Marty Friedman talks technique

[Old School]

From last month's Guitar Player. I suppose you can file this on under "easy for him to say", but I think he's spot on:

GP: What do you tell fans when they ask you for advice?

MF: I tell them to stop practicing and start playing music. Play with your band, your buddies, and any other instrument you can. Play in the studio, play live - play all the time. The weakness is getting too hung up on technique. The strength is being able to play along with other musicians.  Don't be afraid of making mistakes. In fact, make even more mistakes. When you do something cool, take note. And don't do anything in the nature of practicing a technique.

GP: But aren't you considered a technical player?

MF: Yes, but only if "technical" means that I have my own style - not that I've mastered "book" techniques. I can sit in with any musician in the world and nail something with them, because I've been playing music for so long. But if someone were to ask me to play the Mixolydian mode at a metronome setting of 200, I probably couldn't. I never had the interest in doing such a thing, and, for the record, I dislike difficult-sounding guitar music. You're not going to wind up in the studio with Paul McCartney one day, and hear him say, "Alright mate, can you play some of those arpeggios a little faster?" There's no reason to get stuck on stuff that won't have any real-world application. I'd even go as far as to say that if any technique has a name on it - like "string skipping" - beware! You can do wonderful sweep picking in your bedroom, but if you play it inside a song, you can't follow changes, and it's absolutely useless. Learn to master rhythm. Rhythm guitar builds songs - not technical acrobatics.

[MAdX]

Word!
This should be in the dino handbook that we're making!

[ultrahomer]

YOU BETCHA!!!  It should be in the "forward" of the dino handbook... Unfortunately, this is the type of wisdom that most often appears only when one has years of hard experience under their belt.  IMO, This is THE BEST advice aspiring rock guitar players will ever get from anybody anywhere... It should be enscribed on a bronze plaque in front of the entrance to the "Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame".

P.S. - I can't resist saying it just once more: "Get out of your bedroom and into a band!"

[inmyhands]

Rhythm and "hooks" got me more band jobs than anything else.  I was lucky enough to have had at least 15 years of pre Van Halen time to create and play some great rhythm parts. VH pretty much changed what players expected out of themselves.

A lot of players left the stage to work on these techniques and attempt to bring themselves up to this level. Of course, while they were all home practicing ad nauseam live music and local bands pretty much took a dive. Full bedrooms and empty stages.

"Far Out hook line,man!" turned into "yaa, but can you play this?"

Watching "The Who" or "Free" or "BTO" or "Queen" should remind anybody of just how much fun and excitement a great rhythm stage presence can generate. Yes, some of these bands also offer great leads, but, a large portion of their "Hits" are based on some very cool guitar rhythm lines.

I'll never be as fast as VH, Yngwie, or Nobby for that matter. I practice techniques to maintain my skill level, but, I'm not wasting anymore time shooting for an unattainable, (in my case), speed goal. I was happier, played out way more often, and had much more fun when I didn't even know some of these "techniques" had names. I'm much better and, for that matter, more fun for people to watch when I just close my eyes and shoot from the hip.

A few mistakes while having a blast is preferable to perfection while missing the blast.

[otcconan]

Rhythm guitar builds songs - not technical acrobatics.

Sometime between Cacophony and today, he had that realization.  I'm willing to bet it.  I'm willing to bet he didn't come up with that idea on his own.  I'm willing to believe his time with Dave Mustaine taught him this.

In fact, if you watch the video of him when he first joined Megadeth, his right hand technique is nowhere near what it was later on.

[mr_crowley]

This is what I try to convience myself all the time, it is hard when you love to burn the fretboard but I am getting better for every day... 15 minutes a day of vibrato and bend training for two weeks definítely helped me to realize that I can´t go on with this... I must play music for gods sake!!

[Dynagod]

" i dislike difficult sounding guitar music"

WHAT!!!
Im sorry, but i have to call bullshit on this article.
for christs sake hes one of the most prolific users of exotic scales i can think of, but yet here he claims he cant play a simple mixolydian scale on demand!? comeon! he made a career out of difficult.
this mans entire career is based on anything but simple and non technical music..
And If he can play what he plays without concerted and focused effort on technique then hes a savant and his opinions on the matter don't apply to the rest of us who have to indeed practice long and hard..
People cannot play at the level of proficiency at which his songs/solos requires without focusing hard on the very thing hes downplaying..
 
BULLSHIT

[ultrahomer]

I respect what you say, Dynagod, but I'm staying with what I said in my previous post... "Unfortunately, this is the type of wisdom that most often appears only when one has years of hard experience under their belt."  AND, he has obviously reached that level of "hard experience", IMO...

[Dynagod]

I respect what you say, Dynagod, but I'm staying with what I said in my previous post... "Unfortunately, this is the type of wisdom that most often appears only when one has years of hard experience under their belt."  AND, he has obviously reached that level of "hard experience", IMO...

i wont argue with the fact that what hes saying is a definite altruism,

but coming from him its like a serial arsonist saying he doesn't like fire.

[mr_crowley]

I am with ultrahomer on this one...
Marty have probably been training technique for very long but after many, many years of experience he have discovered that it is more than just playing difficult and fast!!

[richierich]

His knowledge is vast though so lets not forget that either,he knows the fretboard inside out,he plays exactly what he wants to play.
I think what he is saying holds much truth,it makes sense not to learn techniques that aren't musically of use at least not too much,a little flash is good but it shouldn't be all the time or just for the sake of showing off.

I think perhaps you are catching what he is saying from the wrong angle a little Dynagod,if I read it right anyways,I think he is more on about technique than theoretical based technique because if he claims not to know what a mixolydian scale is then he is certainly lying through his teeth,I've watched his instructionals and he knows all that stuff without any shadow of a doubt,he talks about such a note over such a chord and to know that he knows the scales also.
He is more on about playing the mixo at high speed than knowing what the scale is.

[Breakfastime]

This isn't the first time I've seen him say that he doesn't know exactly what he's doing.

Sure-he's spent a LOT of time bringing his skills up to the level he's at.  But once you hit that point where you can technically perform whatever you want-then it's time to start fine-tuning what it is you want to play.

That's when scales and theory go out the window to be replaced by stuff like melody and songcraft.

It's like-once you master the alphabet-you stop thinking about the alphabet...and start thinking about words and sentences. Once you get that mastered...THEN you can write your book.

[mr_crowley]

This isn't the first time I've seen him say that he doesn't know exactly what he's doing.

Sure-he's spent a LOT of time bringing his skills up to the level he's at.  But once you hit that point where you can technically perform whatever you want-then it's time to start fine-tuning what it is you want to play.

That's when scales and theory go out the window to be replaced by stuff like melody and songcraft.

It's like-once you master the alphabet-you stop thinking about the alphabet...and start thinking about words and sentences. Once you get that mastered...THEN you can write your book.

Exactly!!
That is why you should learn the techniques... It makes your guitar work easier
Or as otcconan puts it learn everything you can and then forget it!!

[backinthevillage]

" i dislike difficult sounding guitar music"

WHAT!!!
Im sorry, but i have to call bullshit on this article.
for christs sake hes one of the most prolific users of exotic scales i can think of, but yet here he claims he cant play a simple mixolydian scale on demand!?

this is not a fair comment.  his point is not that he can't play a mixolydian scale, he's suggesting he may arrive there differently than consciously setting out to learn it as a mixolydian scale.  Twenty-four frets and six strings plus whatever the formula is for a mixolydian scale--there's nothing that rules out someone discovering it independently...

[richierich]

I really don't think he is talking about theory anyway.
Theory is just a way of tagging/naming something that exists,like you might find that putting a finger on the 7th fret of the second fattest string and then putting another finger on the 9th fret on the third fattest produces a nice stable chord under distortion,it doesn't change for someone telling you its an E5,or even telling you that it has only the root and fifth and that removing the 3rd makes it neither major or minor and more stable.
Having more theory knowledge should never hinder unless you let it dictate how you do things,it could help you out in a spot of bother,its just a way of naming.

Technique again only hinders if you start to shoehorn some Rusty Cooley style arps into a Bob Dylan style song simply because you have the ability and  even though it sounds like crap you convince yourself it sounds good.