Why Jeff Beck is a legend of breathtaking guitar playing

When Jeff Beck picks up his guitar and starts playing, we can hardly hear anything more creatively unique and exciting... He has always been, and certainly remains, one of the the best lead guitaristswho critics call a true "string madman"! With his playing, Beck completely captures us - attacking our minds with his strange tones and previously unheard of techniques. He has a constant barrage of bizarre ideas! He super guitarist and a living legend, marking an entire era.

In fact, Jeff Beck is the man who has always skilfully justified "excesses". He played longer, louder, faster, and fancier than any of his contemporaries, allowing himself liberties which for a man . "smaller" (in terms of reputation, big name and talent) would be totally inexcusable!

So what sets him apart from the nameless crowd that has tried to emulate him over the past few decades? Most likely, it's the vast the imagination of a "madman"The stunning quality of his technique and his special attitude, to which he gives a thousand per cent!

Unlimited freedom, blues and country music

Unlike Jimmy PageBeck has always lacked a coherent vision for his music. Page is a composer, producer and arranger, as well as a guitarist, of course. But Beck, with all due respect, is incapable of handling all those roles. He's virtuosowho's a master of his guitar! And that's where his skills end, and the magic is just beginning....

Jeff was first a guitarist of his generation who embraced the pure sound associated with exploratory technique. Pete Townsend was dabbling with feedback around the same time, but his experiments were less related to playing technique.

Beck was part of The Yardbirdsand he played a lot with blues and bluegrass musicians. For this reason, some of country music's "tricks" were incorporated into his style long before the emergence of what would later become known as country rock.

Crazy improvisation

Among other things, Beck was into feedback, wow-wows, fuzz boxes and more effects. But his advanced mastery of them was very secondary in importance. Of course, Jeff was a brilliant master of special effects, but above all his global role was played by his improvisational flairthat was unmistakable. He almost never came close to cliché, and his almost limitless knowledge of the possibilities of the electric guitar allowed him to squeeze sounds out of his Telecaster, Stratocaster or Les Paul that no one else even knew existed.

Let us consider his virtuosity by way of example "Over Under Sideways Down" The Yardbirds. In the intro he does a very dignified job of playing a kind of Hungarian gypsy fiddler, and later his playing becomes an Arabian temple hum!

His first solo album, Truth, which was also worked on by Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, John Paul Jones and other gurus of the past, features a classic slow blues called "Blues Deluxe".

When Beck starts his solo, stopping the whole band to play a completely extraneous riffthe listener's breathing becomes shallower and quieter. This is something cosmic, unique!

"Total tastelessness."

Now, you may be very surprised, but: Beck's secret is that he's totally tasteless! That's not our opinion, but the critics, who take their cue from Jerry Garcia's definition of ! "tasteful guitar playing.". What is Jeff's "blandness"? Well, probably in the fact that he's too shouty, too loud, too florid and too extroverted. It's that his acting challenges to all the conventional conventions of what is usually considered "good" playing. His extraordinary combination of boundless technical ability and outrageous imagination turns the rules by which most guitarists are judged into nonsense.

But most importantly, his uniquely distinctive technique works! He became a legend for a reason. He stands out from other guitarists - Beck has his own phenomenal "signature". And you have to hand it to him, because not everyone can turn his crazy vision into a reality. classically and a pattern for decades.