John McLaughlin and Steve Morse are without a doubt the two guitarists who spent the most time banging around inside my skull in search of a neuron, so I've spent a lot of time listening to the violinists in the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the Dixie Dregs. I am also a huge fan of "real" violin music, there are about a dozen violin concertos that are at the top of any list of great classical music and you might notice the violins do most of the heavy lifting in symphonies, too. And then there's the Indians... Kala Ramnath, L. Shankar, yikes!
One problem came about when certain guitarists like Ritchie Blackmore and Yngwei Malmsteen kind of adopted the whole "Paganini sold his soul to the devil" schtick and began wearing puffy shirts and prancing about, then some violinists (notably Mark Wood, who teaches this shit) adopted that back from the guitarists. Pretty soon everybody from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra & the Blue Man Group to Madonna & Pink had to have a violinist, prancing demonically about & screeching... don't blame the instrument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1xlEUmjVc&feature=related
One problem came about when certain guitarists like Ritchie Blackmore and Yngwei Malmsteen kind of adopted the whole "Paganini sold his soul to the devil" schtick and began wearing puffy shirts and prancing about, then some violinists (notably Mark Wood, who teaches this shit) adopted that back from the guitarists. Pretty soon everybody from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra & the Blue Man Group to Madonna & Pink had to have a violinist, prancing demonically about & screeching... don't blame the instrument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1xlEUmjVc&feature=related
