What makes a great guitarist?

[MAPRamone]

Originally posted by Shaun Ponsonby
I'm not questioning Vai's technical ability...my Alan, he can fookin' SHRED the FUCK out of most.

BUT...

He seems ro have no emotion in him whatsoever. I'm pretty sure if his entire family died in a massacre after being held hostage by raving lunatics, he would just go "ah, well...these things happen".

I hear the 'lack of emotion' criticism of Vai often and i can't help but feel that a lot of it stems from the fact he is not a bluesy guitarist. When you compare him to SRV, sure he comes up short in that style. However i just think he's expressing emotions in a different vein or expressing different emotions altogether. I can certainly find emotion in his stuff, but when you approach his music, keep in mind he's a Zappa protege. That's where the weirdness comes from, and like in Zappa's case i relish it.

[nosuchluck]

Exactly. Well said.

[fe_lung]

Restraint. Never use 30 notes when one will do.

[Shaun Ponsonby]

Originally posted by MAPRamone
I hear the 'lack of emotion' criticism of Vai often and i can't help but feel that a lot of it stems from the fact he is not a bluesy guitarist. When you compare him to SRV, sure he comes up short in that style. However i just think he's expressing emotions in a different vein or expressing different emotions altogether. I can certainly find emotion in his stuff, but when you approach his music, keep in mind he's a Zappa protege. That's where the weirdness comes from, and like in Zappa's case i relish it.

There's been plenty of non-blues guitarists over the years who have had emotion of any sort. I've yet to feel it from Vai. Robbie Krieger is a flamenco guitarist for ALAN's sake. Plenty of metal guitarists get the emotion in a song (whether it be aggressive or softer) perfectly...and less and less of them are coming from blues backgrounds. Even Zappa got his emotion right ("Yo Mama" for example).

Vai rarley does (at least as far as I can tell).