Reckless with finesse all over the neck...

(That's me back in 1986: I'm showing off my Randy Rhoads guitar lick.)

The Shred of 1986...

Crossroads Ralph Macchio/Steve Vai, not that stupid Britney Spears movie, changed my life back in 1986... I became disciplined from then on and while everyone was learning Eruption like my other fellow guitar player friends, I was trying to figure out why Steve Vai couldn't and wouldn't play any wrong fucking notes... lol I mean Steve plays reckless, flawless and with all that finesse all over the neck and not one bad fucking note and that was just kicking my ass...lol To me it was the quest of learning how could I apply that to my playing rather than learn his solos note per note... I still do that till this day... Visualize the whole fretboard instead of seen little patterns of licks.

Here's my phases:

Rock to me meant: youthful/attitude... Classical is discipline... Blues is soulful/feel... Country is dance... and Jazz well it using all those bad notes and making them work... What would be dissonance (wrong, out of key notes) for all four styles now becomes passing tones for Jazz... Jazz is the shit IMHO... That's why Jazz is an acquired taste and to some listeners they just can't stand it and of course there are sorts of Jazz too... There's good and bad.

(Les Paul and Django Reinhardt: These shredder guitarplayers go back to the 50's and are two of the fastest guitarplayers of all time and remember there was no distortion)

I remember a while back when I could play those fast Yngwie minor scales licks but couldn't comprehend how to play Honky Tonk Woman... In my mind I was like "How the fuck did they do that" and I would try and nothing and it was embarrassing just trying...LOL I knew I could play faster than Keith Richards but I couldn't play this simple opening signature riff that was in G major pentatonic that was soo tastefully done and sounded so fucking cool... So there I go again banging my head against the wall and a new quest and I realized that Keith Richard possess a magic that's very hard to duplicate and that's why he's definitely a master of his tone.