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YouTube Eyeball Burnout

Posted by valdae on Wednesday, August 8, 2007

YouTube is a boon to the video enthusiast. Like the net itself, whatever you have interest in can be found on the site. Equally, like the net, there can be found a severe amount of the ridiculous. Take our beloved instrument, it has a good presence on the site, but some of the videos of banjo players leave a lot to be desired. There are a number of good players present, but also, the dreaded speed demons. I’ve seen several vids of youngsters plowing through standards as if they’re trying to break a land speed record. Their playing is sloppy, braying, and technique, other than speed, is out the window. One kid tried to play Foggy Mountain Breakdown as fast as he could. What he ended up sharing was a din that hardly resembled the classic, and the overall sound quality was dismal. The allure of speed has always been a problem for electric guitarists. Trash, sorry, thrash metal never appealed to me. Though some practitioners could play all those notes cleanly, the result I often found cold and sterile; no dynamics, no soul. It sounds worse when inexperienced banjoist have at it trying to get the fingerboard to combust. Don’t get me wrong, speed has its place in music, but it is not nor has it ever been the sole expression of music.

2 comments on “YouTube Eyeball Burnout”

Sid Langley Says:
Wednesday, August 8, 2007 @2:49:36 PM

andhaveyounoticedthatwhattheyallendupdoingisjustrunningev erythingtogetherwithoutgivingthemselvesoranyoneelseachancetoactuallyfindoutwhatthey'replayingit'sjustastrstrstringggofnoteswithoutanyphrassssssingormeaning sndfordonandonandonandthenjuststops

valdae Says:
Wednesday, August 8, 2007 @3:14:13 PM

Wow, Sid, you made my eyes go, yi! But yes, exactly that!  One vid had me howling, as this guy tears through something I can't recognize at mach one, only to lose his place, stare at the camera, and then plunge in again from the beginning!  I should have saved some of them, but they're so horrible. 

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