Do you think guitar solos & improvisation will return to mainstream music?

Will guitar improv ever make the mainstream again?

  • Nah, shut up and listen to the lyrics & composition.

    Votes: 7 30.4%
  • Someday the younger kids are gonna play as many notes as Al DiMeola.

    Votes: 16 69.6%

  • Total voters
    23
I play in a jam band. Follow a lot of jam music. There is plenty of improvisation out there to be had. I'm not sure about mainstream music, but mainstream music was never really improv based.

Listen to this if you want to hear some good modern rock improv. This band is the truth. Everything after 4:00 into this video is entirely made up. Not just the solos but the chord progressions, structural changes, basslines etc as well. (Also PRS content)


I love Umphrey's McGee, both their guitar players kick ass, they even state Al D as one of their main influences in an interview. They've been around and do the college circuit thing, but I wouldn't consider them modern rock, they're a jam band. One of the bright spots for musicianship in recent times.:top:

"mainstream music was never really improv based"....Well, yes & no. If you just say pop, then I guess it is no, but rock from it's inception had improv in it's DNA from it's blues roots. All those Chuck Berry & Little Richard riffs started out as improv and they just stuck with them so they became standardized licks, "Rock around the clock" has a guitar solo. The Beatles and british invasion groups had some improv and a lot of pre orchestrated stuff, while hard rock, early metal, and a fair amount of even pop had sax,keyboard,or guitar solos during certain periods. So blues & jazz (*to me*) are the only "improv based" music forms, but it has always been a part of mainstream rock's roots at least until the 90's.

PS-Is jam band music just called "Jam music"? cause that's improv based too.:biggrin:
 
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I believe that, guitar improv and extended solos have NEVER really held sway in " mainstream" music, when Cream were ripping it up in the Royal Albert Hall '68 the theme from the good the bad and the ugly was number 1, the week of the guitar legends concerts in Seville 1991 was oddly a good week for rock, with Bryan Adams and The Scorpions holding number 1-2 spots.
but would I say that overall, guitar gymnastics have never really troubled the charts.
now is the best time for music, now is the best time for guitar, I love prog rock, I get 2 podcasts I download each week, 6 hours of music every week of new and already loved bands!!!! All playing my kinda music, imagine that in 1992 when I started playing!!!!!
i use subscription music services, I can listen to hours of fresh technical emotional, guitar oriantated music everyday.
This is the golden age of music.
 
this whole post is a blast from the past but especially the taylor swift stuff. look what you made her do!

Will the big bands make a comeback? Will the horse and buggy replace the automobile? Will the oven replace the microwave?

And yet we still have trombones and buggies and ovens. There will always be a place for the guitar, but as the main instrument in popular music, "stick a fork in it", it's done.

I was giving a guitar lesson last week and the kid and his mother wanted a new song to practice. "Sure, what song would you like?", I asked. "Wildest Dreams" - Taylor Swift. So I looked it up on YouTube. 145 million views. It was two chords, the fundamental and the relative minor. That's it. All the way through. There was little structure to the music, and no guitar. Just a framework to play a video over. I happened to glance at another Taylor Swift song in the list of available songs on the screen. It had 1 billion 2 hundred and 22 million views. How does a good blues tune with 20 thousand views maybe, compete with that? I have nothing against Taylor Swift. If that is what the people want, so be it. But it doesn't bode well for the guitar. Computer generated music will be the mainstream until something new runs it over.
 
When people get tired of the drivel currently out there we'll be back. It's just not very good right now for guitar but didn't guitar playing started out, as a an accompanying instrument, not a lead?
 
It might be nice to see labeled jam bands make a resurgence where guitarist trade leads and improvisation occurs again, ala the Allman Bros, Phish, some prog bands, etc. I think with YT and free streaming music services the sun has set on that era, and may be a while until we see jam bands again, at least in music labels, because of the limited bandwidth we're allowed for posting freely available music.

That being said, trading leads and improvisational jamming is alive and well in the gigging circuit, and always will be. No bandwidth is required, the only thing you need worry about is whether the venue has enough food or drink and utilities to allow the show to go on.
 
Wow, this old thread has legs.

Good to see folks still concerned about these kinda things but I don't think the younger generation is gonna change until people get bored with how well someone can talk instead of sing, program a synth sequence or drum machine.

I always run into young people that swear they only listen to older organic music and hate today's sounds as much as me, I just don't know if there are enough around to start a non-programmed music revolution.
 
love this take... I read in Guitar player that the guitarist for Marroon 5 had zero solos on the new record. I also saw Hozier this week and he was good. hook city. Not one solo the whole night.
A friend of our drummer was listening to one of our recorded practices. One of his comments reminded me of Tip’s post...”I wish the guitarist would just riff more and do less of 1-2 note stuff”. o_O It prompted me to go into a tantrum solo I call, “Hangry” just to blow it back in his face. Kids...:rolleyes:
 
time has shown ‘hozier’ is without merit and a well-executed 1-2 note solo is a thing in itself.

A friend of our drummer was listening to one of our recorded practices. One of his comments reminded me of Tip’s post...”I wish the guitarist would just riff more and do less of 1-2 note stuff”. o_O It prompted me to go into a tantrum solo I call, “Hangry” just to blow it back in his face. Kids...:rolleyes:
 
Wow, this old thread has legs.

Good to see folks still concerned about these kinda things but I don't think the younger generation is gonna change until people get bored with how well someone can talk instead of sing, program a synth sequence or drum machine.

I always run into young people that swear they only listen to older organic music and hate today's sounds as much as me, I just don't know if there are enough around to start a non-programmed music revolution.

I think there will always be a niche for singing, as evidenced with various talent shows broadcast on TV. Perhaps the ironic part is that people often increase their voice volume when they aren't singing! I think sound amplification technology has progressed quite well during the past century, though the niche for programmed synth or drum machines is more of a club scene that a more universal one such as sound amplification.

I think the urban club scene is more influential regards synth or drum machines, and perhaps had its roots in the late 70's with disco dancing. What grew out of the that was the 80's and 90's rave clubs, none of which interested me personally.

TBH, I think there will always be the blues, jazz, and some form of rock music, be it classic rock, hair band rock, grunge, or emo. One can never accurately foretell the next generation's defining music until we grow into it, or something interesting is revealed, and some band(s) from a particular area of the country or world sets the pattern for us to follow. It's alway been this way with how music has grown and matured into its own over the years, and as our children grow and mature they will also bring into this world and take with them what defines them as a generation.

Who we are may be immaterial, until a group of talented musicians steps up to the stage and the audience agrees this is the musical direction we should follow.

I personally don't 'hate' certain musical forms per se myself, though my preferences may lean towards what I know and what people might identify with. I don't expect people to swallow everything that that is given to them, but to reach people there are specific elements that must be present before a gig becomes successful. 1) Food. 2) Drink. 3) Music. 4) Receptive Audience.

If what you give an audience is received well, you've done a good portion of your job already. :)
 
tbh, i prefer taylor to today’s ariana grande; a liar doesn’t agree.

Truth be told, I like beautiful sunsets, and cool breezes, but doesn't everybody, or do people argue how beautiful a sunset is? Everybody has their own style, I'd say.
 
sure. and yet, does expressing an opinion either way derail the monologue?

Truth be told, I like beautiful sunsets, and cool breezes, but doesn't everybody, or do people argue how beautiful a sunset is? Everybody has their own style, I'd say.
 
I've played guitar and bass since high school (about 20 years) and I can't shred to save my life, but I still grew up on metal and shred guitar back in the late 80s/early 90s. Even the old bands that I loved have that weren't metal like Faith No More, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and others had some creative guitar work and solos to their music. That said, things will probably never be what they were with music constantly evolving and blending itself together at a faster and faster rate now that everyone worldwide is digitally connected.

There's still a lot of bands (and new bands) that are going strong but it's not front page like it was in the past. Music is not promoted like it used to be and the play lists on all the rock stations around me haven't changed literally in like 20 years or more and they almost never play anything new or from any new groups. Most kids only know what they can find on Youtube now because the radio is becoming obsolete in a way. Besides, why would most kids with millennial and after attention spans and take the time to learn guitar when they can boot up a laptop and draw the music in on Ableton Live?

-k
 
tbh, i prefer taylor to today’s ariana grande; a liar doesn’t agree.

Truth be told, I like beautiful sunsets, and cool breezes, but doesn't everybody, or do people argue how beautiful a sunset is? Everybody has their own style, I'd say.

sure. and yet, does expressing an opinion either way derail the monologue?

Is either Taylor's or Ariana's music rooted in the blues? I've personally listened to neither myself. Could you enlighten me?
 
ts music is written by her swedish superproducers and sometimes other celebrity songwriters, and sounds like pop country cheerleading chants. ag music is more like ‘pop idol’ warbling over club ballads with trap-lite lyrical sentiment. so neither is freddie king but in the sense that all major key pop is rooted in r&b, yes.

Is either Taylor's or Ariana's music rooted in the blues? I've personally listened to neither myself. Could you enlighten me?
 
ts music is written by her swedish superproducers and sometimes other celebrity songwriters, and sounds like pop country cheerleading chants. ag music is more like ‘pop idol’ warbling over club ballads with trap-lite lyrical sentiment. so neither is freddie king but in the sense that all major key pop is rooted in r&b, yes.

Thanks, the R&B part is what I was waiting for. Add a third singer, and you'd have 3 heads...o_O
 
I've played guitar and bass since high school (about 20 years) and I can't shred to save my life, but I still grew up on metal and shred guitar back in the late 80s/early 90s. Even the old bands that I loved have that weren't metal like Faith No More, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and others had some creative guitar work and solos to their music. That said, things will probably never be what they were with music constantly evolving and blending itself together at a faster and faster rate now that everyone worldwide is digitally connected.

There's still a lot of bands (and new bands) that are going strong but it's not front page like it was in the past. Music is not promoted like it used to be and the play lists on all the rock stations around me haven't changed literally in like 20 years or more and they almost never play anything new or from any new groups. Most kids only know what they can find on Youtube now because the radio is becoming obsolete in a way. Besides, why would most kids with millennial and after attention spans and take the time to learn guitar when they can boot up a laptop and draw the music in on Ableton Live?

-k

I guess during my music education (and journey) my life with guitar began with Pete Townshend's music. From Live at Leeds onwards. Fascinated by his chording and note choice. My Dad detested it. Anyway, when I began guitar lessons in the mid-90s, my journey was derailed from simply copping tunes by listening to albums and CDs. It began with a study of the blues. My guitar teacher thought to teach me Satriani. I was like, WTH is this? Had never heard it before.

Fortunately, the teacher was open-minded and taught me the blues and blues rock. I began researching blues musicians and compiled a decent library of blues songs from guitarists across all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life. Ones with decently recorded tunes, mind you. The ones with bad audio I shunned.

While I'll occasionally listen to the radio for classic rock, there are only a few college stations locally that play old blues and jazz. Mebbe an eclectic station that has a wide selection of odd B-side tunes you'd never heard before.

I think I've got about 16 hours of blues tunes in its own playlist, as well as others that didn't make it to the playlist.

Anyhow, after the sun sets, the blues is one way I identify with my roots as a student of guitar. What you may not see on stage, the awkward guitarist with the cool shades trading licks over an A-Minor 12 bar blues, my local audience may hear playing classic rock / folk / blues cover tunes with the house band at our local open-mic.

Blues music is a gift we've been given that describes the joys and sorrows of life, both happy and sad, a balance of light and dark, for guitarists and people to appreciate because it help them feel the message the music provides, and what the musician is saying to them with his style of playing.
 
ts music is written by her swedish superproducers and sometimes other celebrity songwriters, and sounds like pop country cheerleading chants. ag music is more like ‘pop idol’ warbling over club ballads with trap-lite lyrical sentiment. so neither is freddie king but in the sense that all major key pop is rooted in r&b, yes.

Actually Swift wrote most of her songs, and (at least) co-wrote every song on her albums...

https://mic.com/articles/134174/who-writes-taylor-swift-s-songs#.OsjHWPvT5
 
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