Digg it!I think guitar playing is superpower. Watch these guys… the way they play guitar is NOT humanly possible.
Everytime I watch these guys perform, it makes me want to cut their fingers and attach it to mine. However, that would mean I need to get their brains too if I want to perform the way these guys do.
So, I will be contented with the fact that they are gods and I am a mere mortal who was born to stand with mouth open before them.
Hail the kings!
10. Comfortably Numb: David Gilmour
Band: Pink Floyd
Gilmour is best known for his lead guitar work. Gilmour’s solo style is often characterised by blues-influenced phrasing, expressive note bends and sustain. In 2005, Gilmour was rated the 82nd greatest guitarist by Rolling Stone. In January 2007, Guitar World readers voted Gilmour’s solos, “Comfortably Numb”, “Time” and “Money” into the top 100 Greatest Guitar Solos (“Comfortably Numb” was voted the 4th greatest solo of all time, “Time” was voted the 21st greatest solo of all time and “Money” was voted the 62nd greatest solo of all time.
9. Nothing Else Matters: James Hetfield
Band: Metallica
Hetfield has been involved in many onstage accidents, the most famous one being an incident with pyrotechnics at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. While on the GN’R-Metallica Stadium Tour on August 8, 1992, he accidentally stepped into the path of one of the chemical flames that had been rigged to shoot from the lip of the stage during the song “Fade to Black”. Hetfield’s guitar protected him from the full force of the blast; however, the fire engulfed his left side, burning his hand, arm, eyebrows, face and hair. He suffered second and third-degree burns.
Hetfield has also broken his arm several times while skateboarding.
During a concert on tour for the Black Album, James experienced complications with his vocals after performing a cover of the Anti-Nowhere League’s “So What”, forcing him to take vocal lessons for the first time.
During the recording of the St. Anger album (2002–2003), Hetfield went into rehab to address his alcohol addiction. Hetfield rejoined the band after two months in rehab and seven months recovering with his family. He is now clean and sober and is determined to remain so, all of which is in Some Kind of Monster.
8. Eruption: Eddie Van Halen
Band: Van Halen
The instrumental “Eruption” showcased a solo technique called tapping, utilizing both left and right hands on the guitar neck.
Although Van Halen popularized tapping, he did not, despite popular belief, invent the tapping technique. The tapping technique in Blues and Rock was being picked up by various guitarists in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Duane Allman, Frank Zappa and Ace Frehley, tapped with a pick in the early 1970s. Steve Hackett used tapping to play Bach like keyboard passages on the guitar in the early 1970s.
Brian May also used the tapping technique, which he picked up in America in the early 1970s, on songs such as It’s Late from the News Of The World album. From a January 1983 Guitar Player Brian May interview,
“I stole it from a guy who said that he stole it from Billy Gibbons in ZZ Top.”
Van Halen said, “I think I got the idea of tapping watching Jimmy Page do his Heartbreaker solo back in 1971. He was doing a pull-off to an open string, and I thought wait a minute, open string… pull off. I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around? I just kind of took it and ran with it.”
Eddie also employs tapping harmonics. He holds the pick between his thumb and middle finger, which leaves his index finger free for tapping and also makes for easy transitions between picking and tapping. In support of his two-handed tapping techniques, Van Halen also holds a patent for a flip-out support device which attaches to the rear of the electric guitar.
7. One: Kirk Hammett
Band: Metallica
In 2003 Kirk Hammett was ranked 11th in Rolling Stone’s list – The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. However, he needs no list to confirm that he is, indeed, one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived.
6. Back In Black: Angus Young
Band: AC/DC
Angus Young is famous for his wild onstage antics: intense jumps and running back and forth across the stage while playing his guitar. Young would clamber on to Bon Scott’s or Brian Johnson’s shoulders during concerts and they would make their way through the audience with smoke streaming from a satchel on his own back, while he played an extended guitar solo, usually during the song “Rocker” with Scott or during “Let There Be Rock” with Johnson.
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where is ritchie??????????????????????????
What a joke this list is, whoever wrote this should expand their musical horizons. I don’t know how Stevie Ray Vaughan was left off ANY list of greatest guitar solos but then again it looks like this is for one genre and if that’s true please say so so that peopledon’t think you’re a moron.
What a joke this list is, whoever wrote this should expand their musical horizons ……….people think you’re a moron.
wheres Django, Zappa, Vaughan, Coriell, Benson… WOW, this guy knows his music.
u included kirk hammet, but left out the likes of eric johnson, satriani, john petrucci, paul gilbert, gary moore, rory gallagher and so on
are u for real?
Where is Synister gates and second heartbeat or afterlife
i pay because i love it! , i was alywals looking for a passion in my life something i could love , and i found it when i pickedup a gtar for the first time my grandas old guitar (RIP) , and ever since ive been playing , i play mostly blues , bb king , clapton , steve cropper ect , and this website im sure will help me even more to becoming a guitar god , haha
Slash? Jimi Hendrix? Jeff Beck? C’mon man.
Love hearing all the setrios, keep them coming. Thank you Lisa for all you do and all the instructors over at guitar tricks. I have learned so much from everyone and I love your down to the earth approach with websites like this, it is greatI would also like to give a BIG SHOUT OUT. I checked out his youtube. nice stuff.Jaime
No. Stairway to heaven should be first
what the fuck where is dimebag floods gates walk come on and what about mystery by dio
Hetfield, Hammet and Angus Young? What idiot wrote this? These guys are heavy metal headbangers, not musicians!
What about Clapton, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Duane Allman, Frank Zappa, George Benson?
To whoever wrote this–your taste in “music” leaves a lot to be desired!
At 57, I finally raielzed how really passionate I am about music. I love it, and I always have. I have it in my life all the time and I find it fulfilling . I find that there ispurity in the notes on the acoustic guitar. I enjoy my electrics as well, but not the way I do the acoustic. I love simply strumming it to hear how true a sound it is. Nothing fake, nothing altered, just pure notes. Its what the sound does for me. And above all, I want to learn to play really well, for me.
I think a lot of people get mixed up between the most influencial guitarists and the best. They are not necessarily the same. It seems to me that the better the guitarist, the more likely they will be less known in popular culture. Again, this is not a hard, fast rule but it seems to be a general rule of thumb. When great guitarists get left out of these surveys, people get upset. They imagine that the artist’s fame should go hand-in-hand with their greatness as a musician. For eg, my mom would have heard of Eric Clapton (who is a very good guitarist and equally very famous) but she wouldn’t have a clue about Joe Satriani, Steve Vai or Malsteem, who are arguably a whole half dozen levels above many of their more famous peers – yet largely known only by people who want to know about them.
I guess that once we start becoming a connoisseur of guitar music, then we enter a narrower but deeper world of music appreciation away from the influence of mainstream popular culture. The mistake a lot of people seem to make is that they believe their appreciation of lesser known virtuoso guitarists should be understood by the tea-drinking masses. Personally, I prefer bands and musicians who are lesser known, but I have long since given up on the fact that I need to convince anyone else of their greatness. If they do not appear on a popularity list, I am not fazed because I know they can fill any concert hall in any city with people like me who really appreciate and listen to their genius.
you think that comf.. numb is 10th???
are you joking??? it is the first…….. and second is stairway to heaven…….
Where is “Money for nothing”???
Fight against homosexual terror!!!
I think a big answer to the quoteisn of why now has to do with getting older, physically and mentally. I was always a jock, but after several knee surgeries and numerous back problems and ugh! I’m 52 now! Geesh! Anyway, I lost a sense of self expression for myself. I had to leave my comfort zone. I’d always been facinated by the acoustic guitar and haunted by the sound of it, and very intimidated by the thought of trying it. I always thought it was for someone else, someone who had a natural talent for it. I had to realize that we are all learners on this road of life. I might as well enjoy life by doing things I love, no matter what my ability level and learning speed. I love the journey I’ve undertaken with the guitar. I’m only sorry I didn’t start it decades ago. I apologize for my long answer
Hi Jim Greene,An concept I’ve had suseccs with setting smaller and more concrete (chunkable) and achievable goals just think small one little lick or passage to conquer ..since I know my practice time will inevitably get reduced by things that always seem to happen beyond my control, instead of trying to mentally carve out an hour or more each day to work on learning a whole bunch of stuff .I break up my approach, and just focus on one small tiny piece ..something I can practice whenever I get the chance, five minutes here, 10 minutes there .and stay focused on that one little piece .and make sure I get it down before moving on .in the end it seems I am able to aquire more useable skills doing it this way than maybe sitting for a whole hour and getting distracted by a hundred licks I think I want to learn .just always have that one little small thing at a time you are working on ..saves a lot of frustration knowing that you are still progressing even if you only have 5 minutes here or ten minutes there to practice .hope this helps.Tom