Ron Jarzombek: I hate the word “shred”. And I'm not pulling any of this “speed” vs. “feel” crap.

The quest to become faster has killed a guitarist’s power of expression in songs to some extent. Honestly, where do you think music is heading these days, how do you see it in the future? With all the advanced technicality, theory, gadgets, more people getting into microtonal stuff, is it getting more difficult for a new age musician to come up with something fresh?

Ron: I hate the word “shred”. And I’m not pulling any of this “speed” vs. “feel” crap. You can have both, neither, or one or the other. I just think that writing, creating and just being musical is getting lost. I get so sick of all of these shred contests where guitar players play over some lame 4/4 track that someone else wrote and recorded, then post their “shred” online and think they are some great “musician”. How about work with a concept, do something interesting rhythmically, put some themes together, construct something with some substance, etc… Actually, I cringe when anyone calls me a “shredder”. If that implies that I occasionally play fast, OK fine, but please look into my writing, musical knowledge and my ability to work with concepts... Things that really make someone a guitarist/musician/composer. I just don't care to get lumped in with these speed demons who can’t even read music notation and don't know the purpose of a metronome. It really made my day several weeks ago when I saw an online clinic with Tosin Abasi (Animals As Leaders guitarist) and he stressed that learning theory and writing is very important to being a guitar player/musician.

As far as technology goes, I'm OK with that. I guess it started with synthesizers back when I was a kid, now you have instruments being played on iPhones. I understand that recording technology has improved drastically, and some people don't like it. It's just the way it is now. If it's there, take advantage of it. I remember the days very well though of me "punching in" with a foot pedal, wearing out analog tapes until they broke, etc... Now it's all so convenient. Back in the old days if you had a good take but thought you could do better, once you hit that record button your previous take is gone. Now you just hit undo, or save as another file/track. Pretty simple.

Read the full metal wani interview: http://www.metalwani.com/2014/01/interview-ron-jarzombek-on-current.html

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