A poll about sloppy playing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Metalhex
  • Start date Start date

If you can play something but its sloppy, can you actually "play" it?

  • Yes you can play it, it's just sloppy. Page was sloppy so F off!

    Votes: 23 46.0%

  • If you can't play it cleanly, then you can't play it yet. (Het would laugh at those gallops)!

    Votes: 27 54.0%
  • Total voters
    50
Back in the late 1970's, a neighbor gave me a TEAC reel to Reel . I was able to slow down Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Alvin Lee, Michael Schenker , Alex Lifeson, EVH , later Randy Rhoads, SRV, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch or Joe Satriani .

I play with my buddies and we do lots of covers from those guys and I do them verbatim.... regardless if it's Dimebag Darrell or Neil Young .

Yeah, some people may think that I am " Show Boating" .... screw them, I playing the music they way it's writen and recorded, out of respect of the original artist and the audience that pays to get away from life for a little while .

And to put down other guitarists that aren't as technical, isn't cool either .
 
There are a lot of levels in between the two.

You should be able to play something with a fair degree of articulation and solid timing to claim you can play it. But not everything has to be played to a Vai or Govan level of laser precision. Some styles of playing can be a little loose, and still sound/feel the way they're intended. Others sound like dog shit if you don't pretty much nail it. The important thing is that you're not lying to yourself about where you stand in that realm.

I always try pretty hard to make sure my timing is on point, my vibrato isn't complete garbage, and not be sloppy on fast/tricky runs. I try be consistent putting in time with a metronome so I don't drift too far into thinking I'm playing better than I am, but I generally don't spend weeks obsessing over the clarity and execution of every single note. Occasionally I'll be recording something that I'm not happy with, and I'll go down a rabbit hole with getting it right.

I'm always learning bits & pieces of difficult tunes to play, that expose some of the weaknesses in my playing.
 
cobrahead1030 said:
There are a lot of levels in between the two.

You should be able to play something with a fair degree of articulation and solid timing to claim you can play it. But not everything has to be played to a Vai or Govan level of laser precision. Some styles of playing can be a little loose, and still sound/feel the way they're intended. Others sound like dog shit if you don't pretty much nail it. The important thing is that you're not lying to yourself about where you stand in that realm.

I always try pretty hard to make sure my timing is on point, my vibrato isn't complete garbage, and not be sloppy on fast/tricky runs. I try be consistent putting in time with a metronome so I don't drift too far into thinking I'm playing better than I am, but I generally don't spend weeks obsessing over the clarity and execution of every single note. Occasionally I'll be recording something that I'm not happy with, and I'll go down a rabbit hole with getting it right.

I'm always learning bits & pieces of difficult tunes to play, that expose some of the weaknesses in my playing.
Click to expand...
If one doesn't do it right .... why do a cheese version of the song .
 
I can play fairly clean at home, but at practice or the gig, the sauce gets to me. ?
 
I feel there are two types of Sloppy....

Sloppy due to feel
- Fretting out the last note of an epic sweaty solo doing a "face".
- Small mistakes in the heat of the performance

Sloppy due to lack of ability
- Disconnected left and right hand
- No feel
- Predictable patterns
- Trying to play too fast
 
Some good points in here. Some of my fav players are sloppy or somewhat sloppy guys but it is all relative - isn't it? As I have gotten older I really appreciate the fundamentals more and many other types of players and guitar parts in songs that I was not interested in during my formative years. I try now to be more fundamentally sound and am conscious of it more but I think fundamentals like rhythm, tempo, pitch, and execution are really built up in your younger years. I have thought about working with a metronome too - maybe I should. We are all our own worst critic and I was never a shredder anyways. But I do think about it.

Anyway - I think if you are sloppy in the right way (like Keith Richards) it is all good. I love Jimmy Page for his songwriting and riffs etc. His earlier work was better execution wise but I thought as time went on and the drugs took over his guitar parts became more background oriented and less ballsy.
 
I was always going for the precise playing but I kind of adjusted. If it`s just for fun, I don`t care anymore. Before every not well hit note drove me insane and it kind of killed the fun.
Nowadays it can be sloppy as I just play for fun, but I wouldn`t dare to go to the studio with that approach. So yeah, I guess just have your fun and play sloppy and adjust when it has to be adjusted, which either means don`t play the difficult stuff or practice when you are heading to the studio etc.
 
I lean towards "yes" - but slop is a pretty big spectrum honestly

I guess what I mean is the answer varies depending on how sloppy we're talking

 
Haha I'm pretty sure that guy is faking it because when he starts playing slide it sounds very out of tune, almost like he purposely made the strings out of tune.
 
DemNuts said:
Young and hungry. What a great live band at their peak 70-72.

1973
Tour started great but the shows became hit or miss as it wore on. Too many shows on consecutive nights.
Between the travel and 3 hour shows they just burned out. Future shows were much better planned, but....
1975
Band set up camp in 3 cities based on the leg, and then would fly to cities the days of a concert. No more
multiple consecutive nights which left Jimmy and Bonzo too much free time for bad habits.
Page started drinking too much over the course of the 3.5-4 shows and most encores were pretty bad.
Heroin started creeping in too.
1977
Page is a full blown heroin addict by now. 3 cities again, NY-Chicago-LA. Except for a few shows that were
pretty great, most were not good and a number of them are embarrassing.

TL;DR

Led Zeppelin peaking. Thanks for the video @RaceU4her
Click to expand...

What was that from? I need a good laugh. I think the only reason that band was "good" live in the day was the audience was on drugs...always a terrible band. Would have been a nightmare to have to suffered through that period :(
 
Play cleanly. Practice half your top speed. My guitar teacher shreds. he is ridiculous (he has taught Ola Englund, Ben Eller) and he states when learning he only plays 50%. That way you have good tone and play it clean. Speed will come with muscle memory.

Gary Holt even said something similar in his instructional vid. Basically don't play more than your capabilities. I would rather hear something slower, cleanly played, with good finger tone vs sloppy faster studf.
 
animal said:
What was that from? I need a good laugh. I think the only reason that band was "good" live in the day was the audience was on drugs...always a terrible band. Would have been a nightmare to have to suffered through that period :(
Click to expand...

I agree they weren’t great later on but that vid I posted from 1970 is an insufferable nightmare?? I’d call it four incredible musicians in their prime firing on all cylinders but that’s just me
 
Diary of a Axeman said:
Back in the late 1970's, a neighbor gave me a TEAC reel to Reel . I was able to slow down Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Alvin Lee, Michael Schenker , Alex Lifeson, EVH , later Randy Rhoads, SRV, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch or Joe Satriani .

I play with my buddies and we do lots of covers from those guys and I do them verbatim.... regardless if it's Dimebag Darrell or Neil Young .

Yeah, some people may think that I am " Show Boating" .... screw them, I playing the music they way it's writen and recorded, out of respect of the original artist and the audience that pays to get away from life for a little while .

And to put down other guitarists that aren't as technical, isn't cool either .
Click to expand...
Post up a video clip of your playing. Anything less means you are full of shit. If you post and it’s as good as you say, I’d be the first to praise you.

Let’s start off with any full Yngwie song, followed up by a Vai song and a SRV song.

Betcha you don’t post up a video.
 
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A poll about sloppy playing​


Is there any other kind ? I read people mentioning that it's possible to play clean but I just can't see it .
 
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