Fripp on Guitar Technicalities

So this talentless non-singing guitarist practiced his butt off for 12 hours a day (similar to virtuosos such as Vai) to hone the technical side of his guitar playing in order to remove any sort of barrier it might have held between him and the music.

Mirrors, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Fracture, Frame by Frame, Frakctured, The World's My Oyster Soup paino solo..... so his ability to sustain speedy and precise guitar lines as well as hop miles across his fret board in a split second have been displayed over the years.  However, I must admit my Fripp experience is contained within the King Crimson sphere.  Thus I've never seen him play 20 note-per-second alternative picking lines.

Which, apparently, is something he is quite capable of.  Or something close to that.  Scattered reading and sparse hints here and there have sparked my curiosity - is Fripp able to completely shred solos?  For some reason, this question seemed worthy of a forum post to me.

Edit: So I decided adding on to this post would be easier than rewording it.

1. I am not judging or criticizing Robert Fripp in any way.
2. I recognize RF's accomplishments in many areas of his work, such as King Crimson, Frippertronics-->Soundscapes, Guitar Craft, and guitar form/technique.
3. I do NOT believe shredding to be any sort of "benchmark" or something to strive to be able to do.
4. I DO believe Fripp is able to shred, although he chooses not to for many reasons which have been mentioned in this thread.
5. I am just asking if he is able to shred, because, as Avantgardehead put it, it would be "nice to see."

Oh and 6., my question has been answered.  Just warding off the flames.

Edit 2: Turns out he goes pretty crazy on the Elephant Talk DVD, during the Thrak improv a little bit before Adrian takes an electric screwdriver to his Stratocaster.


Edited by Unsouled - May 13 2008 at 22:06

Unsouled wrote: So this talentless non-singing guitarist practiced his butt off for 12 hours a day - is Fripp able to completely shred solos?

this is gonna be controversial   

He can shred very well, actually. I think it was his second time on G3 when he brought a King Crimson with him and he was going crazy. He would be playing this super-fast progression without even looking at the fretboard...

DJPuffyLemon wrote: i like how everyone jumped on the opening sentense and completely ignored everything else. I would help but unfortunately, there really are no videos on youtube (and in extention the internet) that show Fripp shredding.....

What else do you expect on a prog forum when somebody calls an icon "talentless."

Also, seeing as the rest of the post was nearly incomprehensible, that also made things more difficult for those trying to respond to the thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o-FP0m_TNI

There's a pretty good alternate picking thing near the beginning.

I know there's more somewhere...

Pnoom! wrote: DJPuffyLemon wrote: i like how everyone jumped on the opening sentense and completely ignored everything else. I would help but unfortunately, there really are no videos on youtube (and in extention the internet) that show Fripp shredding..... What else do you expect on a prog forum when somebody calls an icon "talentless." Also, seeing as the rest of the post was nearly incomprehensible, that also made things more difficult for those trying to respond to the thread.

I think the original poster meant that Fripp began with no talent for playing the guitar, but practised like hell to become better.

MikeEnRegalia wrote: DJPuffyLemon wrote: i like how everyone jumped on the opening sentense and completely ignored everything else. Teaches you something about the importance of the first sentence in any form of conversation.

Looked like some people didn't even get past the "talentless" word to even read the rest of sentence. 
My big question would then be how do you define "shredding"? 

My impression is that it's playing really fast, sloppiness be damned.  When you shred paper, don't you make a neatly sliced mess of it?


Edited by Slartibartfast - May 03 2008 at 07:43

Haven't really listened to Deep Purple, so it's not really a frame of reference I can latch on to.  Big Steve Morse fan though.  Anyone qualify him as a shredder?

Slartibartfast wrote: Haven't really listened to Deep Purple, so it's not really a frame of reference I can latch on to.  Big Steve Morse fan though.  Anyone qualify him as a shredder?

MikeEnRegalia wrote: DJPuffyLemon wrote: i like how everyone jumped on the opening sentense and completely ignored everything else. Teaches you something about the importance of the first sentence in any form of conversation.

Sure as hell does. :)