re. Greg Howe

[szulc]

I was glad to see the Greg Howe article.
This guy is unreal! I can't think of anyone who is really in his league. I wonder who he was inspired by?
Fast AP, tapping, sweeps economy picking, great feel and speed!
He throws all this together seamlessly from ripping AP, picking to rh taps, to sweeps, to string skips, OVER complex changes. Unbeleievable! Not your average Varney(Shrapnel) guy!
I wonder what Michael Jackson and Enrice` Iglacias think about him?
I wish he would join Ibreathe and give us all lessons.

[EricV]

James, I am glad you liked it !
Yeah, I always am amazed about what a unique guy Howe is. I find myself listening to "Hyperacuity" more and more recently... what a great record !


About Iglesias... I think he digs Howe´s playing style a lot. On Greg´s site, there´s a video that you can download. It´s from an EI-performance, where Greg plays a short solo on acoustic guitar.
Enrique really seemed to dig the part when Greg started to shred a bit... and it´s cool that Greg gets to do a short solospot like that during an Iglesias show.
Thanks
Eric

[szulc]

My favorite album is 'Introspection' this is where Greg takes a turn toward jazz, I find some of that stuff incomprehensable.
It is beautiful and inspired and not just a bunch of 'fast stuff'.
His playing on Howe II reminded me of George Lynch and also was inspired.

[snufeldin]

First of all I'm so glad you wrote the article on Greg Howe. He is the best guitarist in my opinion (out of the people I've heard). When I first heard him I was shocked, I just listened to Introspection 10 times through.

Anyway I was wondering if greg howe used both alternate picking and economy picking (like frank gambale)?

Does anybody out there use both of these... (I don't just mean sweeping arpeggios by saying economy picking by the way)

What do you guys recommend in terms of developing both of these styles so that you are able to switch between them with ease.

[snufeldin]

by the way can anybody play Bach Mock?

[szulc]

This guy does it all economy picking, sweeps, taps, skips Alternating picking. He switches between them so fluidly that it is very impressive, and he does this over complex changes.

[snufeldin]

does he still do workshops and stuff

[snufeldin]

I don't want to be a jerk, so don't take this the wrong way, but do you know for a fact that he uses both styles of picking?

[szulc]

watch his video

[EricV]

Hi there,
James is right, Greg uses a plethora of different techniques, switching from one to another fluidly.
However, although he does sweeping and "barring" ( I explained that in the article ), when he does picking, he uses mainly strict alternate picking. At least he did so in the early days ( after the debut ). So I dunno whether he changed that since.
I read his interview with Guitar Player mag ( 1988 ) and he said that many of his students use economy picking, but that he can´t pick that way. he said that he preferred the way Paul Gilbert picks ( which is strict alternate picking ), because he learned it that way.
However, it might be that he worked on economy picking since then, and he definitely knows how to sweep ( which I would consider the next step after economy picking )

About being able to play both... it takes a loooong time to do both at equal speed. I personally prefer strict a.p. cuz it is just more... I dunno, ignorant. Meaning that economy picking works great when you i.e. have three notes per string. But what if you take away one of them on one string ? Your whole pattern is messed up, and e.p. doesn´t really work there. With a.p., it´s a bit easier and it doesn´t mess you up that bad if you take away a note.
I don´t know too many players who do both techniques, I´d recommend to pick one and work on that.

Eric

[szulc]

In the Greg Howe Video (the newer one) Greg is showing his unorthodox scale fingerings which are usually 4 notes per string except on the b or g strings. He shows many different mini-sweeps or economy picking ideas, as well as AP. When ever he shows a lick going from a thicker string to a thinner string one note per string he is sweeping down and goes out of his way to explain that. These are usually mini-sweeps or economy picking since they are mostly only two consecutive notes. I don't really know how three notes per string relates to his playing since on the video everthing he shows is 4 note/ or two notes. This guy does it all just as good as anybody else does. He is just as fast a Gilbert, Just as fluid a Satraini, can sweep and skip like Yngwie, Has a great Vibratto, He can tap just as Good as Reb Beach or Vitto Bratta or Eddie, AND he does all this seamlessly through complex changes. (listen to Introspection)
Most of us could spend our whole lives just trying to get one of these things down. It is way too late for me to change my style to try and emulate this guy, with all his odd fingerings, it s like trying to cop Jeff Watson's picking techinique or Stanley Jordans tapping. But he does give me somthing to aspire to, and inspire me. The sad thing is, this guy most likely makes less money than I do, because nobody really gets it or cares about this.

[EricV]

Hi James,

yeah, I think the same about him... it´s very inspiring to listen to him ( my favorite GH-albums are Introspective and Hyperacuity ). I think no one should think "Man, I´ll never be able to play something like this", instead, it should be motivating and inspiring.
You´re also right about the money-part ( talked about this a while ago ). His albums don´t bring in a lot of money, I guess, so I am glad for him that he scored the jobs with N´Sync, Timberlake, Enrique and Michael Jackson. This should pay some of his bills, and he gets to play for a bunch of people.

The solo in the intro of his video is amazing, isn´t it ?
Eric

[EricV]

Hold on... what do you mean, "the newer one" ?!?
Did he make another one after "Hot Rock Licks"... ? Cuz that is the only one I know of !
Eric

[szulc]

I have two a real old one with some guy prentending to be from 'taxi' doing awful skits in between lessons and a newer one with just greg showing his chops and explaining his technique.
I the old one Greg is just a young guy.
The newer one came out in the mid to late 90's.

[EricV]

The old one ( with the weird dude in between ) is "Hot Rock Licks", the video Greg did for REH. That´s the only one I know off.

I never heard about him doing a second one. So I guess you have a real rarity there... now I´m jealous ...
Eric