Re: Pete's blazing guitar work

["Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> His slow fingers must frustrate the shit out of him.

He's not *that* slow of a guitar player!  You're probably not implying
that directly, but maybe we should take a deeper look at this.

Pete can play fast when he wants to.  When I say fast I mean, finger-
rolls, 16th (or even 32nd) notes, etc.

The second solo in "Water" from the Tanglewood 1970 show features some
*very* fast playing (a little pattern the guitarist from Pearl Jam ripped
off for one of their songs off TEN).

And since his bike accident he's learned to do the quick little noodly
thig-a-muh-jigs, similar to metal guitarists.  That's fast playing.

You're learning to play guitar, right, Cousin?  You should know that 
there are two ways to play fast.  

You can use a pick to play fast while your fret fingers do limited work.
Or you can let your fret fingers move quickly while your pick hand does
limited work.  (I guess there's a third way, by using the pick to play fast
*and* moving your fret fingers quickly also.)

Pete does both at times.  "I Can't Explain" might have a machine gun solo
where Pete uses the pick to play fast while holding one note on the fret
board (like the solo in "I Can See For Miles").

Or, the bridge in "Who Are You" might have Pete doing the noodly thingy,
in which his fret fingers are doing the majority of the work & the pluck
hand (?) just has to hit the correct strings at the correct time.

The difference, when compared to someone like Eddie Van Halen, is that Pete
uses the quick playing only at certain times, not constantly like a metal
guitarist.  Pete saves his quickness for the proper moments & doesn't over-
use the technique.  And thank God for that.


- SCHRADE in Akron