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Jimmy Page doesn't practice guitar


Black-Dog

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Of course Page knows about scales. I think he wants to transmit that, if he is told to play the aeolian E minor scale, (a random example), he maybe can't do it exactly. I take for granted that he knows how to play a scale in E, A, G or whatever, but as each scale has a fixed notes and some of then can be confused with other only changing a couple of notes, it makes difficult to play each one as it HAS to be, perfectly. It's tedious, as you have said. I'm sure he knows the difference between blues pentatonic scale and minor pentatonic scale. But maybe he hasn't the exactly pattern in his mind because he likes to play according to what the music makes him feel. He mixes both two, for example. And he has the intuition as well to know that in a very bluesy song, the minor pentatonic could make a change in its feeling.

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I think that Page is a typical "three-toed" guitarist of an old rock 'n' roll school, when the scales were mainly played in "the boxes", without transposition along all the neck, i think he has a few favorite keys and he knows them well

anyway the strength of Page in another

- A strong emotional component: He's perfect passion player:

permanent bandings, vibratos... tremolos... spontaneous wall-of-notes , and in the last years - his trademark "weeping bandings" on the B-Bender.

- A highly developed intuition and free thinking. He's typical freak, freely avoids cliches especially last albums (Clapton, hello!), by the way, Page freely combines both major and minor, and it turns out a very harmonious.

(Although there were cases when he copies himself: transferred the whole of his ideas from one song to another, including the solo, so highly developed perseverance in his ideas), but it seems to me that his lack of scale-practice frequently impacted in alive (Hendrix and Jeff sleeker and easier in improvising)

I'm not sure that Page at once could play in exotic odds knowing well the scales, but rather by his intuition and attempts could push his ideas, basing on his flawless hearing and taste

- Strong imagination, composer talent and a sense of layering of guitar texture -

Page eventually became a master of the guitar arrangements (Stravinsky of a guitar as Santana called him!). This is a rare gift: on the same harmony he could put several bright parallel parts in harmony with each other

- He is certainly foremost a studio guitarist - all his best ideas, his best solos - it's all the studio work. He maximum use that Studio allowed to choose the best pieces and combine them.

so he's a great master of prepared solos: most of his solos recorded in a studio are verified, weighed and polished and have an internal drama and poetry feeling: Intro - Developing - Culmination - Outro (which often had not, for example, Blackmore) - best solo of all time - STH - a textbook example (oh, not without the help of Crowley! . )

hence the sense of measure (again, I mean studio recordings). although Jimmy rarely indulged in emptyness in solos playing alive (but he shared and knows the difference in playing in the studio and alive)

Alive Page rarely repeats his studio finds, sometimes playing only a key phrases, basically replacing by a bit monotonous improvisations, and rarely was on the height of his studio recordings in terms of a beauty, elegance, pithiness and completeness, in alive playing he seems like more spontaneous "don't care" guitarist, opposite his perfectionism in studio

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It seems some people decided not to play scales. Then...

1-If you are playing in any band and they ask you to make a riff, a solo or something in Cm, just say:

"Oh dear, as I don't play scales I can't play in any key.

But hey, don't you think I am useless, just think I am gonna be the new Jimmy Page".

2-If you think Jimmy Page didn't know, play or used scales, then you may learn the basics someday. He OBVIOUSLY cheated you all. "I can't play scales= I can't stand playing scales, I don't like it". But he CAN play them, OF COURSE!!! He worked in a studio!

3-Do you think Malmsteen and Vai have no feeling? Then shut down if someone says: "Page, Hendrix... they only play pentatonics, they are dirty and always sound the same. No feeling".

Shut down because you share half a brain with this people.

4-Don't tell your girlfriend: "Oh baby, I don't know anything about woman' body, but I will make you feel nice tonight. By the way, why don't you have an "elephant" between your legs...? How surprising!!"

I think Page is a nice guitarist. Malmsteen and Vai are also good guitarists. Page or Hendrix haters show the same lack of whatever as Malmsteen&Vai haters.

Music is not hating=Is more close to enjoying and laughing. And I had to laugh when I read some comments. Most enjoyable, but somehow predictable.

Well mate, the way you put the "play fast= no feel" thing you pretty much sums it up for me. People have different tastes and for example, I can't stand

the way that these guitarrist (Malmsteem, satriani, etc...) play, but I'm not saying they are lesser important than Page or Hendrix just because some lad said that they don't have feel in the solos they make. I don't enjoy the sounds they produce, but I'm ok with people that like it because I'm sure that i like alot of stuff that others don't like. Cheers

Oh and another thing: the Jimmy not "knowing" how to play scales is bullsh%t. He's like alot of others. He finds it boring to play them, but he knows where to play when you're doing a song in A or Dminor.

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As a musician myself I like to think of it in these terms. Page and Hendrix are akin to Chopin musically, it's all in the feel, the textures, the phrasing. Vai and Satriani are akin to Rachmaninoff or Paganini, these were brilliant musical showmen of their time and are considered the most musically complex, however there is little feeling in their respective compositions (in my opinion). They do not move me like a Chopin or a Beethoven whose compositions were pure passion. I know several classical musicians and they all say the same thing, you are either a Chopin or you are a Rachmaninoff, both are incredibly difficult to play for very different reasons. Chopin is technically rather simple, however the phrasing and textures take years to understand and project properly, many great musicians never can. As a guitarist I prefer one note with feeling to 1,000 notes of pure technique, but that's me. Page, Hendrix, Gatemouth, Trower, and Santana move me way more than a Vai, Satriani, or Rhodes ever could.

Also, Page does play both scales and barre chords, as mentioned above, I think this quote was either a throw away or a joke at the time. After all it would be like a pilot who says, "nahhh, I never check barometric pressure, wind direction, humidity, temperature, or loaded weight vs. unloaded weight...I just barrel down the runway and Jesus does the rest."

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