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Which bands/artists defines your playing style.


Dr. Rock

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I hesitated to post a serious reply to this thread' date=' but after some thought I decided to.

 

It's too easy to spout off something to sound hip, but Django is/was a heavy influence on me, my playing style even when doing rock blues deteriorates into Djangoesque type runs...it's a real problem and I've never been able to really purge it from my various styles of playing.

 

Some folks think it sounds cool, I think it's a rut I'm in that I can't seem to escape. Unfortunately as a young child I heard Django a lot and became hooked long before I was playing guitar or listening to rock, so it ended up stuck in my head.=D>

[/quote']

 

You know, I've probably been more influenced by the guys I've played with over the years rather than anyone on records..I, of course, started out wanting to be Clapp or Hendrix and came from the Beatle frame of reference for pop songs..my ex wife after hearing a recording I'd over-dubbed a lead on said "well, you've nailed McCartney" but it wasn't a compliment...she meant I sounded derivative and like a bass player trying to play lead which is what I am if I'm honest..I had an older guitar teacher for a very short time who was a huge Django fan but never really appreciated him until I was much older and now you're right,...it is a kind of a cliche' to say "Django" as an influence and George Harrison once said "Django was an influence to be a smart *** and hadn't really ever been that exposed to him...within weeks everyone had Django as an influence...

 

Mr.Nelson

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For me, initially, I was driven to play by Slash. Soon after, I got into Page and Zeppelin... But it really clicked when I started really listening to what David Gilmour was doing in Pink Floyd. There it was, finally, a lead guitar part with a melody that I could remember, and even sing, just as much as a lyric... and consistently, song after song... Don't get me wrong, I still admire Page's work, particularly as an arranger and rhythm guitarist, (Slash, not so much...) but when I think lead, I almost ALWAYS think "What Would Gilmour Do?"

As for rhythm work, I'm really inspired by more modern bands like Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, and Sevendust. I also love Thornley, (Ian Thornley, formerly of Big Wreck,) both as rhythm inspiration and songwriting as a whole. I could write a long list of one or two hit bands from the late 90's and early 2000's that I really love and borrow from frequently when writing, but then you'd all know my secrets, and where all my cool riffs come from, LOL!

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These are both mty electric and acoustic influences

1. Guns N Roses - Listened to Appetite for Destruction and decided that I had to learn how to play guitar

2. Aerosmith - Joe Perry is a totally underrated guitarist. My parents always had him playing

3. The Who - Pete Townsend's playing is just incredible

4. Lynyrd Skynyrd

5. Dave Matthews Band

6. CCR

7. ZZ Top

8. Led Zepplin

9. Hendrix

10. Paul Simon

I'm sure others have influenced me (especially on the acoustical side) but these are the ones that come to mind.

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Mick Ronson

Eddie Clarke

Jimmy James

early Yardbirds

Paul "Kid" Size

Billy Zoom

Bill Kirchen

Rick Miller

Unknown Hinson

Reverend Horton Heat

Eddie Angel

LINK WRAY!!!

 

of course, I sound like a chimp w shoe-box/rubber band rig compared to my influences, but at least i'm tryin'!

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Johnny Marr of the Smiths is probably my guitar hero, I always respect a player who can play a Smiths song 8-[

John Squire

Noel Gallagher (I believe he is a very under-rated guitarist just because his playing isn't as technically challenging

as others)

The Strokes

Libertines

Led Zep (Jimmy Page, Legend)

Believe it or not, Bob Marley :)

Arctic Monkeys

B.B King

The Coral

The Jam

Kings Of Leon

Ocean Colour Scene

RHCP

Velvet Underground

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I suppose when I think about it, my playing is similar in some ways to that of my idols. However, I have never actually played guitar with the aim of playing like any particular person. I guess it just kind of happens...

 

1) Chuck Berry - I always find myself playing Johnny B Goode type tunes, even when I don't mean to.

 

2) Angus Young - His solos always inspire me to pick up the guitar, even when I've just put it down.

 

3) The Beatles - My all time favourite band, so of course I'm going to be influenced by them.

 

4) Guitar Hero - Just kidding.

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shockwire!!! m/

(ok, so that's a local band... they're pretty good...)

 

how i play though... hmm...

 

i don't know if i could...

 

lots of jazz improv. sounds like BB king, but there are some 50's rock n roll influences...

 

otherwise it's mostly covers and i don't think that really counts as my style of play, but i play some led zeppelin (because every guitar player seems to...) and beatles, buddy holly, roy orbison... a very small amount of AC DC, and the animals (house of the rising sun on organ and guitar... unfortunately, i only have 2 hands, so 1 instrument at a time...)

 

and the riff from purple haze (i'm not a hendrix fan, so i won't bother with the entire song)

 

so yeah, i guess if i had to pick 3, it'd be Roy Orbison, BB King, and The Animals (they're not so similar to each other, but i'm not too similar to any of them... that and all of them have [or did have] more skill than i do) (RIP Roy Orbison)

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Oh well, here is my attempt for the most pretentious post of the day award.

 

I guess I'd love to play guitar the way Paul Desmond played alto sax, "Like the sound of a dry Martini."

 

Only a bit bluesier.

 

[And for the benefit of our members who haven't a clue who Paul Desmond was (although I'm guessing Notes_Norton might be a fan)] -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI

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I'm often surprised listening to recordings of my guitar playing, because the influences I hear most prominently aren't necessarily the ones I'm conscious of trying to emulate.

 

I aspire to have a style that sounds distinctively like me, but that contains elements of the players that inspire me most: Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Terry Haggerty, B.B. King, Robben Ford, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Jerry Miller of Moby Grape, John Scofield, Brian Setzer, early Clapton, and many others.

 

But listening back I sound more like a mixture of Charlie Christian, "Live Dead"-era Jerry Garcia, Gary Duncan of Quicksilver, Carlos Santana, Mike Bloomfield, with touches of Pat Metheny, Scotty Moore, Robin Trower, and David Gilmour --- among others.

 

Always more to learn!

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For me, it started as a visual thing. I saw the "Simply Irresistible" video and wanted to play. Then I saw CC Deville and figured if that schmuck could do it, then so could I. But after I started playing, these are the players that really influenced me: Slash & Izzy, Angus and Malcolm, Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce (Original Alice Cooper Band), Whitford and Perry, Tony Iommi, Rich Robinson and Marc Ford, Hetfield and Hammett, mainly any two guitar lineup. Always liked the interplay between two guitarists, and in my early years, I modeled my playing after Malcolm and Izzy, i.e. strictly rhythm, no solos. Later on, I started listening to Jerry Cantrell, SRV, Zakk, Dimebag, and even later, a lot of Santana, Gilmour, Clapton, Jeff Beck, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Hendrix, and Buddy Guy. I just dig the guitar, so if someone is playing and having fun (although they may not be that good), go for it.

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.

 

Bloomfield, Terry Kath, Stills and Young with the Buffaloes and after, Cooder, Zappa, Beck, Clapton and the two Jims (little Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan), Alvin Lee, Dave Edmunds, Tony McPhee, Bill Nelson, Rory Gallagher, Stevie Marriot, the list could go on and on - like somebody else said somewhere back aways, every guitarist I ever heard or played with had some influence, and still does to this very day.

You are always able to learn something.....

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In terms of who defines my playing style then I guess it's BB King. Not through any form of emulation but simply that's how I play and can't do it any other way (one day maybe I'll be a 10th as good and then I'll be happy)

 

In terms of influences over the years then the list is enormous - my earliest were Les Paul, the Sputnicks, Aker Bilk (yes I know he doesn't play guitar but the tone and phrasing of his playing somehow stuck), Lonnie Donagan, and Johnny Cash.

 

After that Steve Howe, Carlos Santana, Beck, Page, Et All

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i think the guitar player that most influences me (or that i wish i could play most like) is alex skolnick. i cant play anywhere near him but what he does with the guitar is truly amazing. he is probably the most skilled, technical and emotional player i know of. he can shred better than just about anyone out there but can put some real feeling in it

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