Overused guitar techniques

[Miskatonic]

Are there any guitar techniques that you find popping up all over the place when it comes to recorded music which you are tired of?

For me it would be artificial harmonics in metal music, specifically when not used in solos.

Something like, chug chug chug chug squeal, chuggah chuggha chug chug squeal squeal. The new Danzig album is a perfect example.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

Are there any guitar techniques that you find popping up all over the place when it comes to recorded music which you are tired of?

For me it would be artificial harmonics in metal music, specifically when not used in solos.

Something like, chug chug chug chug squeal, chuggah chuggha chug chug squeal squeal. The new Danzig album is a perfect example.

That's because Danzig pretty much lost his edge.  Not to mention, from what I understand, he writes most of his own music by himself, and he's not exactly a guitar whiz.  It's probably the only riff he knows.  ccasion14:

FWIW, I love Danzig's stuff up to Danzig IV, but anything after that just seems to...suck.  The only halfway decent album since then was Satan's Child, IMO...

 

[back2thefutre]

You mean pinch harmonics? ......wait are p.h. artificial harmonics? I guess they are since you are fretting and picking up the harmonic at an artificially shorter node length, at the opposite side of the strings in this case. huh. Overdone.... yes but Zakky Wyldey does them way too much every two seconds in a good way :icon_thumright:


I think the double bass drum thing is done way too much these days.

 

[pabloman]

I'd like to vote for sweep picking and harmonized solos. But interestingly enough I love Avenged Sevenfold :dontknow:

 

[Miskatonic]

Are there any guitar techniques that you find popping up all over the place when it comes to recorded music which you are tired of?

For me it would be artificial harmonics in metal music, specifically when not used in solos.

Something like, chug chug chug chug squeal, chuggah chuggha chug chug squeal squeal. The new Danzig album is a perfect example.

That's because Danzig pretty much lost his edge.  Not to mention, from what I understand, he writes most of his own music by himself, and he's not exactly a guitar whiz.  It's probably the only riff he knows.  ccasion14:

FWIW, I love Danzig's stuff up to Danzig IV, but anything after that just seems to...suck.  The only halfway decent album since then was Satan's Child, IMO...

Yeah I'm the same when it comes to Danizg. Satan's Child and Circle of Snakes are the only things he's done past IV that I like.

 

[Velcro]

I think strumming's used far too much these days.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

You mean pinch harmonics? ......wait are p.h. artificial harmonics? I guess they are since you are fretting and picking up the harmonic at an artificially shorter node length, at the opposite side of the strings in this case. huh. Overdone.... yes but Zakky Wyldey does them way too much every two seconds in a good way :icon_thumright:


I think the double bass drum thing is done way too much these days.

I used to like Zakk Wylde's playing, but, I dunno, his music just seems so one-dimensional.  If you've heard one BLS record, you've heard'em all; smoking, drinking, drugging, and just the same basic song with different lyrics thrown over it.

 

[kboman]

Bends.


And +1 for pinch harmonics/squealing.

 

[AutoBat]

i like pinch harmonics
i like double bass drums
certain bands may over emphasize aspects, but a broad enough spectrum usually clears up the field.

semi-unrelated: autotune has ruined plenty of songs

 

[stubhead]

There are a few people who can tap two-handed with some sort of interesting musical idea behind it - Satriani and Jeff Beck (of course Stanley Jordan) come to mind. But for the most part, as soon as someone starts tapping, they all sound alike. And the wah-wah pedal is the absolute anti-talent toy, there's just nothing left to do with it that hasn't been beat to a pulp. I also have a personal dislike for the Digitech Whammy pedal, but some people like them - it must be a lot more fun to play than to listen to. And if I was the guitar tech for a star who used a talk box, I think I'd "accidentally" hook the 120 watt Engl output to it in the hopes his skull would explode.... :evil4:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I'm no authority on the subject, atleast not until the internet made me one.  Anywho, there are multiple tools, tips, techniques that aren't necessarily over done, just used incorrectly.  There is nothing inherently wrong with a whammy bar, but I don't care for C.C. DeVille's use of it.  Nothing wrong with a wah either, though I prefer Slash's use of it to Tom Morello's.  The pinch harmonic thing, ZW certainly didn't invent it though he may be credited for wearing it out.  IDK, that's just his thing.  Can't imagine him w/out it, and I'm a ZW fan.  If it's overdone now by other people, maybe he influenced them.

 

[Jusatele]

I think what the problem is, it is not the technique you object to, it is the over use in a style of music you like. This then makes you want not to listen to the style of music which is changing.
well that is a problem that causes all of the styles of music to go out of popularity.
Every time a Band becomes successful, Media Giants clone that exact sound to make money off of it. Suddenly the market is flooded with a sound, it has been happening since the time they started to record music. One of the problems you have today is they have fractured the marketing of music into micro formats. You have metal stations, pop stations, punk stations, hard rock stations, classic rock stations, and the list go on. so in order to offer a variety of bands to each genre they need a plethora of bands playing a vary narrow style of music.
Fortunately this was not the case when I was growing up, we had just rock stations, or c&w, or oldies which were big band stations. So we got every style of music on the rock station,  from Beach boys to Led Zeppelin, Captain and Tenele to Black Sabbath, it all came down one pipe and you only had room for the best in each Genre as they all were competing for a number one spot on the same board, not one that had room for a zillion styles.
So it is not the over use of the style, it is the fact that 80% of those bands should never have gotten a recording contract anyway. Except for corporate greed.

 

[stubhead]

There's always a push/pull between consolidation and creativity. It's just economics that the music on the radio, as defined by the media giants like Clear Channel, is either the creative original stuff - Hendrix, ZZ Top, U2 etc., or the consolidators like the Black Crowes, Coldplay, Cheryl Crow... of course you can hear the influences of Hendrix, the Beatles and all, but they put things together that had never been mixed that way before. Buddy Guy could do a stellar job on "Red House", but he sure never wrote "Night Bird Flying" or "The Wind Cries Mary."

Sell 'em what they bought before. This has also got to be true in putting the bands together that are hoping to make serious money - if you auditioned for a metal band, surely they'd want to hear "your sweep thing" and "your tapping thing." The scouts that feed bands to the machine always claim to be looking for the next big ORIGINAL thing, but whenever they find  a potentially Big Thing that's creative, they're too weird for the record companies! Which is one of the many, many reasons the big companies are dinosaurs just waiting for their comet. And you have a zillion guitarists like Guthrie Govan, who can ride anything with fur but doesn't really seem to know what to DO with it. And great guitarists like Joe Bonamassa, still singing about freight trains and bad women what done him wrong*, because if he wrote songs about flat tires and hotel bedbugs they'd be even dumber than what he's doing now! :toothy12:

*(If you made a list of the greatest rock bands who made their bones with songs about bad women what done 'em wrong, you'd surely get the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin and the Eagles right at the top. And if you made a list of the greatest rock bands who banged more groupies in a totally throwaway style, at the top of the list you'd get, ummm... the Allman Brothers, Zepp and the Eagles. Don Henley was reputed to fall in love just so he could break up, just so he had something to write songs about!)

 

[line6man]

I think strumming's used far too much these days.

That, and the use of chords. Way too many guitarists are playing chords these days, I'm tired of it! :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Velcro]

I think strumming's used far too much these days.

That, and the use of chords. Way too many guitarists are playing chords these days, I'm tired of it! :icon_jokercolor:

Picking too, I mean, everything that that can be done with picking has been done and beat to a bloody pulp.

 

[elfro89]

Everything. I'm pretty turned off when it comes to any kind of instrumental guitar music. Too much show boating and wankage. I'm a really hard guy to impress when it comes to displays of technique. I much prefer an amazing execution and production then trying to upstage your fellow musician.

Without going into one of my annoying rants it bugs me more then it should when I hear people say the music I listen to is boring, obviously referencing the lack of technical playing and lack of Dream Theater style odd time signatures as the reason. I'm an extremely strong believer in the, "its not what you play, it's how you do it" Theory.

More people need to appreciate simpler music. Dream Theater fans are usually the ones that annoy me most cause all the ones I know are up their own arse about the music DT make. In my opinion, odd time signatures that don't sound odd and fool you into making them flow is much more interesting then listen to something that sounds out of time because of it skipping a beat.

 

[Justinginn]

I agree about picking being overused. There's definitely some room for mariachi/flamenco strumming in other genres of music. The biggest tragedy is the way double bass drums are used. When used tastefully and rhythmically (not straight 16th notes for an entire song) they can sound great but the vast majority of players will only use them for that tasteless metal thing, which never sounds very good.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Elfro, that kind of shocks me.  I thought you were more into the Dream Theatre, Guitar Instrumental, Math Rock stuff.

 

[elfro89]

Elfro, that kind of shocks me.  I thought you were more into the Dream Theatre, Guitar Instrumental, Math Rock stuff.

I don't outright hate that sort of music, I do like it and can appreciate it but a large portion of the fans I know need to stop being so bigoted about it. I hate the "technical and more complex music is better attitude," that they keep firing my way. I'm just sorry they are too busy blinding themselves to really appreciate how amazingly executed some music is, from the song writing right down to the composition and production.

For instance the new Fleet Foxes album Helplessness Blues has really captured my imagination. There is nothing hugely complicated from a technical angle but that doesn't matter, the sun shines out that bands ass as far as I'm concerned. Having said that I'm not gonna say that simpler music is superior cause that would be the other side of the coin. I do think that Helplessness Blues is a great example of top class song writing, composing and production which is what makes it such an interesting album for me.

It's kind of hard for me to really explain exactly what it is that throws me off certain things, I have too many unfocused thoughts about it all. 

 

[m4rk0]

Dream Theater fans are usually the ones that annoy me most cause all the ones I know are up their own arse about the music DT make.

well, you just dont get it!  :tard: :sad1:

Seriously, I consider myself to have a very broad taste, but I think it is safe to say that prog rock and (some) prog metal is my favorite genre.

I can really enjoy weird unpredictable music with crazy time signatures one day and some straight forward 3 chord 4/4 music the next...