[Slowhand] Beck & Clapton (and others!)

[Fabio Dwyer]

Hey people,
 
I'm getting in the boat again after a big lurking-mode break. I'm a guitar teacher in Brazil for 15 years now, and I'm always discussing these topics with my old and young students. I don't think that my opinions are, by no means, more valid than any of the non-guitar players or amateurs musicians, or students point-of-views; but I believe I'm pretty damn close of it everyday to stay quiet about these matters:-) IMHO, everyone is missing a relevant point here: there's no way to compare the styles of Clapton and Beck, because they play "different" instruments. Firstly, let's divide guitar players in two major categories: 
 
Group 1: players who create 'new-sounds' on the guitar (as DN said, "The Sound-Effects Guys" or something to that effect)
 
Examples: Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page (don't forget his cello-bow!), Brian May, Stanley Jordan, Eddie Van Halen;
 
Group 2: players who play 'clean', objective, classic, 'to-the-point' style.
 
Examples: Eric Clapton, Dave Gilmour (aside all his use of effects), Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Mike Bloomfield, Warren Haynes... 
 
Pros & Cons of group 1:
 
What defines the 1st group is their ability/necessity to push guitar technique foward, to create great different sounds, sometimes beautiful (as Beck's "Were were you" harmonics with whammy effects, just amazing AND beautiful!), sometimes noises - useful or not, as feedbacks and whammy-bars screams (ex: Star Spangled Banner by Hendrix, or any Van Halen stuff).
 
The cool thing about those fellows is that, without them, guitar would sound like a piano, in the sense that you just bang the note and that's it. Guitar is maybe the most diversified sounding instrument ever (maybe with the exception of percussion that is limitless). They make guitar ADVANCE, like the first dude who ever played a slide guitar, that might be look and sound crazy for the first listeners!
 
The problem with them, is that some of them are not really great improvisers; once you take his whammy-bars, tappings, feedbacks and guitar effects, they don't go much further... That's why, I believe, you cannot see many of them playing blues properly, or acoustic guitar solos. Some of them even can't play chords right!
 
Pros & Cons of group 2:
 
These guys are much more respected as great improvisers by other musicians (non-guitar players who don't give a damn about 'guitar-effects', and DeltaNick's point-of-view). You just LEARN more following and studying these guys. They're often seen more like musicians than as guitar-players. Their note-choices is often better, the structure of their solos are more complex, more "into" the harmony of the songs.
 
The problem is that they're often more predictable, they don't sound fresh night after night, they are frequently considered "lazy". Their style is not as 'flamboyant' as the group 1. Group 1 calls much more attention and a first sight.
 
For my taste, there are great players in both, actually I'm a big fan of all the guys I mentioned in both groups. But Group 1 is better to SEE, while Group 2 is better to LISTEN. Not that I don't like to listen to Hendrix or Beck, I just enjoy much more the experience when I can see them while they're playing; and a dvd from a Group 2 player doesn't necessarily makes me sleep in the middle, but I don't find as exciting as seeing the other group.
 
We could find another category, Group 3, and that would be formed by 'modern-players' as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, basically the "G3" type of guys (PUN INTENDED!). They have amazing chops, and sometimes can bring true emotions like on Satriani's "Cryin'", Vai's "For the love of God" and Eric Johnson's beautiful slide solo on "Manhattan"; they developed techniques of tappings, feedbacks and sound-effects to greater levels than those who invented those techniques. But they just don't seem to show the same levels of originality of Group 1 nor the emotion/feeling of Group 2.
 
That's my 2 cents, some fuel for the discussion! Probably different people will have different categories of guitar-playing, or a different disposition of names than mine, but as Nick said, that's the greatness of a civil debate!
 
Cheers from Brazil,
Fabio Dwyer
 
 
 



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