I'm one of those who have perfectly clear...

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

...that the quality of music isn't and shouldn't be measured in notes per second, as many (specially very young) instrumentalists think. But aside from that, I mean, from a strictly technical standpoint, this guitar player is absolutely impressive. Check him out! If you want to skip the introduction, the demonstration goes from 2:57 to 8:24.

[cjmodulus]

I saw this a while ago. it's pretty darn impressive. yeah, it's not all about technique, etc. I get that, but you have to admire the guys technical prowess.

[JimK]

That piece requires speed.

Notice the total economy of motion he has goin' on.
Not a bit of wasted energy.

[geoff_in_nc]

Yes he's very fast. I skipped from I think 170 to 300bps, because I had an idea what was going to happen. When he gets up to 300 or 320 bps, it would just be noise if it weren't for the accompaniment.

I'm sorry, the guy's evidently got killer chops. Now he just needs to use them to make MUSIC. FROM WHAT IS ON THIS VIDEO (and this is ALL I've ever seen of him) he appears to be more an athlete than a musician. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, if that's what you want to do, but I'm trying to think of the last song I paid for that was at 320bps.... and there wasn't one. If this is what floats someone's boat, then fine. But it doesn't draw me in.

You know in art (i.e. drawing/painting) they don't give a hoot about who can draw the world record longest most perfect straight line freehand. In sculpture, nobody cares if you can make a perfectly flat surface in a hunk of marble with just a hammer and chisel. Why do musicians - and in my experience anyway, guitarists in particular (and I used to be one) have this obsession with speed?

Why has musicianship become an athletic competition?

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by geoff_in_nc

Yes he's very fast. I skipped from I think 170 to 300bps, because I had an idea what was going to happen. When he gets up to 300 or 320 bps, it would just be noise if it weren't for the accompaniment.

I'm sorry, the guy's evidently got killer chops. Now he just needs to use them to make MUSIC. FROM WHAT IS ON THIS VIDEO (and this is ALL I've ever seen of him) he appears to be more an athlete than a musician. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, if that's what you want to do, but I'm trying to think of the last song I paid for that was at 320bps.... and there wasn't one. If this is what floats someone's boat, then fine. But it doesn't draw me in.

You know in art (i.e. drawing/painting) they don't give a hoot about who can draw the world record longest most perfect straight line freehand. In sculpture, nobody cares if you can make a perfectly flat surface in a hunk of marble with just a hammer and chisel. Why do musicians - and in my experience anyway, guitarists in particular (and I used to be one) have this obsession with speed?

Why has musicianship become an athletic competition?

Originally Posted by Alvaro Martín Gómez A.

...that the quality of music isn't and shouldn't be measured in notes per second, as many (specially very young) instrumentalists think. But aside from that, I mean, from a strictly technical standpoint, this guitar player is absolutely impressive. Check him out!

As you can see, I totally agree with you. Good music and blazing fast speed aren't bonded. And it makes me sick when people judges the quality of a musician by how many notes he/she can play per second or, in the case of brasswind players, the highest pitch he/she can get out of his/her instrument. But aside from that, I think nobody can deny that this guy's control over the instrument is mind-blowing. In other words, this thread isn't about musicianship since it's going to end in the same old (and valid) discussion, for sure. It's just about technical prowess, and this guy is a great example of it.