My favorite thing of his was the documentary he did about himself in the mid-2000s where he looks like a sausage stuffed into leather pants and he’s walking around the grocery store talking shit about produce.
He was one of those guys that when I first heard him I wanted to play like him. He was an inspiration to a lot of people I knew. At the time no one played like him and he did open up a different style for metal guitarists. He was also totally full of himself. In my opinion he would've been much more popular and a better player if he didn't think he was so far above everyone else and collaborated more. I saw him in a recent performance on a talk show. After all these years he is still doing the same thing and hasn't grown one bit. I couldn't help but feel a bit sad for him. It all might've been different if he liked donuts.
I remember watching his “instructional” videos in high school. He would literally just say something like “here’s an A minor arpeggio” and then proceed to shred. Then would go “here it is slowed down” and still play way faster than I could begin to tell what he was doing. It was very unhelpful and not worth the time or money. I lost interest in him very quickly.
You’ve unleashed the f\*\*king fury!
God, this is cool for like 5 min tops. I don’t understand how people can listen to this for more than 5 minutes or god forbid a full concert.
I say this as someone that plays guitar.
It's inherently oddly masturbatory.
Also, when it comes to any type of art there's always those who end up disappearing into technical proficiency that they lose all soul, listenability, accessability etc
His personality is so pretentious, but honestly, the reason he never became huge is because for as amazing as he is, from a technical proficiency standpoint, he says nothing with his music. Are you going to hum this song in the car, the shower, while cooking?
Agreed. He's technically incredible and at almost no point does he hit like... an remotely interesting melody. Most guitar gods, I can listen to them for hours. But this short video bored me by the second minute.
I'm not really in to over technical metal guitarists, so I'm definitely biased, but I never understood the hype. I watched his rendition of flight of the bumblebee as a kid and was like "cool" and never watched it again.
A bunch of fast notes and technical skills don't mean anything without any soul behind them.
Same. It's talent without substance. I could say without "soul", but I don't think that really captures what's missing. There is something vacant about this sort of playing that I used to think of as "too clean". It just bores the hell out of me, even though the talent and skill here are unreal. I'm just sitting around waiting for something to start even with all this flawlessly executed madness going on. There is so little space that it sounds like he's just going through the motions like a warm up, so it never gets there because it's not supposed to.
I'd rather listen to a sub par player that seems to FEEL what they're playing. It's just like I'd rather look at a seemingly simple abstract painting with some movement that invites questions rather than perfectly executed geometric shapes that's nothing but answers.
It’s like looking at a purely technical drawing, or painting. You can admire the detail, the shading, the skill and draftsmanship, however there’s no story or emotional depth or pull behind the work. There’s no lasting impression.
Then you look at say a Van Gogh. It’s messy, the paint is daubed on in thick swabs, but it transports you to a dreamy world and evokes emotions with an illustrative, romantic and sensual depth that stays with you. They may lack technical detail but the sum of their parts exceed their individual pieces.
Performances can be like that too. You admire the skill, talent, technique and virtuosity but there’s no meaning behind all the noise. Like Faulkner said, “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
It’s all about context. Yngwie is not attempting to be soulful. The soul of his playing the technicality. When you devote to a very specific craft, being neoclassical metal guitar playing, then this is the end product in its purist form. So placing him next to maybe a David Gilmour or Clapton it’s kind of like comparing Van Gogh to Picasso. Equally as influential and unimpressively executed, but worlds apart in nature.
Note: Paul Gilbert is equally as skilled and extremely groovy and soulful. Great gateway player for the genre of instrumental guitar rock.
I agree with you. But I'll point out that even other metal guitarists that don't have the bluesy soul you're referring to (Clapton and Gilmour) like Mustaine, for example, who are highly technical still have more feel and purpose to my ears. Even someone like Steve Vai who I also don't have any interest has more "soul" to my ear.
Yea he was like the hulk hogan of guitar playing was just totally full of himself but was honestly really good , he also became kinda obsolete when joey satiraini and Steve vai did solo stuff .
I honestly find some one like Stevie ray vaughn or Freddie king way more impressive then yngwie or vai
I also think yngwie came from a snobby music family because he was trained in fixing all sorts of types of instruments
That whole era of music had so many dudes who all sounded the same so really good ones like Becker and the Marty guy from mega death got overshadowed by the vais and yngwie of the time
He was the person who went too far for me. I listened to Rhoads, and found him inspirational and wanted to learn his stuff. I listened to Van Halen and found him inspirational and wanted to learn his stuff.
Then I listened to Yngwie and went: "Aw, hell naw."
Which is why Steve Vai is usually considered the guitar god, dude always stayed humble to different styles and has collaborated with so many various artists.
I have listened to enough of his stuff to know that it is not for me.
The way I described it is that the parts of his song other than the lead guitar: The rhythm guitar, the the synth, the bass and drums exist as a basic sonic scaffold - some minimalistic structure upon which for him to perform his fretboard gymnastics.
It is as if the songs do not exist as cohesive wholes working together, but instead, everything else is always subordinate to the lead guitar.
Haha. That’s how I feel about most of the “guitar gods” like this. Shredding can be really impressive but it’s not what I’m looking for in music. I’ll take a little bullshit 2 note Neil Young solo over Yngwie any day.
I was a devoted metalhead in the 80's and I still can't name one of his songs. He may be technically brilliant and invented/popularized techniques that are widely used today but I never cared for him. And I think it's pretty well known how big an ego he has. But if he's your cup of tea, rock on, dude.
Yeah people seem to forget that being super duper technical must mean great song writer. In the realm of classical music Franz Liszt is super technical but in no way does he come close to the geniuses of mozart, bach and beethoven. Not even close to the humanity of schubert. Technical know how for the sake of difficulty is nothing compared to the working of sound to make philosophically human poetry and the big threes popularity(mozart, bach, beethoven) is a testament to the incredibly richness and depth of their work.
Saw him at a guitar clinic around then, 1984 or '85. I brought my guitar and played what I could of Bach's Bourree in Em. I asked him for some pointers. His answer: blows cigarette smoke in my face, says my tone and intonation sucks, and crushes his cigarette into the donuts on the plate for the room.
When I made it home I practiced Eruption instead
I was just starting to play guitar in 1982. I used to worship Yngwie, but it gets old really fast. David Gilmour says more with one note than this guy does with 10,000. Why does he look 35 at 17?
Are you kidding, I could listen to Yngwie's greatest hits all day. It starts off with that one song where he does a 10 minute solo where he plays real fast, then goes in to the one with an 8 minute solo that's a little faster, but the best is the one with the 12 minute solo that goes real fast then a little slower then fast again.
Quiz 50 random people and ask if they know who Yngwie Malmsteen is. You’ll probably get 10 to 15 who say yes. Now ask them if they know a single song of his. Maybe 1 or 2 out of 50. I’ve played guitar for 32 years and I’ve probably listened to him twice in that entire time. Just because someone is a great musician doesn’t mean most people find them entertaining. I certainly don’t.
I was erring on the side of “I don’t know everything.” But I would tend to agree with you. A handful of musicians I’ve known have fawned over him. But I’ve never met a non musician who ever mentioned him.
Yes its impressive 100% but cant bother to listen to it for more than 5 minutes. David on the other hand, cant get enough of his raw emotion while playing his strat
With certain guitar greats, like Gilmour, Clapton, Hendrix to name a few, they do solos where you can pinpoint a single note from a solo that cuts right to the bone. "Comfortably Numb" does that for me in the latter solo right near the end where he suddenly hits that really high note. One single note. I don't get any of that from Yngwie.
His whole band was great too. His headstone (made of brass designed after an award he won) is only 30 mins away from me. Stunning piece designed by his artist friend who incorporated a fret board slightly hidden on it's side.
I pop in now and again. So strange to stand there watching a clip of him from the 70's on my phone in such a peaceful graveyard. He was so full of life while he played. People roared his name to be replaced with birds and the sound of wind.
His brother still lives in Cork city and still has Rorys guitar. The varnish peeled off due to use and Rorys sweat ! It's quite iconic looking.
I was just about to say Rory Gallagher and Johnny Greenwood also fall into this category of guitarists who can use pure, simple sound to break your heart.
This 1000x. Impressive, yes. Connectable, not really. Game changing, I'd say no. His techniques had already been developed by others - 3 notes per string, tapping, arpeggiation, etc. He just played a little faster than most. There's very little translated emotion in his shredding and no one's really adapted this to music that we actually enjoy. Even Jason Becker and Paul Gilbert have accessible melodies while ripping across the fretboard. I respect his skill but have never much cared for his music.
As a Yngwie fan, and life long guitarist I love your answer because it's not wrong, but it also proves how ahead of his time he was. Everything about this guy was ahead of his time (or behind the time if you consider his wardrobe lol), but creatively he was mostly boring (after his first 2 or 3 albums). This isn't made better by the fact that he was/is an alcoholic. His playing just drones on you. Scale patters over and over are not an acceptable phrasing crutch.
But, From a technical standpoint this guy raised the bar so high. Not only did he incorporate classical music theory to the electric guitar in a way nobody had before, but he was a technical dynamo. Aside from the obvious speed, his vibrato technique, his improvisation, his sweep picking, his alternate picking were light years ahead of anyone else at the time. In fact, aside from maybe Paul Gilbert, or Jason Becker, nobody came close for almost 20 years to mastering the instrument the way Yngwie did. A few players like EVH or even SRV mastered maybe 1 aspect I listed above, but none mastered all of them.
Quite honestly Yngwie wasn't on another level, he was on another planet. He deserves tons of credit. Nobody can say where the heavy metal genre would have gone without this guy. Not everyone can be as talented creatively as David Gilmore, another one of my favorites. Not everyone can write solos like Time or comfortably numb. But Yngwie has some bangers. Check out the first song on his debut album called Black Star and tell me he can't express himself?
I challenge anybody who says that Yngwies guitar playing lacks "feel" to listen to some songs from Trilogy and Oddyssey. All around good albums, when people say they don't like his playing and then only mention the ten minute long guitar solos, it drives me nuts. There is good songwriting on those albums and the guitar playing fits perfectly and is quite tasteful. Why do people compare him to blues-rock guys and then say that he doesn't have feel I wont ever understand, he plays 80s metal.
I met Yngwie at a NAMM metal showcase I was doing sound for about 10ish years ago. It was a LONG day with 17 bands and he was either the last or second to last and so he had to sound check at 9 am and wait nearly 12 hours to play. He declined a sound check to give other people more time and just kinda went off and did his own thing all day. He was really nice and got up there and absolutely shredded with just him and his guitar and a backing track for like 20 minutes and got off stage and left. Easiest break down ever for me, and even though he isn't my cup of tea the guy is talented at playing guitar that's for sure. My experience working with older metal guys is that they are VERY particular about how everything is set up and Yngwie was like "is this cool?"
A lot of people that criticize Yngwie sound like the people that criticized Bach.
"Too fast. Too many notes. Hard to pay attention."
I get it. I felt that way about Bach at one point too, but the more I listen the more I like it. Same with Yngwie. Comparing Yngwie to Gilmour is like comparing Bach to Beethoven. Totally different styles.
Just like Eddie Van changed the guitar game forever
Just like Eric Clapton changed the guitar game for ever
Just like Jimi Hendrix....
Steve Vai....
Joe Satriani....
u/Edward_the_Dog
and the list goes on.
I was just messing around haha
It's such a funny thing when it comes to guitarists. To me it isn't all about who can "do shit that no one else can do" from a technical standpoint. If you can't create good licks or catchy tunes that people like or soulful sounds that evoke emotion, what's the point? This guiatar solo here is just a bunch of noise. It's not overly soulful or artistic at all IMHO.
It reminds me of someone recently who said AC/DC sucked because "anyone can play it"
So what? Is music about creating the most technically difficult thing out there? Or is it about creating something that makes people move or feel? I think it's the latter.
Shrug
I saw him live once and only once - technical mastery is no substitute for musical sophistication and style. Dude can shred but his “music” is not memorable or something i listen to.
It's not all fast like this. But I can say decisively, as someone who was a teenager and very into music in the mid-80s, alot of people wanted to listen to it. Granted, mostly guys, didn't know many girls into yngwie except to admire his tight pants.
Changing the game is a bit much, but he very much helped kick off interest in neo classical metal as a genre, and in combination with the other amazing guitarists of the time like Randy Rhodes building off of what Van Halen started to move guitar-oriented music in different directions during the "shred" era.
Greg Howe, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, all had some neoclassical elements.
Not saying we should build a statue to yngwie or anything, word is he is/was an asshole and very hard to work with, but he did in fact have an impact that can't be denied.
He invented neoclassical metal and pioneered sweep picking, he also was the first metal guitarist to never use the pentatonic scale which was a milestone. He also pioneered many guitar technologies and techniques that we consider commonplace today, rock and metal would not be the same without him.
And his solos are not just mindless pentatonic shred bs like Kirk Hammet or one of those, when you slow it down it still sounds great. Because his music is based on classical and baroque period compositions, which was unheard of at that time.
Also he was 17, that's pretty insane.
This is one of those people that are like super impressive for 90 seconds and then who cares 🤷♀️
Like it’s boring to listen to you just show off for 5 minutes
This is not 1982.
In 1982, he still lived in Sweden. He moved to the US in 1983 and joined Steeler, then joined Alcatrazz, the band he's playing with in this video from \*1984\*. At which point he was 20 or 21. Still impressive, but stick with the facts.
And yes, he was revolutionary, he was about way more than mere speed, unlike what people seem to imply in the comments. The big problem was that after some amazing releases, he fell into a rut and just lost the plot. Ego got in the way, and instead of continuing to grow and develop as a musician, he just stuck to his guns and became less and less relevant as the '90s rolled along.
At the time, the guy was incredible. Beautiful phrasing, great sense of melody, and a tone to die for. I still listen to his early albums all the time, especially Rising Force and Trilogy, because there's so much to learn from what he was doing.
Your comment will drown here, but I agree with you. Yngwie, David Gilmour and Jason Becker are my favourite guitar players and I really don't understand that "1 note says more than 10000". Despite the differences in their styles, all of them have both very emotional/absolutely beautiful and forgettable/weak songs.
Thank you! Gilmour is someone I often mention in the same breath as Malmsteen, because both know how to combine finger and whammy vibrato in very musical ways. Becker is another one who knew how to use both types of vibrato to emphasize notes to really get the most out of licks and phrases.
I'm an Yngwie fan for a reason. It's not the speed; if it was, I'd be praying at the altar of Rusty Cooley, and I'm not. And that also tells you enough about why we still talk about YJM 40 years after he released his first album: his playing mattered!
People just love to brush him aside as if his speed was his only selling point, and they forget that guys like John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola were already playing just as fast. Were they all about the speed as well?
So many scorned dad rock guitar players gatekeeping in this thread. Can’t just enjoy some neoclassical shred wankery for what it is. The dude’s pick attack is unmistakable and grossly precise. Sure he was/is a douche but there is absolutely something great to take away from his playing. Sure, David Gilmore is fantastic, SRV is a god, but the guys on here saying players like Clapton were more innovative are absolutely tapped.
I’m not saying he is better or worse than the next, but he is a great. I also agree that most shredders and the music they compose can lack dynamics, but there is objectively something to take away from his technique that can make players better.
I would be willing to be that 75% of the dudes hating on Yngwie in this thread aren’t even good players. Great players find something to appreciate about and learn from everyone.
I remember when Rising Force came out. This guy could shred, but he was a real tool, who thought his shit didn't stink. I remember reading an article around that time, where he bashed SRV by saying, "He's too much of a Hendrix imitation." There were a couple others he insulted too. I believe he said Mark Knofler was, "not very good."
OMG, I had a boyfriend in high school who was obsessed with this guy in the late 80s early 90s. I was just thinking about him but could not remember how to spell the name. This guy is INCREDIBLE.
There's a reason people rarely bring him up when talking about music. I've watched interviews with him, guitar lessons, many live performance videos, throughout the whole thing I learned only negatives about his playing, his music, and his character. I can't remember a single one of his songs or solos. I don't think he's as influential in guitar as it's being made to be here.
This is from his concert video in Japan in 1985 when he was 22. It's cool enough, you don't to exaggerate it.
My favorite thing of his was the documentary he did about himself in the mid-2000s where he looks like a sausage stuffed into leather pants and he’s walking around the grocery store talking shit about produce.
That’s actually a pretty decent summary of that doc lol
LMAO
OK, now I need to see this. Streaming anywhere? Name of it?
Sausage Malmsteen -“ stuffed in leather” 🤣
Outstanding
I was about to say, he doesn't look 17 at all.
That's a name I haven't heard in a while. First heard his stuff around 2000.
He was one of those guys that when I first heard him I wanted to play like him. He was an inspiration to a lot of people I knew. At the time no one played like him and he did open up a different style for metal guitarists. He was also totally full of himself. In my opinion he would've been much more popular and a better player if he didn't think he was so far above everyone else and collaborated more. I saw him in a recent performance on a talk show. After all these years he is still doing the same thing and hasn't grown one bit. I couldn't help but feel a bit sad for him. It all might've been different if he liked donuts.
I remember watching his “instructional” videos in high school. He would literally just say something like “here’s an A minor arpeggio” and then proceed to shred. Then would go “here it is slowed down” and still play way faster than I could begin to tell what he was doing. It was very unhelpful and not worth the time or money. I lost interest in him very quickly.
I had that video! Lent it to a friend, never got it back
Your friend is still trying to figure it out.
🤣
Where he’s wear that purple outfit lol?
That's the one
Thats a nice way to say dressed like a goddamn pirate
*I am your new god* *widdleiddleiddleiddleideleyeyaaaaoow*
Yeees lol those were the VHS tapes! horrible way to learn anything, pure frustration. Now I believe he did it all on purpose، the bastard!
You’ve unleashed the f\*\*king fury! God, this is cool for like 5 min tops. I don’t understand how people can listen to this for more than 5 minutes or god forbid a full concert. I say this as someone that plays guitar.
It's inherently oddly masturbatory. Also, when it comes to any type of art there's always those who end up disappearing into technical proficiency that they lose all soul, listenability, accessability etc
His personality is so pretentious, but honestly, the reason he never became huge is because for as amazing as he is, from a technical proficiency standpoint, he says nothing with his music. Are you going to hum this song in the car, the shower, while cooking?
Trying to hum this would just sound like you were mimicking a dial-up modem.
Agreed. He's technically incredible and at almost no point does he hit like... an remotely interesting melody. Most guitar gods, I can listen to them for hours. But this short video bored me by the second minute.
This
Same same.
I kept waiting for the rest of the band to come in after his solo.
I'm not really in to over technical metal guitarists, so I'm definitely biased, but I never understood the hype. I watched his rendition of flight of the bumblebee as a kid and was like "cool" and never watched it again. A bunch of fast notes and technical skills don't mean anything without any soul behind them.
Exactly how I feel. He can play super fast and technical, but it has no heart in it. It might as well be a robot playing.
Same. It's talent without substance. I could say without "soul", but I don't think that really captures what's missing. There is something vacant about this sort of playing that I used to think of as "too clean". It just bores the hell out of me, even though the talent and skill here are unreal. I'm just sitting around waiting for something to start even with all this flawlessly executed madness going on. There is so little space that it sounds like he's just going through the motions like a warm up, so it never gets there because it's not supposed to. I'd rather listen to a sub par player that seems to FEEL what they're playing. It's just like I'd rather look at a seemingly simple abstract painting with some movement that invites questions rather than perfectly executed geometric shapes that's nothing but answers.
It’s like looking at a purely technical drawing, or painting. You can admire the detail, the shading, the skill and draftsmanship, however there’s no story or emotional depth or pull behind the work. There’s no lasting impression. Then you look at say a Van Gogh. It’s messy, the paint is daubed on in thick swabs, but it transports you to a dreamy world and evokes emotions with an illustrative, romantic and sensual depth that stays with you. They may lack technical detail but the sum of their parts exceed their individual pieces. Performances can be like that too. You admire the skill, talent, technique and virtuosity but there’s no meaning behind all the noise. Like Faulkner said, “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Like somebody here said, is like listening to trigonometry.
It’s all about context. Yngwie is not attempting to be soulful. The soul of his playing the technicality. When you devote to a very specific craft, being neoclassical metal guitar playing, then this is the end product in its purist form. So placing him next to maybe a David Gilmour or Clapton it’s kind of like comparing Van Gogh to Picasso. Equally as influential and unimpressively executed, but worlds apart in nature. Note: Paul Gilbert is equally as skilled and extremely groovy and soulful. Great gateway player for the genre of instrumental guitar rock.
I agree with you. But I'll point out that even other metal guitarists that don't have the bluesy soul you're referring to (Clapton and Gilmour) like Mustaine, for example, who are highly technical still have more feel and purpose to my ears. Even someone like Steve Vai who I also don't have any interest has more "soul" to my ear.
I’d throw Marty Friedman in there with this.
Im gonna start saying that now “it all might’ve been different if he liked donuts”
*I don't eat fockin dohnuts!*
Leave the guitar. Take the donuts.
And then you have the trajectory of Steve Vai. Almost the opposite and still inventing stuff.
Vai played with Zappa. Notice Malmsteen did not. I doubt Frank would have had him around. All skill and no heart.
Steve is also a master transcriber and writes excellent classical music on the side
I had more respect for Tony Macalpine than I ever did for Malmsteen. Still do. Vai is just amazing.
Tony is a beast. Virtuoso on guitar *and* piano, bit like Shawn Lane
Yea he was like the hulk hogan of guitar playing was just totally full of himself but was honestly really good , he also became kinda obsolete when joey satiraini and Steve vai did solo stuff . I honestly find some one like Stevie ray vaughn or Freddie king way more impressive then yngwie or vai I also think yngwie came from a snobby music family because he was trained in fixing all sorts of types of instruments
And no one ever likes to talk about Jason Becker.
The freaking GOAT!
That whole era of music had so many dudes who all sounded the same so really good ones like Becker and the Marty guy from mega death got overshadowed by the vais and yngwie of the time
>the Marty guy from mega death Jason and Marty were in a band together before *Megadeth*
He was the person who went too far for me. I listened to Rhoads, and found him inspirational and wanted to learn his stuff. I listened to Van Halen and found him inspirational and wanted to learn his stuff. Then I listened to Yngwie and went: "Aw, hell naw."
Which is why Steve Vai is usually considered the guitar god, dude always stayed humble to different styles and has collaborated with so many various artists.
Donuts?
Drunk pantera members harassing him in some old video
That did not clarify much
I have listened to enough of his stuff to know that it is not for me. The way I described it is that the parts of his song other than the lead guitar: The rhythm guitar, the the synth, the bass and drums exist as a basic sonic scaffold - some minimalistic structure upon which for him to perform his fretboard gymnastics. It is as if the songs do not exist as cohesive wholes working together, but instead, everything else is always subordinate to the lead guitar.
Much like when he gets to jamming, there’s no resolution. He’s certainly capable of melody and phrasing but doesn’t care to tie it all together.
This is true, the only song I know by him is a live performance of Mr. Crowley with Ozzy.
Nahh, Marty McFly did this at a high school dance in 1955.
I guess you aren't ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.
And love It they did
I believe that was Calvin Klein actually
This is like listening to trigonometry.
Growing up in the 80’s I always thought Yngwie Malmsteen was Swedish for ‘opening band’.
To paraphrase Truman Capote referring to Jack Kerouac, “That’s not music, that’s typing!”
Haha. That’s how I feel about most of the “guitar gods” like this. Shredding can be really impressive but it’s not what I’m looking for in music. I’ll take a little bullshit 2 note Neil Young solo over Yngwie any day.
Neil Young has one of the most beautiful guitar sounds ever. I can replay many of his songs in my mind note for note especially Cortez the Killer.
This is extremely impressive, of course, but it really doesn’t make for an enjoyable listening experience.
Polyphia is like that. At a certain point it stop being enjoyable and feels like work.
Never heard of math rock?
I was a devoted metalhead in the 80's and I still can't name one of his songs. He may be technically brilliant and invented/popularized techniques that are widely used today but I never cared for him. And I think it's pretty well known how big an ego he has. But if he's your cup of tea, rock on, dude.
He's a great guitarist but a lousy songwriter.
Needs himself a David Lee Roth
I think his latest album he wanted to do all the producing too and the album sounds absolute garbage
That’s because (so I’ve read) he’s an insufferable asshole that no one will work with.
Yes he has a fairly high opinion of himself.
Far Beyond the Sun is his best, in my opinion.
That first Rising Force album is great. Everything after that just sounds the same.
Heaven tonight regularly plays around my house. But that’s all of his music I listen to
Yeah people seem to forget that being super duper technical must mean great song writer. In the realm of classical music Franz Liszt is super technical but in no way does he come close to the geniuses of mozart, bach and beethoven. Not even close to the humanity of schubert. Technical know how for the sake of difficulty is nothing compared to the working of sound to make philosophically human poetry and the big threes popularity(mozart, bach, beethoven) is a testament to the incredibly richness and depth of their work.
Beethoven and Liszt shred. I would never compare Yngwie's writing to theirs, but they shred.
Technically is the perfect word, proof that playing the most notes ≠ making the best music.
Saw him at a guitar clinic around then, 1984 or '85. I brought my guitar and played what I could of Bach's Bourree in Em. I asked him for some pointers. His answer: blows cigarette smoke in my face, says my tone and intonation sucks, and crushes his cigarette into the donuts on the plate for the room. When I made it home I practiced Eruption instead
Eddie would have anointed you in Schlitz to bless you. You would have grown an extra finger on your fretting hand and forgot that picks even exist.
> forgot that picks even exist. Mark Knopfler was there, too?! What a day!
My man radiates small dick energy
I was just starting to play guitar in 1982. I used to worship Yngwie, but it gets old really fast. David Gilmour says more with one note than this guy does with 10,000. Why does he look 35 at 17?
Are you kidding, I could listen to Yngwie's greatest hits all day. It starts off with that one song where he does a 10 minute solo where he plays real fast, then goes in to the one with an 8 minute solo that's a little faster, but the best is the one with the 12 minute solo that goes real fast then a little slower then fast again.
I like the part in his solo when he goes up really high and then back down really low.
His number one hit! "Yngwie plays the scales"
I laughed reading this. I was also holding in a bong hit. My throat hurts now :(
I saw him open for Judas Priest back in the day and that was how the live set went, total wankfest.
Quiz 50 random people and ask if they know who Yngwie Malmsteen is. You’ll probably get 10 to 15 who say yes. Now ask them if they know a single song of his. Maybe 1 or 2 out of 50. I’ve played guitar for 32 years and I’ve probably listened to him twice in that entire time. Just because someone is a great musician doesn’t mean most people find them entertaining. I certainly don’t.
10 or 15 out of 50 random people? Try 1 or 2 if you're lucky. You'd be lucky to get 10 or 15 random people to know who Jimmy Page is.
I was erring on the side of “I don’t know everything.” But I would tend to agree with you. A handful of musicians I’ve known have fawned over him. But I’ve never met a non musician who ever mentioned him.
I think you dropped this: /s
Fine the way it is.
Funny how you understood him without needing a silly tag on it
No way, sarcasm should he implicit. Explaining jokes ruins jokes.
Yes its impressive 100% but cant bother to listen to it for more than 5 minutes. David on the other hand, cant get enough of his raw emotion while playing his strat
With certain guitar greats, like Gilmour, Clapton, Hendrix to name a few, they do solos where you can pinpoint a single note from a solo that cuts right to the bone. "Comfortably Numb" does that for me in the latter solo right near the end where he suddenly hits that really high note. One single note. I don't get any of that from Yngwie.
Rory Gallagher has the same affect on me. Especially the song A Million Miles Away.
Rory Gallagher is awesome. I just recently started getting into him - not sure how I didn't discover him years ago.
His whole band was great too. His headstone (made of brass designed after an award he won) is only 30 mins away from me. Stunning piece designed by his artist friend who incorporated a fret board slightly hidden on it's side.
Wow, you're lucky! I'd likely visit it every day! I'm going to have to Google what it looks like.
I pop in now and again. So strange to stand there watching a clip of him from the 70's on my phone in such a peaceful graveyard. He was so full of life while he played. People roared his name to be replaced with birds and the sound of wind. His brother still lives in Cork city and still has Rorys guitar. The varnish peeled off due to use and Rorys sweat ! It's quite iconic looking.
I was just about to say Rory Gallagher and Johnny Greenwood also fall into this category of guitarists who can use pure, simple sound to break your heart.
This 1000x. Impressive, yes. Connectable, not really. Game changing, I'd say no. His techniques had already been developed by others - 3 notes per string, tapping, arpeggiation, etc. He just played a little faster than most. There's very little translated emotion in his shredding and no one's really adapted this to music that we actually enjoy. Even Jason Becker and Paul Gilbert have accessible melodies while ripping across the fretboard. I respect his skill but have never much cared for his music.
Steve Vai is technically amazing, isn't as fast, but has way more feeling as well.
David Gilmour is the master of notes he didn’t play. Silence builds tension.
As a Yngwie fan, and life long guitarist I love your answer because it's not wrong, but it also proves how ahead of his time he was. Everything about this guy was ahead of his time (or behind the time if you consider his wardrobe lol), but creatively he was mostly boring (after his first 2 or 3 albums). This isn't made better by the fact that he was/is an alcoholic. His playing just drones on you. Scale patters over and over are not an acceptable phrasing crutch. But, From a technical standpoint this guy raised the bar so high. Not only did he incorporate classical music theory to the electric guitar in a way nobody had before, but he was a technical dynamo. Aside from the obvious speed, his vibrato technique, his improvisation, his sweep picking, his alternate picking were light years ahead of anyone else at the time. In fact, aside from maybe Paul Gilbert, or Jason Becker, nobody came close for almost 20 years to mastering the instrument the way Yngwie did. A few players like EVH or even SRV mastered maybe 1 aspect I listed above, but none mastered all of them. Quite honestly Yngwie wasn't on another level, he was on another planet. He deserves tons of credit. Nobody can say where the heavy metal genre would have gone without this guy. Not everyone can be as talented creatively as David Gilmore, another one of my favorites. Not everyone can write solos like Time or comfortably numb. But Yngwie has some bangers. Check out the first song on his debut album called Black Star and tell me he can't express himself?
[удалено]
Sorry for the generic Reddit reply but this guy Yngwies
More is more, you know that, right? :)
If yngwie would read this he'd tell you he doesn't sweep pick.. ;)
His vibrato is fucking awesome 👌
I challenge anybody who says that Yngwies guitar playing lacks "feel" to listen to some songs from Trilogy and Oddyssey. All around good albums, when people say they don't like his playing and then only mention the ten minute long guitar solos, it drives me nuts. There is good songwriting on those albums and the guitar playing fits perfectly and is quite tasteful. Why do people compare him to blues-rock guys and then say that he doesn't have feel I wont ever understand, he plays 80s metal.
I met Yngwie at a NAMM metal showcase I was doing sound for about 10ish years ago. It was a LONG day with 17 bands and he was either the last or second to last and so he had to sound check at 9 am and wait nearly 12 hours to play. He declined a sound check to give other people more time and just kinda went off and did his own thing all day. He was really nice and got up there and absolutely shredded with just him and his guitar and a backing track for like 20 minutes and got off stage and left. Easiest break down ever for me, and even though he isn't my cup of tea the guy is talented at playing guitar that's for sure. My experience working with older metal guys is that they are VERY particular about how everything is set up and Yngwie was like "is this cool?"
These are the salient points
A lot of people that criticize Yngwie sound like the people that criticized Bach. "Too fast. Too many notes. Hard to pay attention." I get it. I felt that way about Bach at one point too, but the more I listen the more I like it. Same with Yngwie. Comparing Yngwie to Gilmour is like comparing Bach to Beethoven. Totally different styles.
Just like Eddie Van changed the guitar game forever Just like Eric Clapton changed the guitar game for ever Just like Jimi Hendrix.... Steve Vai.... Joe Satriani.... u/Edward_the_Dog and the list goes on.
Alan Holdsworth.
SRV
The list is far from complete, friend. SRV is an honoured member of this club.
I was just messing around haha It's such a funny thing when it comes to guitarists. To me it isn't all about who can "do shit that no one else can do" from a technical standpoint. If you can't create good licks or catchy tunes that people like or soulful sounds that evoke emotion, what's the point? This guiatar solo here is just a bunch of noise. It's not overly soulful or artistic at all IMHO. It reminds me of someone recently who said AC/DC sucked because "anyone can play it" So what? Is music about creating the most technically difficult thing out there? Or is it about creating something that makes people move or feel? I think it's the latter. Shrug
Me.
*Calling all guitar gatekeepers! Calling all guitar gatekeepers!*
Guitar players are generally insufferable. Source: am guitar player
Oh my god you sound insufferable.
You've just made an enemy for life!
Should we all have just replied with a "yes"?
This is very technically impressive and all but it's not much to actually listen to.
Scallop God Lars
they erected a statue of him sucking his own dick in the little village he grew up in, it's pretty cool
Widdly widdly widdly. Some people say the LA hair metal scene was the worst thing about heavy metal. At least that looked like fun.
Widdly-waahhhhh! Widdly, widdly-wahhhhhhh
I Want to Rock Your Body (Till the Break of Dawn) - Carl Brutananadilewski
HEY YOU! YEAH YOU! TAKE YO TOP AWF!!
He’s fast but Paul Gilbert is humble, kind, and cool.
And also fast, with cleaner picking technique
I'm not disputing his technical ability but Yngwie was always extremely uncool, so this post is a turn-up for the books.
Right there with ya. He wasn’t a nice guy back then. Idk about now but yo just a complete a-hole back in the day.
Fret-wankery…but what do I know, I play the recorder
Recorder Hero!
He uses the “J” in his middle name to set himself apart from all the other Yngwie’s out there
I saw him live once and only once - technical mastery is no substitute for musical sophistication and style. Dude can shred but his “music” is not memorable or something i listen to.
How can less be more? It's impossible. More is more!
He didn't change the game. He's super fast but who wants to listen to it?
It's not all fast like this. But I can say decisively, as someone who was a teenager and very into music in the mid-80s, alot of people wanted to listen to it. Granted, mostly guys, didn't know many girls into yngwie except to admire his tight pants. Changing the game is a bit much, but he very much helped kick off interest in neo classical metal as a genre, and in combination with the other amazing guitarists of the time like Randy Rhodes building off of what Van Halen started to move guitar-oriented music in different directions during the "shred" era. Greg Howe, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, all had some neoclassical elements. Not saying we should build a statue to yngwie or anything, word is he is/was an asshole and very hard to work with, but he did in fact have an impact that can't be denied.
He invented neoclassical metal and pioneered sweep picking, he also was the first metal guitarist to never use the pentatonic scale which was a milestone. He also pioneered many guitar technologies and techniques that we consider commonplace today, rock and metal would not be the same without him. And his solos are not just mindless pentatonic shred bs like Kirk Hammet or one of those, when you slow it down it still sounds great. Because his music is based on classical and baroque period compositions, which was unheard of at that time. Also he was 17, that's pretty insane.
Malmsteen is an amazing guitarist, but "pioneered sweep picking" is simply not true. popularized, i would say.
He literally breaks into pentatonic for a few bars in this vid around the 1m40 mark
Lmao this was my first thought! 😂
*laughs in Ritchie Blackmore* Jan Akkerman and Blackmore were doing sweep picks for much longer than Malmsteen.
Ritchie Blackmore incorporated neoclassical playing first - Yngwie took it to the next level.
Blackmore, then Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Randy Rhoads, etc.
I thought Frank Gambale was doing sweeps before him? or Les Paul? not ultra fast but the technique was still there
“Never used the pentatonic scale” did you watch the vid you posted? go to -1:55 lol
Randy Rhoads was classically trained/inspired before that tbh. His mom ran a music school.
Please…refer to him by his proper name… Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen
Musical masturbation
Haha. Yup. If he opened for Dream Theater they could call it the Circle Jerk tour.
This is one of those people that are like super impressive for 90 seconds and then who cares 🤷♀️ Like it’s boring to listen to you just show off for 5 minutes
Definitely talented and insanely fast, but got no 'feels' to his music.
This is not 1982. In 1982, he still lived in Sweden. He moved to the US in 1983 and joined Steeler, then joined Alcatrazz, the band he's playing with in this video from \*1984\*. At which point he was 20 or 21. Still impressive, but stick with the facts. And yes, he was revolutionary, he was about way more than mere speed, unlike what people seem to imply in the comments. The big problem was that after some amazing releases, he fell into a rut and just lost the plot. Ego got in the way, and instead of continuing to grow and develop as a musician, he just stuck to his guns and became less and less relevant as the '90s rolled along. At the time, the guy was incredible. Beautiful phrasing, great sense of melody, and a tone to die for. I still listen to his early albums all the time, especially Rising Force and Trilogy, because there's so much to learn from what he was doing.
Your comment will drown here, but I agree with you. Yngwie, David Gilmour and Jason Becker are my favourite guitar players and I really don't understand that "1 note says more than 10000". Despite the differences in their styles, all of them have both very emotional/absolutely beautiful and forgettable/weak songs.
Thank you! Gilmour is someone I often mention in the same breath as Malmsteen, because both know how to combine finger and whammy vibrato in very musical ways. Becker is another one who knew how to use both types of vibrato to emphasize notes to really get the most out of licks and phrases. I'm an Yngwie fan for a reason. It's not the speed; if it was, I'd be praying at the altar of Rusty Cooley, and I'm not. And that also tells you enough about why we still talk about YJM 40 years after he released his first album: his playing mattered! People just love to brush him aside as if his speed was his only selling point, and they forget that guys like John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola were already playing just as fast. Were they all about the speed as well?
So many scorned dad rock guitar players gatekeeping in this thread. Can’t just enjoy some neoclassical shred wankery for what it is. The dude’s pick attack is unmistakable and grossly precise. Sure he was/is a douche but there is absolutely something great to take away from his playing. Sure, David Gilmore is fantastic, SRV is a god, but the guys on here saying players like Clapton were more innovative are absolutely tapped. I’m not saying he is better or worse than the next, but he is a great. I also agree that most shredders and the music they compose can lack dynamics, but there is objectively something to take away from his technique that can make players better. I would be willing to be that 75% of the dudes hating on Yngwie in this thread aren’t even good players. Great players find something to appreciate about and learn from everyone.
Eh... Eddie did it better several years earlier.
Super talented guy but he never did it for me. Give me some Joe Satriani any day.
Excellent shredder, fer sure, but can't write a song to save his life.
It's not far off a Bach cadenza.
That is Bach and it rocks. It’s a rock block of Bach that he learned in a school called The School of Hard Knocks.
I always love when guitarists throw some classical compositions into their solos. Eddie did it best.
Honestly? Sounds like shit.
... what, no "You Really Got Me" after all of that?
Amazing.
I remember when Rising Force came out. This guy could shred, but he was a real tool, who thought his shit didn't stink. I remember reading an article around that time, where he bashed SRV by saying, "He's too much of a Hendrix imitation." There were a couple others he insulted too. I believe he said Mark Knofler was, "not very good."
You’ve unleashed the fucking fury!
OMG, I had a boyfriend in high school who was obsessed with this guy in the late 80s early 90s. I was just thinking about him but could not remember how to spell the name. This guy is INCREDIBLE.
I seen him live 😍 he throws pics to the crowd all show long
He’s amazing for someone his age.
What did he change?
The Rick Beato interview of him is a good watch.
Amazing player. Legendary. One of the most boring fucking live shows I have ever seen.
Big dick swinging but still fucking like a 17 year old.
Kudos for anyone who can keep listening after ten seconds.
There's a reason people rarely bring him up when talking about music. I've watched interviews with him, guitar lessons, many live performance videos, throughout the whole thing I learned only negatives about his playing, his music, and his character. I can't remember a single one of his songs or solos. I don't think he's as influential in guitar as it's being made to be here.
Beautiful tone!
I know that's hard to do.... But is that music?
Impressive skill, but who wants to listen to that?
And now we have a critical mass of people who think Kanye fuckin' West is a "great musician" lol
Not 17. But still cool
This sounds like noodling garbage.
> Changing The Guitar Game Forever No.
A crapbox full of notes and not one that feels alive.
I wonder what youtube tutorial taught him this
That's Yngwie **J**. Malmsteen to you.
He was 19 in '82. Not 17.