Since the news media is so obsessed with Covid-19 and over-hyping it to death, I’m not gonna do that with my blog. I think with my blog I’ll use it to talk about other topics so I thought I would entertain you by talking about music this time around.
I don’t know why so many guitarists and music lovers put shred guitar music to shame. Why? Many people say shred music is just a bunch of noodling… just playing a bunch of fast notes and they claim shred music all sounds the same. LOL… I think that people that makes those opinions are ignorant at best.
You see, I love shred guitar music. I’ve listened to that genre for years… the instrumental shred guitar stuff and I still do listen to that stuff today. Of course, my interest in shred guitar music all started with Joe Satriani, though and the first album I heard by him was “Surfing With the Alien”… the album that made me get interested in guitar. When I was first starting out in guitar, it was my guitar teacher that got me into Joe Satriani. My guitar teacher used to own a small bookstore in my hometown of Greenwich and his book store sold music CD’s too. One day after a day of guitar lessons, I was looking through the CD section of his bookstore and my guitar instructor picked up this CD and handed it to me… on the CD was this cool cover with the Silver Surfer on it and it was Joe Satriani, “Surfing With the Alien”. My guitar teacher suggested I should buy that album and listen to it. Yes, I did buy the CD and still have it sitting on my CD shelf. I’ve loved that album ever since then and still listen to it.
Yeah, I try to listen to other guitar shredders over the years… I listened to Steve Vai, Yngwie, Al Di Meola, Jason Becker, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson and guys such as those. All those other guys are pretty good but I haven’t bought too many albums by them. I’m more of a Joe Satriani fan than the rest.
I just love Joe’s style of playing. He sounds more musical than the rest. I love Joe ’cause he treats his instrumental music like songwriting ’cause that’s what his music is pretty much. Yeah, Joe writes instrumentals but when he writes music there are still intros, verses, chorus’s, bridges and chorus’s like an actual song. Joe likes to use his lead guitar playing as if someone is singing a song and that’s why I love his music so much.
I’m trying to collect all of Satriani’s albums and I have 4 left to go, I think. I bought his latest album that he just put out this year titled “Shapeshifting” (pictured above) and it’s an incredible album. I think it’s the best one in his career, by far. I wasn’t that crazy with his previous album, “What Happens Next” to be honest but he surprised me with “Shapeshifting”. It’s a pretty strong album. Different than he’s ever done. “Shapeshifting” was pretty tight and Joe’s guitar playing was on fire throughout. I’m going to be listening to this one a lot as I listened to it three times already.
No matter your views on shred guitar music, Joe continues to put out album after album and he’s continues to tour and sell out arenas. “Surfing With the Alien” was what made Satriani big and even if no one seems to know who he is anymore, he continues to be successful if that makes sense.
Joe himself is an interesting guy. I love how he teaches guitar through guitar magazines and I love reading his interviews too. I’ve followed Joe’s career for many years and I guess you can say that I’m a superfan. I’ve even had the opportunity to see Joe live in concert once which was a concert I’ll never forget.
Satriani has always been in my top 5 of favorite guitarists. I hope to play electric guitar like him and I’m working on it really. I do want to shred myself and that’s the whole reason I picked up the guitar to begin with. I would love to make instrumental guitar music someday.
Joe Satch is awesome. You should start listening to his music yourself. Either “Surfing With the Alien” or this album “Shapeshifting” would be good to start with.
Kev
K'Brocking 
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