Why We Can’t Quit Guitar Solos

 

 

Re: the NYT article: Why We Can’t Quit Guitar Solos

This is the opposite of the article that pronounces something dead like "photography is dead" or "representational painting is dead". 

There is something to a really good guitar solo but from a musical standpoint they can't go on for too long. With solos, coherent musical ideas are difficult to sustain over even 16 bars. What I like is the 8 bar solo--the solo in the middle-eight or some other section that serves as connective tissue to the "denouement". The simple song form naturally sets up expectations and so you're ready for the solo when it happens, especially if you've heard it before.

[This is probably something a neural net would see if it analyzed a data set of pop songs over a 20-year period, say, late-60s through the 80s when solos were used in instrumental verses, or the equivalent in film, the chase scene that happens 20 minutes from the end].

Improvised 8-bar solos are harder to pull off in a live context because the first inclination is that it will sound like the record. I like the idea of a solo so resolved that you can play it as if it was scored but with some embellishment--more of a cadenza.

Steve Vai's new album Inviolate features the Hydra, a triple-neck instrument with a hybrid fretted/fretless 12-string, a 7-string, and a hybrid fretless/fretted bass. This performance is fairly entertaining, and I presume it is mostly scored. It stands to reason that a composer would/should write for the instrument instead of wanking on it. But it begs the question of whether the strength of the composition is somehow lost without seeing the instrument itself. If you just listened to the recording without knowing it was played on the Hydra, you'd be hearing it like any other recording. What makes a difference is the spectacle of the combination of a musical instrument as sculpture created specifically for the abilities of the player, and perhaps as a kind of eponym, such as the Moog, Frippertronics, the sousaphone, saxophone. If instruments are "containers" of music, then the Hydra is a container for Vai's guitar skills. But most of the music is scaffolded by the music video. It's the "outside" element prevailing over the "inside" purely musical elements.  

After a while, guitar and bass improvisation can get tiring. The constraints of the Hydra dictate the form of the music, e.g. improvising over a drone or pedal point on the bass, or integrating harp glissandi. Even Pat Metheny's improvisations on the Pikasso guitar (eponym!) have a short shelf life musically because the visual element is so crucial to the experience. Take away the visuals and it sounds like multi-tracked guitars.  

The Medium Is the Message (Again)

Ever since the beginning of MTV, TV became the container rather than the instrument. So in this case, the musical instrument is the container of music, but the music must exist within the container of YouTube and its algorithmic framework. So the evolution of media keeps certain things alive such as ostentatious guitar improvs, and algorithms love that kind of thing. At some level, and a potentially large overlap on the Venn diagram, viral guitar solos are like viral pet videos, especially pets playing or singing along with their owners. 

 

The whole viral guitar solo videos started in the early days of YouTube, particularly the funtwo video Canon Rock (which actually predates YouTube) The video was uploaded there by someone else, then immediately went viral.

 

I never fully understood the concept of the solo just for the sake of itself outside a larger framework such as a concerto or jazz tune, where the piece showcases the abilities of a soloist, in the same way that the work of a luthier showcases the soloist. When I was first learning to play and compose, I thought long guitar solos were really a form of fast typing wherein what was written didn't say anything, but could be rapidly executed by simply running a sequence without errors, like figure skating at the Olympic level.  

For people that don't like jazz, it's all "wanking" but there's a framework there, even if it's a set of changes written on the spot. Many jazz players pre-compose solos in order to train the mind to think that way when in improvisatory mode, but it's not about the histrionics, or if it is in Vai's case, is done with deference to the inside elements of music, including sonic texture. So if the sound is compelling on its own it can punch through on a recording and you don't need the video.

 

There's a differentiation between a solo as being a manifestation of pop culture and the solo as a manifestation of just art in general so these kinds of articles are the antidote to pronouncing the death of something by pronouncing the rebirth of something. But ever since the early YouTube viral guitar videos it never really died. But wanky solos kill music in some ways by suggesting that music is essentially a medium for vainglorious soloing.

I wonder if the next thing is the deepfaking of guitar solos? It probably is a thing already because it fits perfectly in a TikTok'd world, as well as in future Metaverses.