What is the meaning of the word virtuoso? And what really makes a virtuoso?
1.musician with masterly ability, technique, or personal style. 2.A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.
I believe that Paul Gilbert is the perfect example of a virtuoso, and in this essay I will cover all the reasons why he is a true virtuoso.
Gilbert was born in 1966 and first picked up a guitar at the age of 5 in 1971. Gilbert contacted Mike Varney, founder of Shrapnel records in 1981. He sent him a demo, and asked to play with Ozzy Osborne on stage. Although Varney denied his request, as he was too young, he was however very impressed with his demo, and they kept in contact until Gilbert attended G.I.T (Guitar Institute of Technology). Not only is he still one of their most outstanding students, he also won the "LA Guitar Wars".
Whilst still a student at G.I.T Gilbert formed the band Racer X in 1985.They were heavily influenced by Judas Priest and Gilbert's playing was reminiscent of Malmsteen, displaying fast-driven solos with extreme-level technique.
The band recorded their debut album Street Lethal, which started off with the incredible guitar solo "Frenzy", and also featured "Y.R.O.", a metal instrumental featuring Gilbert's version of Paganini's "Perpetual Motion". Gilbert gained recognition as one of the fastest guitar players in the world due to the incredibly technical pieces of "Frenzy Scarified", "Y.R.O." and "Scit Scat Wah". In 1988, however, Gilbert left the band and Racer X was no more. In the same year Gilbert formed another band named Mr.Big. The band was initially a huge success in Japan, and became famous internationally in 1991, with the release of their second album, Lean Into It. This album featured the ballad "To Be With You", which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.With Mr. Big, Gilbert showed that he also was a great "band-guitarist", cutting back on the speed a bit, playing some quite melodic and tasteful leads.
Gilbert in 1997 left Mr Big to pursue a solo career. He realised his first solo album King of Clubs, featured a track called "The Jam" which is an 18 minute jam between Gilbert and Bruce Bouillet, Gilbert's rhythm guitarist from Racer X.
1999 saw the reformation of Racer X and they recorded a further 2 albums Technical Difficulties and Superheroes which were very popular in Japan.
Gilbert used to write his own section for Total Guitar magazine, but now writes a column for Guitar World, called Shred Alert.
Mr Big reformed last month for a reunion tour in Japan, and Gilbert is currently on the Guitar Generation Tour with George Lynch and Richie Kotzen.
Gilbert has earned the reputation as the fast guitarist in the world. As far as technical ability goes for an instrument you cannot get much better in one field than being awarded that title.
This makes for a very amazing stage presence when performing live. Being a Heavy Metal guitarist you would automatically assume that he would hold the “Rock and Roll” image on stage, as it is very much a persona that is associated with Lead guitarists. Although Gilbert on stage does take on the persona of the Metal God, off stage he is a very different person, and realises that in the music industry, if you're not a correct portrayal for a certain genre then you're not going to be very successful. Gilbert even onstage does bring a sense of humanity to his performances.
Being classed as the world's fastest guitar player you might expect Gilbert to almost play mechanically with no feeling, but this is very incorrect. One example of his amazing technique also playing with great emotion is Gilbert's guitar solo in “Whilst my guitar gently weeps” by the Beatles. The guitar itself holds a whole number of metaphors to do with stage presence. The guitarist is seems as a predominantly male object, and symbolises the male entity. The shape of the guitar being very phallic hints at sex and when guitar solos are played there is often an ‘eruption of music’ symbolising the phallic idea further. In this particular performance Gilbert even uses his teeth, in a very Hendrix style, which again symbolises guitar fellatio as the guitarist appears almost in love with their guitar through the emotion they omit. Metaphorically speaking it is rather much more of a sexual relationship with their guitar than a performance with an object. Paul Gilbert's guitar in this performance is actually very reminiscent of a violin. It is shaped as a violin and has two F Holes down the body of the guitar. The violin often represents the feminine. This is rather much like Paganini,
‘the violin was figured as an innocent woman subjected to the licentious assaults of a vicious criminal using the bow as a phallus/weapon. While some of this imagery arose specifically in response to Paganini’s virtuosity, much of it drew on the violin’s ancient folkloric associations. It was the combination of these elements that created an explosively violent and pornographic allegory out of musical performance.’
Gilbert also uses his right hand in a tapping motion part way through the solo to give a particular effect which could be seen as maybe caressing a woman, or perhaps creating a bigger eruption of music.
Gilbert offstage is rather humorous, and seems to enjoy the funny side of rock. I think this gives him a sense of individualism, and humanity. For example the names of his two bands are rather odd, Racer X and Mr Big. The names of his albums and songs are also very humorous. One is called Y.R.O which stands for Yngwie Rip Off, as he plays a solo of Paganini`s Perpetual Motion, and B.R.O. which stands for Bach Rip off, which I’m sure you can guess why! I will come back to this a little later. Gilbert has also recorded a cover of the spice girls “2 become 1” which definitely is not very Heavy Metal! He is very modest, and does not seem very big headed, which is strange as most guitarists in his field of elitism are rather concerned with the self. He runs his website by himself, and has a whole album of funny Photoshop photos he has made sticking his head on other peoples bodies and images. The way he presents himself also shows his very human side. In his Guitars from Mars (Classical) guitar tuition video his introduction is as follows:
“Hey man, this is Paul Gilbert, and of course I play guitar for the band ‘Mr Big’. ‘Mr Big’ is a rock band, and I play rock guitar most of the time. But I’ve also learned a lot and had a really good time playing a lot of stuff that I’ve learned from classical music. So today in this video, were going to have a look at a lot of that, hopefully you can play along and learn some of it too. Umm..most classical guitar players actually use their fingers and an acoustic classical guitar, to play their classical music, but I do a different thing. I really am not good at the finger thing so I still use my pick and a lot of the examples we will be doing will be using distorted electric guitar, and imitating the sounds of cellos and violins, and even pianos. So hope you have a good time, and before you get started here's a famous person to help you tune!”
Putting himself down when he is an amazing guitarist is something other would not do, it also makes the consumer believe that it is possible to be as good as Gilbert, because in fact Gilbert has not mastered everything on the guitar. Also, the ending when he refers to “here's a famous person to help you tune” is rather humorous and shows a kind of humanitarianism, as he is not including himself as a famous person. This shows he does not have such a big ego as many other guitarists.
This bring me onto my next point. Gilbert has played many appropriations of Classical Music. Gilberts most famous being the track Y.R.O. from Racer X's Street Lethal album. This was obviously written for and played on a violin, but Gilbert has transformed the piece into one for electric guitar. This is very clever, and would of took a lot of figuring out. Gilbert also released another classical track called B.R.O. (Bach Rip Off) following the same idea. Gilbert then released a video called Guitars from Mars (Classical) which was a video of himself playing various appropriations from various composers from the classical era. He also shows tutorials on how best to achieve the effects that he does. He took compositions and transformed not only the melody: in some instances he has transformed a piece played on organ with 2 hands into a piece for guitar but has combined both bass and treble into one line of music. One example of this would be his appropriation of Bach’s "Toccata and Fugue". To give the effect of a pedal on a harpsichord or organ, Gilbert has adapted a “Tapping” technique to wear in his right hand he uses his index finger to tap the strings instead of plucking or strumming them to give a more realistic tone to the piece. Gilbert's appropriation of Vivaldi`s Four Seasons, he actually uses his right and as a pizzicato device like you would on a violin. Another notable appropriation of Gilbert's is his version of Bach’s Harpsichord Sonata. This time he actually recreates the trills in the piece on the guitar, using prolonged hammering on and offs, and obviously coming into the trill from a lower note like on a classical instrument. He also put in a turn at the end of the piece, which is never strictly used in Heavy Metal music.
The most stunning of his appropriations is his version of Haydn’s symphony No.88. He has recreated every single instrument in the orchestra on his guitar, and in production arranged each part together so the whole symphony is played entirely on guitar:
"The first song I recorded was the Haydn symphony. I used my guitar to replicate every instrument in the orchestra. I learned bassoon parts, oboe parts, cello, clarinet, flute, bass, viola, and of course, the main violin parts. The arpeggios and scale sequences in classical music are always a challenge to play on guitar, so I have no choice but to invent some unusual fingerings to make the notes happen. After recording the whole piece, I was definitely warmed up to do the rest of the record!"
Gilbert understandably found this one of the hardest pieces he has ever learnt to play.
"I don't practice ALL the time, but often enough. I definitely had to practice for the Haydn symphony!"
In this album Gilbert has tried to recreate the instruments the pieces of music were originally written for on an electrical guitar. The guitar he plays his classical music on even resembles a violin as I mentioned earlier, only this time the volume and switch has been hidden inside the guitar so that from a distance the guitar actually looks exactly like a violin or a viola. Recording a tuition video for this as well helps to introduce and encourage more people who may not be great lovers of classical music, to listen and enjoy it.
Gilbert is a great lover of creating new techniques and adding his own improvising to other people's music as well as his own. He has actually created a piece of music that involves a human capo. This is guitar piece that changes key constantly, and is played on a double neck guitar. The key to this piece is using a human holding their finger in place as a capo and moving at the correct time to create such a unique piece of music. This also brings about another element of performance all together. He also uses a sustain pedal, to keep certain keys playing whilst he moves through others.
I think the information I have provided has shown that not only is Paul Gilbert a virtuoso in his own right because of his amazing technical abilities, he is also virtuosic in the sense that he can create such unique appropriations of classical music, and discover such cunning and interesting guitar techniques. He stands out from other virtuosi because he is not self obsessed, or obsessed with perfection as he freely admits he is not good at every guitar technique. He doesn’t have ‘ego mania’ or come across as a charlatan but as a music lover. Gilbert has a type of humanity about him and his performances, he has the ability to play as fast and as clean any other set of 10 fingers in the world. It’s the heart that he brings to the performance, a sense of, ‘I don’t want you to be astonished; I just want you to enjoy the music’.
