Instrumental guitar music?

[mcmurray]

Just interested in what the general consensus is here. I don't have any particular artists in mind.

 

If you do like it, let us know what you're listening to! I'm always on the lookout for decent instrumentals.

 

edit - this isn't a joke thread like the other polls. I'm genuinely interested in the result.

[Thundergod]

Love it and listen to it regularly

[Hector Arcadius]

Love it and listen to it regularly

 

 

 

+1

 

one more, here.

[FirstMeasure]

Another +1

[RichCI]

I like **** Dale, Link Wray, Booker T. and the MGs and the like as they're more about writing good instrumental songs. Players like Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and others, while incredible players, never really thrilled me as far as songwriting goes. There are exceptions like Vai's "The Audience is Listening" though.

[zigzag]

Grant Green, Wes Montomery, Kenny Burrell, Pat Metheny, etc.

 

Weather Report, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Bird Parker, Monk, etc.

 

There are great jazz singers, but more great instrumentalists.

 

Tony Rice, Doc Watson, Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, etc.

 

I can't get into shredding.

 

Booker T and the MGs- great stuff. Saw Booker T with the Drive By Truckers in New Orleans last year.

 

Jeff Beck... what a musician!

[ShredAstaire]

Me! I won't mention the obvious as that will start a flame war hehehe....but also bands like The Bakerton Group (Clutch side project), Electric Magma, Guthrie Govan, Satan's Pilgrim's etc etc.

 

I listen to probably 50% instrumental typically....

[tulsaslim]

Probably 90% of the music I listen to is instrumental. Back in the day (of cassette tapes) when there was very little instrumental music I would make my own tapes of instrumental music, taking the 'one song here, one song there' of what was available.

[ShredAstaire]

Yeah I find vocals/lyrics to ruin a song more often than not....sometimes its the singer voice, sometimes its the WAY they sing it, sometimes its stupid lyrics....

[mcmurray]

Cheers for the suggestions, there's a few in there I hadn't heard of.

 

One of my favorites is Mike Oldfield. Not only is he a virtuoso on the guitar, he is on just about every other instrument known to man as well. Check him out if you haven't already guys, the album 'Amarok' is awesome.

 

I almost forgot about Tony Rice zigzag, love his work.

[saturn]

I like some instrumental music. It could be classical pieces, jazz, blues, neo-classical shred...whatever. I will usually only listen to one or two at a time though. Rarely will I play an entire instrumental album. And I prefer instrumentals that still sound like a song. Not so much these meandering jazz or shred pieces that don't have much of a melody or "hook" or that don't seem to go anywhere.

[zigzag]

Forgot Bella Fleck!

[deepblue]

Classical Gas still sounds great after all these years. Its hard to believe that song was released

in 1968!

[Twiz]

I love instrumental music. Everything from Booker T & The MG's, to Mogwai, to Tortoise. In fact, my band is instrumental. I like stuff with no vocals mainly for 2 reasons:

 

1) Musically a song can be awesome, but stupid lyrics, or if it's sung badly can ruin a song. When something is instrumental, the listener can interpret the music however they want. Don't get me wrong, there's a thin line between something that is cheesy, and something that kicks a$$. You gotta be careful not to make something that sounds all lame and new age. For me, it's still gotta be about the rock, I just don't care for words.

 

2) I've always liked the parts of songs when the whole band clicks in like a machine and rocks. There's something really powerful happening there. Moby ****, or Orion are good examples of what I'm talking about.

 

One really awesome guitar oriented band that I can think of is called The ******* Champs. They're pretty much just pure riffs, and leads. -Really guitar nerd music. They're pretty awesome.

[djroge1]

I'm going to see Larry Carlton and Robben Ford next month up in Boulder.

 

I saw them up there two years ago and only 1 song had any vocals - it was almost the perfect concert.

 

What I have difficulty understanding is how someone can be a guitar nut and not like guitar instrumental music at least a little.

[Shnate McDuanus]

Yeah! Instrumental guitar music can be really great.

 

Earl Hooker (he tended to sing, at times, but was primarily an instrumentalist,) Booker T. and the M.G.'s, **** Dale (although he did sing a bit, too,) Link Wray, The Ventures, The Shadows, Jeff Beck, Return to Forever, The Weather Report, The Hellecasters, Blotted Science, Santo and Johnny, so on, so forth...

 

Oh, and that guy that nobody wants to mention. I've begun to appreciate him to a degree.

[MojoRedFoot]

How do you feel about bass? I'm really into Victor Wooten lately. That dude can play and you tell he loves it w/ all his heart when you see and hear him. Not to get all mushy.

[S t e v e]

steve vai plays a lot of instrumentals...in case you didn't know

[tulsaslim]

I mention this about once a year on the forum so I'm due. Back in the early '70s (when instrumental guitar music was pretty scarce) I got turned on to two Harvey Mandel albums that completely re-energized my guitar playing and gave me a whole new direction- The Snake and Shangranade. Still great albums today.

[ShredAstaire]

Oh' date=' and that guy that nobody wants to mention. I've begun to appreciate him to a degree.[/quote']

 

He who shall not be named. hahahaha

[milod]

I didn't hit the poll because I guess I'm too conflicted. <grin>

 

Here's the deal: I tend to like "melody lines." After a certain point a lotta those are lost unless it's with a vocal. I like a lotta vocal where the voice is treated as an instrument rather than simply a vehicle for lyrics, if that makes sense...

 

E.g., Ella with Kessel or Ellis... Julie London with either of the two... etc. Those two ladies' voices, for example, are quite different, but it's kinda like Ella as a nice tight clarinet and Julie as a misty sorta sax...

 

To me a lotta the reason I haven't listened to certain types of jazz is that it seems to have entirely lost melody. But I make the same complaint about a lotta "rock" stuff, too.

 

So... yeah, accuse me of "elevator music" both as a listener and player. I just like melodies.

 

I think one reason guitar instrumentals were so big in the 50s and early '60s is that the sound of the instrument as run through an amplifier with "new and wild" effects such as reverb and trem, still was relatively new and that "newness" was being exploited.

 

Duane Eddy, for example, was a lot better picker than his "big hits" would seem to indicate, but the "sound" itself was what was being exploited rather than his abilities as a guitarist.

 

m

[zigzag]

I tend to like "melody lines." After a certain point a lotta those are lost unless it's with a vocal. I like a lotta vocal where the voice is treated as an instrument rather than simply a vehicle for lyrics' date=' if that makes sense...

m

[/quote']

 

I agree totally, m. But to me, the best improvisations are ones where the main melody line is implied all the way thru. If I can't hear the melody lines in my head, note for note, while the improv is being played, then to me, it's just noise.

 

That's the main reason I don't like shredders- no musicality.

[djroge1]

I agree totally' date=' m. But to me, the best improvisations are ones where the main melody line is implied all the way thru. If I can't hear the melody lines in my head, note for note, while the improv is being played, then to me, it's just noise.

 

That's the main reason I don't like shredders- no musicality.

[/quote']

 

It just goes to show "different strokes for different folks." I like when the improvisation moves totally away from the melody but then comes back to it.

 

I think of muisic with the analogy of a home. Inside your house is where you are the most comfortable - this is where the melody, hooks, and comfortable composition are. It's a nice place to be but when you solo you perhaps step outside on the porch and even off the porch but still in the yard; this would be a nice solo with a lot a familiarity and comfort.

 

Sometimes, you take an extended solo and move away from your familiar sounds - you take a stroll around the neighborhood or even across town, but eventually you return home to the hook and melody reside.

 

Some musicians (think miles davis) actually start miles away from the house and then stroll into the neighborhood and then quickly leave again. That's the "outside" type of jazz that perhaps many don't like - it's just not comfortable for them.

[milod]

Well...

 

Even in "classical" music, there tends to be an exposition of a melodic line, then variations and then a return.

 

But that's also for some very long and complex stuff.

 

If you're talking instead of a "pop" piece with just a melodic line, or a melodic line then bridge then melodic line, all in 2 to 5 minutes, at least in an instrumental as opposed to a "solo," my expectation is something where I can tell what the song is that's being played as opposed to simply free improv over a basic chord progression.

 

Nothin' against free improv over a basic chord progression when you're jammin', but listening to it... Naah. Not really.

 

m

[zigzag]

Good point dj. I guess I should never say "Never." Just don't stray too far from home.

 

Weather Report does a song called "A Remark You Made" where the entire song is one long melodic phrase, no repeats- a great composition, almost 7 minutes.

 

Check it out. One of the greatest jazz melodies ever written played by one of the finest jazz line-ups:

 

 

Written by Josef Zawinul (keyboards) and featuring Wayne Shorter (sax) and Jaco Pastorius (arguably the finest bass player ever).