MARTY FRIEDMAN - "Making Music Is About Life Experiences, Taking Your Feelings, And Putting Them Into Someone Else's Ears"

15:00 Tuesday, 4 April 2023

Guitar legend Marty Friedman, known for his work in Megadeth, recently sat down with Ultimate Guitar's David Slavković to discuss his current work. In the second part of the interview, Friedman reflected on his stance on so-called "shredder" guitar players, as well as his overall approach to music. Amn excerpt from the chat is available below.

UG: Over the years, you never really conformed to this stereotypical shredder kind of guitar player. Why was that the case? Did you dislike that kind of term? Or you just didn't feel like belonging to a certain category of guitar players and musicians?

Friedman: "I'm not sure what that term 'shredder' means now, but when I was growing up, there was always some kid in somebody's basement who practiced 10 hours a day. And they played so incredibly fast, and accurate, and tricky, and all that stuff. But, to be honest with you, I never thought it sounded very good. But it looked amazing. You look at those fingers, and it looks so exciting, like, 'Wow, this guy's so good,' but if you close your eyes and listen, it's like, 'What this guy's playing will never ever be in a song.' And it could never be something that could become popular. It looks cool on the fingers, but it doesn't sound cool. That's what shredding is to my image. So when I hear that term, that's what I think of. And it's really quite easy to do those things, if you just practice, anything.

But making music is not about practice — making music is about life, life experiences, and taking your feelings, and putting them into someone else's ears. That has less to do with practice and more to do with understanding how to interpret your feelings on whatever instrument you play. And that is a life journey."

When I hear these shredders, sometimes I'm very impressed by the technique, to be honest with you. But I see right through it — I see that this as a guy who's practicing all day. That's wonderful, but if I hear music that really touches me, I'm very interested in the soul of that musician making the music. I feel a human connection to that. And those things have very little to do with mechanical practice."