? As a guitarist, I'm obviously impressed by JL's skills - he deserves our respect for that - but, as a music lover, I just find it boring, musically poor and emotionless! Is that music for guitarist? Definitively not for me.
 
There are some really amazing players outthere, and he is deff one of them.
I dont think there is anyone that would argue with the skills this guy have.

If this is music and sound good, is really just a matter of taste.
And thank god that taste is so different :)
 
This particular song was composed and recored about 25 years ago by Jason Becker.
IMHO a lot of the songs on that album are masterpieces. I find them musical challenging and inspiring.

I wonder what people thought of Paganini's pieces back in the time when they were composed.
Please don't take me wrong, I am not comparing Jason Becker to Paganini.
 
Meh, there's never any point discussing issues of taste.

Believe it or not, there are even fools in this world who don't believe Holdsworth is the best guitarist ever. So what can you do?

:lol
 
The technicality is awesome and I can appreciate and admire that

The resultant music leaves me cold though and as Manning said above, there is no right or wrong when it comes to that :)
 
I think the title track to Perpetual Burn was the most "look what I can do" type of tune on Jason's first solo album. There IS melody in those sweep arpeggios but it does go by quite quickly.

Other tracks from that album such as Altitudes and Air definitely have much more mature composition and greater melodic content IMO.
 
I'm not a fan of that kind of music. Though, I wouldn't say it's musically poor. It might be the complete reverse indeed!
 
Taste is what it is. This kind of music never appealed to me. Lots of notes....big yawn. The guy is very talented, yet....big yawn. But as Manning said, Holdsworth solos give me goose bumps and can make my eyes well up, while my friends listen to it and say "WTF is that noise?. Meaningless nonsense". Listen to everyone, and then keep the stuff that moves you.
 
Well, i like it. I understand it can be boring to listen to it, but i would enjoy a lot if i could play that. Sometimes quantity has a quality of its own, even if it is only for the technical prowess side of the thing.
 
I wouldn't insult any of Jason Becker's work.
The man is a gift to this world. He is like the Bach and Paganini of guitars.
This was the most flashiest track on the album and quiet frankly very challenging and enjoyable.
Listen to this album as a whole,you'll find so many guitar jems on there. There is only one Jason Becker,
just like there will always be one Shawn Lane.

P.S: How many of you realize that this is a tribute to Jason Becker. Go listen to Altitudes,there is so much to learn
from that track about musicianship and emotions.
 
I think it's pretty amazing, even though it's not "his music". Loomis (IMO) is a shredder who is also pretty musical, as opposed to someone like Rusty Cooley, who has top-notch technique but not much going on (IMO) melodically.
 
Sebastian said:
While discussing taste is merely futile, I think this is a bit of a far stretch.
Comparing compositional skills of Paganini and especially Bach to Becker's? Come on.
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Absolutely not far stretched at all. Listen to all his albums,and listen to what he composed after his
Lou Gehrig's disease,he composed some of the moving music with just his eyes.

Becker is certainly in that ranking.
 
I met Jason Becker on BART in the early 90s ... Honestly, I didn't even know who he was at the time, but I can say that he left a huge impression on me ... such a nice guy. It always happens to the nice guys.
 
To each their own.

I think this song is incredible. Perhaps the OP didn't realize the song's history, that being of a former musical uber-talent, Jason Becker. Loomis played this very well - flawless in the technical aspect, missing only Becker's emotional mojo at the tips of the very fingers.

Definitely not circus to me, but as driven home in the several aforementioned posts, tastes and preferences are subjective. I can't tell you that orange is a better colour than purple.

Mo
 
ventura said:
Perhaps the OP didn't realize the song's history, that being of a former musical uber-talent, Jason Becker
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Right Ventura. I really don't know who Jason Becker is/was and I definitively have to listen to the original version.

Sebastian said:
discussing taste is merely futile
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I agree. It wasn't the purpose of my post in fact. I just wanted to know what you guys feel when facing such a technical performance: do you mainly hear music or your brain focuses on the fingers performance? Mine only sees the technical aspect of the scene. Anyway, thanks for replying ;)
 
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I hear beautiful music, I really do. All these rapidly played notes pull together to make a pretty gorgeous song, IMHO.

If this is 'circus', I wish to be a clown ;)
 
gimik said:
Right Ventura. I really don't know who Jason Becker is/was and I definitively have to listen to the original version.

....
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In fact you don't really need to listen to the original version, Jeff's version is personal but amazingly accurate.

I would suggest listening to Jason's solo albums. It's dense material and you will probably need to listen to it chunk by chunk but it ends up catching you. Try it.
 
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