- Aug 21, 2008
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I agree! I appreciate his technique, even if I don't care about a lot of his music. I do like Holdworth and McLaughlin and Fripp though.
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Yngwie Malmsteen = Interesting Bass
- Thread starter BestBass4Metal
- Start date
I agree! I appreciate his technique, even if I don't care about a lot of his music. I do like Holdworth and McLaughlin and Fripp though.
I was a big fan of Yngwie for about 30 minutes, then I felt like he'd played every possible note combination in Western music. No doubt he's talented, I just find him very unlistenable after awhile. I will say, however, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, check out his work on the G3: Live in Denver DVD, especially during the G3 jam. He completely smoked both Vai and Satch, and they knew it and were happy to be a part of it!!!
Yngwie is an excellent guitarist. He also plays what he wants the bass to do in his songs. While I'm not a huge fan of his music now, I still can listen to and appreciate what it is that he's doing. I wish I could say that for the music my kids listen to...
- Aug 21, 2008
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Wow, he got chubby!
He has nice economical right and left hand technique.
Those drums gotta go.
This one is good.
I have always enjoyed Yngwie's material, well at least some of it, but not for the basslines. Barry Sparks was a good bassist for Malmsteen.
Overall his material is hit and miss. I love the first album, fire and ice, Facing the Animal (saw that tour) and most of the instrumentals he has done over the years. "Blue" in particular is really good. But too much generic metal in his new stuff. The symphonic album he did a few years back was pretty good as well.
Overall his material is hit and miss. I love the first album, fire and ice, Facing the Animal (saw that tour) and most of the instrumentals he has done over the years. "Blue" in particular is really good. But too much generic metal in his new stuff. The symphonic album he did a few years back was pretty good as well.
His good stuff is really good; the bad stuff is really bad = definitely polarizing. Love his bass playing with his good stuff! His first Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force and Trilogy had great bass sounds.
Cool replies from everyone so far, especially the Wally Voss story! I didnt really want to touch on the feel/emotion vs. speed playing debate. That stuff has been argued over and over on all the guitar forums and most of the youtube Yngwie videos and it doesn't seem to get anywhere. For me personally I like the melodies in Yngwie's playing but I also like most of the violin concertos from which that style is derived. So if you don't feel that style then you may not find it melodic or pleasing which is also cool. Anyhow, I don't really listen to the Yngwie releases after the Alchemy disc since I felt they were kind of lacking. The early stuff was magic though, especially Rising Force and trilogy. Being a fan of 80s hard rock I even like the Steeler and Alcatrazz records a lot though many people don't.
son_of_mogh said:
Agreed. Read somewhere that he plays a short scale bass in the studio. Is this cheating? (chuckle)...
- Aug 21, 2008
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This is a good point. Unfortunately many guitarist think if music isn't based on the blues, it has no feeling. But that's only one kind of feeling. And it's often contrived and cliché.
There are all kinds of emotions and all kinds of music. I find most blues to be pretty banal. It all tends to sound the same, and the format is very limiting. I mean you can take almost any blues solo and drop it onto another blues song as long as they are in the same key! But it's fairy easy to play, so it gives players that sense of immediate gratification. They can sound like some other player playing the same form of music.
It's fine for what it is, but there's a lot more interesting and challenging forms of music out there. Same can be true of bassist that insist that everything must groove. Everything does, but it's not always funky. I think Bach wrote some wonderful bass lines, and they groove just fine. And I'd rather listen to Gentle Giant than any blues based music. And it's funky too.
Yngwie is doing more of a classical thing, and that's perfectly viable. It's not uncommon in that form of music to have virtuosity for the sake of virtuosity. When you become accustomed to hearing fast melodies you can hear the beauty in them. It's like anything in life ... sometimes you take a nice leisurely stroll, and other times you run as fast as you can!
At some point in their life, every musician should compose something that they can't play, and then learn how to play it. I was a classically trained tubist, and in that world that's how it is. You didn't just play what you are comfortable with, you learn difficult pieces. Music can be a lot of hard work, but in the end it's very rewarding.
i take lessons from his current bass player he also just did some tour dates with him.. ...one awesome humble nice of a guy!...its been years since i took lessons and figured i needed it since im older and some extra time a new band that is not that serious so i figured id take lessons and use those lessons towards the new band and experiment a little.
Yngwie's a brilliant player and writer, and I always loved his bass playing. It's gratifying that at least the early part of his career took place when it was at least OK to be a virtuoso rock musician.
