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[Loco Mo]

I wonder.  I know he's a good guitar player.  But can he shred?

[tkitna]

Shred?  I doubt it.  Play some raunchy leads from time to time?  Sure.  Like his drumming, I always felt his lead guitar work left me wanting for more.  Not that it was bad, but it always felt left in the middle between 'could have been something special' and 'competent to decent'.  He to me was easily the best musician in the Beatles and was a monster bass player.  I'll be crucified for this, but I think he could have easily been better than George on the lead guitar too, if he was left to concentrate solely on that aspect of his playing.  He was definitely more rock-n-roll than George (Taxman, Back In The USSR, Good Morning Good Morning). He had some great moments in his solo stuff too, but its late and i'm not getting deep into that right now.  All in all, he probably could have been a shredder, but as it stands, not quite.

[Moogmodule]

I think of shredding as lightning fast runs up and down the fretboard. So no. I don’t think so. He could play good leads no doubt but that really heavy rock style wasn’t any of the Beatles forte.

I agree if he’d dedicated himself to guitar he probably would have been top flight. I think Paul had a bit of the curse of a talented natural musician. He could get pretty good at something relatively easily but then didn’t necessarily have the application to do the hard yards to go from good to great. Except perhaps on bass.

[tkitna]

I agree if he’d dedicated himself to guitar he probably would have been top flight. I think Paul had a bit of the curse of a talented natural musician. He could get pretty good at something relatively easily but then didn’t necessarily have the application to do the hard yards to go from good to great. Except perhaps on bass.

Excellent post Moog.  What I wanted to say, but couldnt find the proper words.

[Hello Goodbye]

https://youtu.be/-mJt_T0N0mQ
3:25

Paul knew when to defer to more accomplished guitarists.



But no one beats him on bass...


https://youtu.be/u_rX-WRGZBg

[Loco Mo]

Well, that answers my question.  I didn't think Paul could or would shred.  He's probably not interested in that anyway.

I think the Beatles were primarily a group of singers.  That was their forte.  They could play their instruments but they weren't instrumentalists.

Also, they really weren't a rock and roll band, IMO.  They just had this great body of wonderful songs to listen to.  They would have sounded good in any decade of musical history.  They became popular in the decade when rock and roll was still popular.  I think rock and roll is pretty much extinct nowadays.  I'm not sure I really know how to define rock and roll but I don't think it's played anymore.

BTW:  I thought shredding could mean either running the scales rapidly or doing an impromptu solo.  However, I guess the impromptu solo would have to consist of a series of rapidly played single notes.

[nimrod]

I think of shredding as lightning fast runs up and down the fretboard. So no. I don’t think so. He could play good leads no doubt but that really heavy rock style wasn’t any of the Beatles forte.

Agree with the above. Paul is no shredder, but imo the best guitarists arent, Mark Knofler, Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor non are shredders but play with feel, not really speed.
Paul did shred his vocal chords though on tracks like Oh Darling, WDWDIITR, Helter Skelter, Im Down.
I think he buggered his vocal chords up and now suffers the consequences.

[Moogmodule]

^^^

I think that’s another good point. Shredding isn’t the test of a great guitarist. That real hyper speed tends to come from early professional training on the guitar. It gets harder to learn the older you take the instrument up and requires dedicated practice using good technique.

Similar to TKitnas point on the Ringo drum thread, some guitarists just go hell for leather tossing in all manner of fast runs through a song. Heavy metal is riddled with this. It can be impressive but the results aren’t that musical. I think a guitarist who can do this and remain tasteful is Brian May from Queen.

On the training side, I noticed both George and Paul tend to hold the neck in a tight manner with their palm flat against the neck and not quite parallel with the fretboard.  This usually only lets them finger notes easily with their first three fingers rather than all four and can cut dexterity.

[Hello Goodbye]

I think the Beatles were primarily a group of singers.  That was their forte.  They could play their instruments but they weren't instrumentalists.

The Beatles were not only fine singers, they were excellent instrumentalists as well.  John, Paul and George were fine songwriters too.

[nimrod]

The Beatles were not only fine singers, they were excellent instrumentalists as well.  John, Paul and George were fine songwriters too.

I think individually non of them were virtuoso musicians, but together they had a huge x factor, and an incredible work ethic, Brian Epstein and George Martin both saw it and fell in love with them.

[tkitna]

But no one beats him on bass...


https://youtu.be/u_rX-WRGZBg

Thats cool Barry.  Sounds like a completely different song.

[Hello Goodbye]

I isolated Paul's bass several years ago with Audacity, Todd.  Yes, that's just how great a bass player Paul is.  It's a very melodic bass line.

I did the same for And Your Bird Can Sing, but YouTube blocked it.

[Moogmodule]

I think they were very good instrumentalists. John was probably the scratchiest but even he had some good skills if more limited than Paul and George. That’s different to them being virtuosos of course which none of them were. Paul being closest as a bassist. But they all had great musicianship and did blend together as well as any group ever has.

There’s a huge range of skills on instruments from brilliant to crap. Trouble is some people think there’s no in between. If you’re not Jaco Pastorius you’re rubbish.

[Loco Mo]

Okay.  I was saying they're not instrumentalists because they didn't play instrumentals.  They liked to sing all the time.

That's all I meant by it.