I've always wondered, as a non-guitar player, but someone who focuses a lot on wrist flexibility for violin playing, how many guitarists can pick fast and comfortably and without tension with locked wrists and stiff elbows. He seems like a good teacher.
The common answer is that it's wrong to lock the wrist, but there are players like Michael Angelo who play that way very well.
funny thing is is that everything he says in that video is true. i used to pick more from the elbow when playing fast lines, but once i learned to pick solely from the wrist, im a tad faster but can play at that speed eons longer.
Total douchebag. How the fuck is he matter of fact? He is perpetuating racism by misapplying facts. Idiot. Hey guys, uh, you can't play rhythms because you're asian, lol, im white, but watch this.
Also his general attitude, like ignoring what the interviewer was saying and telling him straight away that he was tapping his foot wrong. He just comes across as a total prick. But he can get away with it, because he's Al Di Meola
Ok, I missed the Asian part, that's stupid, but the rest is fine. He doesn't beat around the bush, I like that when people can explain things.
how is he misapplying facts? i can tell you first hand the things he talks about, especially with asians and rhythm, is in fact, very true. hes not saying they dont have rhythm, just a certain aspect and approach to rhyhtm. plus, the guy has traveled all over the world and played with tons of players, im pretty sure he has a much more detailed observation than you do.
Yeah it wasn't the 'racism' thing that annoyed me about the vid. He wasn't saying that asians don't have rhythm. It was just his general attitude...he seems like some sort of ego bastard comic creation, which is why I found it more funny than infuriating
Uhm, no he's an idiot. He acts as if rhythm is inherent, and is related to race; it isn't. It is a cultural thing. A person of asain descent isn't any less likely to be able to play off rhythms than a spanish or black person, unless of course they were never exposed to music with an emphasis on rhythm. Please don't try to defend his racist bullshit.
al is a total d-bag, and doesn't make a much of a point, but he was smart to steer the conversation away from picking technique. the vast majority of guitar players in the world could benefit much more from working on their time than their picking technique.
Agreed. And I hope chronowarp is just trolling with the whole "THATS RACIST" thing. Because thats just fucking retarded.
so that explains why bands from scandinavia can't write good riffs btw what's a good electric ali dimeola album, all i've heard by his return to forever (didn't like that much) and his flamenco night in san francisco
Hmm, if you don't like his playing in RTF his playing just might not appeal to you. But give Elegant Gypsy and Casino a try, those are his two masterpieces.
I don't think RTF really relates well with Al's solo style. RTF is more like prog-fusion, while his solo stuff is more like latin-influenced jazz fusion.
I saw his "asian rhythm" comment as just an off-the-cuff, just-got-off-of-the-fucking-stage-and-have-to-talk-to-other-douchebags, unfortunate overgeneralization that really had nothing to do with racism. And his manner was simply self-assured, but I notice a lot on this forum recently that people who know what they're talking about from years and years of experience and have said it a thousand times and talk a bit deeper than surface information tend to get labelled as snooty douchebags.
I liked his playing a lot, just not the music as a whole are either of those albums live? i usually like live recordings of jazz wayyy more than studio stuff also i don't see how anybody could take his asian comment as racism, he says theres "some truth" to it, its not like he's adamantly defending the position. and they're talking about music, so its obviously referring to culture.
Nope, those are studio. If you want live, there's Tour De Force, but I haven't personally heard it yet.
That doesn't make it true. It just makes you a dumbass for attempting to defend your precious Al Di Meola with nothing other than a personal attack. lol. yeah, since you're too stupid/ignorant/blind to realize that what he said was intentionally and undeniably racist anyone who claims what is so obvious is a retard.
I am not an Al Di Meola fan. I have never checked out his work. So I have no reason to "defend" him. He didn't say "ASIAN PEOPLE SUCK FUCK THOSE CHINKS". He made a statement regarding rhythm. The fact that you compare that to actual racism is just flat stupid.
He made a blanket statement about entire racial and ethnic groups saying certain races can perform rhythms, that others cant. As if there is some genetic basis for the ability or inability to play rhythms when it's entirely cultural. Care to explain to me how that isn't racist? To to take even further his smug ass, arrogant attitude puts the icing on the cake.
Care to explain to me where in the video he said "I hate Asians" or anything similar to it? And as for being arrogant, I don't see it at all.
You don't have to say you hate [insert race] in order to be racist, or to say something that is interpreted and projected as racist. I can't tell if you're being serious.
what the hell. the only way he could be interpreted as saying that is by overanalyzing his choice of words (oh no! he said asian instead of asia!) and taking what he said out of context
Uhm, no not at all. There in no other way to interpret it he explicitly says it... "Not everybody is gonna get that by way, because there is some truth to Northern Europeans not having the ability as well as Southern Hemisphere not having...Asians...not too likely, but South, more likely. It's an amazing observation." The entire statement is racist, and cannot really be interpreted as anything else. He suggests that;1. rhythmic ability is innate, 2. rhythm has a relation to race. Both are untrue.
There you go. Observation. So does that mean that if I say "It seems that a lot of pro football players are black" I am a racist?
No, because that's not the same thing, that's a strawman. It'd be the same thing if you said "White people are smarter than black people", "Asians are smarter than white people", etc.
It would be hillarious if his hands got burnt and he could never play again. What would he do with all his jackassery, then?
"Asians, not as likely." Asian=race. He says nothing that even implies culture, everything he says implies race and location.
