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  • I'm speechless!! This guy is a guitar Virtuoso, with a capital V!

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  • Shawn reminds me a lot of coltrane, they were both monsters in their own right on the quest for absolute spirituality. The point of these guitar solos wasnt to show off or shred. It was more to achieve a higher musical intensity, listen to "My Favourite things live at the Olatunji Concert" That was probably where shawn was aiming.

  • I just had a picture in my mind of someone who had never heard of Shawn before and was maybe just a student at MI went to see the concert late and walked in on that. Can you imagine?

  • i havent heard anyone play with such accuracy although to me it doesnt sound much melodic but this guy is Great !

  • I admire his playing, but I can't stand his music.

  • Words cannot to begin to explain this. This performance is beyond all that. Just 1 little phrase of this is more intelligent then all the words a person could come up with in a life time. All the guitarist that ever have lived cannot begin to dream of having a vocabulary to play like this. Holdsworth is the only one that could I think that could at least make an attempt at least. All others would just cry.

  • Nobody place like this guy! out of this world!

  • boring

    

  • boring

    

  • @MegaYoshitsune Any newcomers to Shawn should listen to him play Once Upon a Time in the West, Death Theme, Epilouge for Lisa, Rules of the Game, Get You Back, Personae, or just pretty much anything from any of his albums. And so what if he's showing off? In all the versions of this Iv'e seen the auidence always seem to cheer like crazy. Iv'e never seen or heard anyone play anything like this, and this isn't supposed to be nice and accesiable, it's supposed to sound ''outside.''

  • i dont care about who this guy is or if any1 doesnt like my comment. I dont like him or his music. I dont see myself going into my car to turn on this garbage. this sound makes me want to murder a cat and skin it alive. its horrible

  • MEMPHIS! is where rock started and the best guitarist ever shawn lane is from!

  • Shawn was too sick,I miss his playing.

  • I love how the crowd erupted in applause after the end of this song, I would have been that guy going "YEAH!!!" if I were there :/

  • Nothing i say can describe how ama- awes- inspir- epi- beaut-.... i just have nothing.

  • Mind bending, but let's face it...not very good music...

  • Now I wanna see classical violinists fucking do this. I hate when guitarists like Shawn, Jason Becker etc. aren't respected.

  • @0ptriX

    I also think it's very inspired by what coltrane used to do. Look up Sheets of sound if you're interested

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  • wtf is this shit?

  • @metalliholic and no im not bashing i meant that in a "0_0 wtf did i just witness!!!" type of thing.

  • Hehe, the first little bit before he starts melting faces sounds a lot like the opening of an Allan Holdsworth solo... I do like how even in this nonsensical shredding he's being thematic and musical. Shawn Lane was an absolute genius and all the greats to come will take something from him

  • uh, okay he plays very, very, VERY fast . . . but FAST shredding doesn't necessarily translate to good music . . . c'mon -- no disrespect, but seems to me he misses the point in a big way . . .

  • @patubo Bro you obv don't have a clue about his body of work if you say he's "missing the point".

  • @patubo nope at all.. did you read the title? its just a solo..man this is not a song =s

    have you heard his compositions?

    plz man read before you comment."""

  • when it comes down to it he is the greatest of all time

  • No doubt Lane was an alien, RIP.

  • His scales are out of this freaking world. His phrasing is absolutely stone cold sick. Great fret work! Love it!

  • Shawn was a master. You can tell they're having fun here. Sean Rickman is laughing when they're looking at each other during that crazy part in the middle. Awesome. RIP Shawn.

  • So... Aliens can shred too

  • What amps and effects did this great man use?

  • with the right harmony backing this would sound even more amazing.

  • Holy Mother Of An Undying God!!!! He Has Got To Be The Fastest Guitarist In History!!!! I Bow Down To Thee!!!

    RIP Shawn Lane!!! \m/

  • ok so John Petrucci or this guy?

  • @y00ked Obv Lane is faster than Petrucci, but thats kinda trivial and pointless. Its SL's phrasing and taste that puts him at #1 for me.

  • @y00ked John Petrucci would probably say "this guy". ;-)

    There's a video interview on here where John Petrucci mentions that he took some dvd's of Shawn with him on tour to try and learn something from them.

  • @MyShawnLaneVideos fo sho, I'm pushing more towards Shawn as well, but John has some crazy solo's as well.. constant motion comes to mind..the glass prison..

  • @MyShawnLaneVideos what interview is that?

  • @Kingding6 I've just posted a link to it on the info section of my main channel page here! ;)

  • @y00ked john petrucci referred to shawn lane as the master of legato along with allan holdsworth i agree completely

  • @brandon5pennies Try the King of everything guitar related under the sun

  • @Kingding6 i agree his tremolo use is simply the greatest thing i've EVER heard it makes me really happy whenever i hear it lol

  • @y00ked i love petrucci with all my heart but shawn lane could and most likely was the best electric guitarist ever. (technically)

  • @y00ked Don't be ignorant Shawn Lane can only be compared to a couple of guitarists and Petrucci is not on that list. He's a great Guitarist no doubt but he doesn't fall into the same categoey as Shawn Lane.

  • @pastuiedada Guitarists who approach or are on Shawn's leval are Holdsworth, Govan, De Lucia, Lagrene, Django. I'm prob missing a few, but Shawn will always be the greatest for me.

  • @y00ked silly question the question doesn't even involve Petrucci, maybe Gilbert or this guy, or Les Paul or this guy, even Govan or this guy. Petrucci is good, but not that good.

  • @badger43ver

    I know a lot of guitarists, and i cannot think of anyone else who can do this. It does sound like unmusical noise to any non guitarist though.

  • @badger43ver I know willjay clearified this already. But this is shawn lane trying to "bend the ear". just listen to five of his songs. no wait two of his songs then judge.

  • So many people misunderstand the purpose of this improv. This is just an off the cuff, outside the box, example of some ideas without any planning. And there are VERY few IF any guitar players out there who can do what Shawn did. That is why the best in the business have nothing but praise and admiration for a master who left us way too early.

  • @badger43ver its not a song smartness, its a showcase. Check out his albums to hear his music

  • ...technically amazing but music with real scales sounds better^^

  • shawn lan is a god!!!!!!!!!!!

  • the judges must have been like ".....holy fucking shit I think he just made Jesus jealous ".

  • I just shat out my skeleton through and awesomeness overdose.

  • This sort of reminds me of the sped up playing from John Petrucci's "Psycho Excercises" xD

  • LOL!!

  • what the....

    I have no fucking words...

  • I think this is where some of the motivation for Buckethead's playing with Praxis came from.

  • Buckethead was totally inspired by Lane,specially his technique.

  • @lordhalo1605 Yeah dude. I think Pebber Brown and Gilbert were big influences on him as well. Guys like Lane and Buckethead always provide me with some motivation when I get bored with playing the guitar.

  • Yeah Lane and Buckethead are big motivations to play guitar too when I'm bored,but sometimes when I watch them I feel like I just have to quit guitar,xD.

  • 0:35 - 0:48 :O diminished and augmented intervals =O

  • One of the few who could shred with emotion. Do not confuse showing off with true feeling and technique. He was gifted and he developed his style accordingly.

  • what the... his hands look fucking unreal.

  • people watching this thinking this is Shawn lane at his peak of playing you are mistaken He can go much further than this and i have heard it!!

    This video will cause earths gravitational field to deplete but i have heard Shawn Lane punching a whole in time it's self.

  • My face just fell off.

  • so far, that kind of skills have only been possible in my dreams....amazing

  • Truly a demonstration on not only his incredible technical skill and precision to sound good at fast rates with a clear mistakeless sound, but also his a) knowledge of theory, b) ability to play "outside the chord changes" and sound good, and c) his ability to sound incredible with a jazz fusion style more or less. a feat that i dare say no one else has done ever. its like pat metheney on speed or something!

  • I AM SPEECHLESS!!!

  • :O !!!!!!!

  • he's obviously good with the fingers, but after about 15 sec it gets boring. After that I couldn't help thinking, "where's the tastefulness? Are you gonna end your endless phrase with a chance for me to take in what you just played? Fuck's sake! Breathe!"

  • Can you imagine being a young guitar player going to MIT and seeing Shawn Lane do this? IN NINETEEN NINETY THREE! My balls would be fuckin' unapologetically blown off... not that they aren't right now........

  • what just happened

  • A Tremor in the time space continuum maybe?

  • GREAT SCOTT!

  • who is the drummer?

  • The amazing Sean Rickman.

  • that guitar just got violated.

  • My god.

  • Im surprised the time and space continium is still intact

  • 0:35 Pacman :D

  • the twilight zoneeeeeee

  • As a guitarist this is probably the scariest thing i've ever seen, he's just so damn good

  • 0:35 - 0:48!! Damn how does he do those diminished and augmented triads so fast and clean =D

  • Shawn was one degree of separation from me, and I still never got to meet him. I know a few of his students, and GIT was reeling with bootleg tapes, when I attended in '89. He visited the school years later, but a few of us knew about the Memphis Monster. apb

  • i wish i had the natural finger advantages shawn had. my fingers are like three inches theyre freaking small. R.I.P. shawn lane.

  • GOD DAM HE IS BADASS!!!!!

  • this was the very first video i saw of shawn lane. it came to me at a time when i thought i had seen everything (gambale, bryan baker, holdsworth, mclaughlin, paco) but this completely turned my world upside down. i love shawn lane! my inspiration!

  • This guy is amazing

  • Willie... "Buckethead was in the audience." I can't help but think that after this solo, the normally reserved and quiet Buckethead yelled out, "Yeah SHAAAWN!!!

  • Justified cheers at the end :0)

  • Simply out of this world ...

    it will never be another like Shawn, I think any guitarist is dwarfed by Shawn

  • The guy has a natural advantage in that he can reach 6 1/2 octaves between his first two fingers...

  • yeah but you have to have the talent as well to use that advantage, also u can reach more if you have a smaller scale guitar

  • 2:13 - 2:17 Wonderfull

  • the audience is silent because shawn killed them with his shredding

  • This video is just scary in terms of technique. Just wow....

  • quoting paul gilbert, Shawn's the most terrifying dude around in that department.

  • He has really small hands.

  • Paul was right... when I saw this, I fell to the ground with my teeth chattering!!!

  • no one mentioned him in the 80's because they all got together and said,"Nobody mention this guitar player or we will all be out of jobs" and also don't let him near a piano, he will take over that too!! easy to call it bull shit "rent a pecker" when you probably can't play mary had a little lamb.

  • If only i could have got lessons from him R.I.P Shawn we all miss you

    (and love your music)

  • The thing that gets me is i never heard of Shawn lane back in the 80's, i listened to Vinnie Moore,Micheal angelo,Jason Becker,Marty Friedman,.And many others, And buckethead mentions were he got some ideas or a lot i should say..And he said Shawn lane..In a 2005 magazine yngwie, and bucket front cover...

  • Shawn Lane is as technical as Buckethead is diverse. I don't even need to say how much that is.

  • Buckethead was actually in the audience watching this perticular gig, so was Scott Henderson (and quite possibly more known guitarists for all i know).

  • Seriously? Wow, I'd give nearly anything to see reaction shots of them.

    Thanks for that interesting tidbit.

  • Shawn's the best. But that's of course an understatement. This video is really a pleasure to watch. And yeah, I still got chills from it.

    This video is amazing in so many ways. I was even thinking about how good the drums sounded. It's like a stoney techno groove kinda dealio. Emphasizes Shawn's "outside sound".

    RIP

  • He has the speed of a Kenyan on that fretboard. I would've loved to see this or any one of his concerts, Sean Rickman and Shawn Lane.... What a pair.

  • My god, a mathematician should study those patterns, he might discover something incredible......

  • 1:16, I SWEAR you can hear tap/slides in there... The scary thing is, he's only using his left hand on the fretboard!!! O.O

  • Yes, Shawn does with just his left hand what most people have to do with both hands..... scary!

  • Ah yes, the 'whistling' lick - one of the best of all time. :D

  • "Whistling Lick"... lol... now there's a great name for it! :-D

  • ok thats not physically possible.....wdf

    i am just....ok i need to ... omg... ok i need to lie on my bed and actually process what i just saw

  • Everyone who is bashing shawn lane have some shame your jerks he is such a phenomenal guitar player and musician this is just an improvisation example of speed idiots say crap all the time but to anything against shawn lane is just wrong WRONG so shut the hell up and listen and if you can't appreciate him get the hell out of here! Blood ignorant fools!!!!

    Shawn Lane RIP you were the man.

  • He still is the man.

  • Indeed he will always Be THE MAN :)

  • i respect your opinions and i still like this guy anyway without him some of my favorite guitarists would be no where.

  • everyone just shut the fuck up and listen...

  • "Generic drum beats". Oh man. Have to hate those generic fusion drummers.

    This is an exhibition section, not a melody.

  • its shawn going freeform and i dont belive you can really judge his writing skills here. thats kind of like judgeing coltrane's writing skills when your listening to interstellar space.

  • Call Guiness, that must be like the most notes ever played on a Charvel in one song or something lol.

  • This is him "going off" but if you listen to songs like "Epilogue for Lisa" (even Rusty Cooley version shows good song writing can be repeated and you know how Rusty is known for way out there shredding). Songs on Powers Of Ten and Tri Tone Fascination show that Shawn has the writing skills. Very little shred in those (for Shawn) and those are pretty much why this kind of video is popular. If not for his writing focus everyone would agree with you. But check those out, you will be surprised.

  • There's sort of a pattern of shredders getting to a point where they start to realize they have other things to offer. I'm sure Shawn may have had pressure from record companies (Powers Of Ten they even made two versions, overiding his decision to do all the instruments). I happen to have a copy of the version that wasn't changed. He not only learned to write great songs, he learned how to play them on drums, piano, bass and sound good at it. Maybe his "mistake" was not doing that earlier.

  • dude ! i have read your comment about your finger. Anyway I'm in the same situation. i can't play for 2 years cause i'm a missionary of our church. it's hard for me to not practice. and you said that you're in med school? that's pretty amazing!! You must be pretty samart!~! Anyway do you think i can still play the way i did months ago? I have a video at youtube. check it out . just type: osel pentatonic licks.I play paul gilbert stuff and malmsteen too. please reply!thank you.

  • Shawn played notes that don't even exist !

  • shawn lane gives me chills down my spine and my entire body!

  • i think by any standard, shawn is hell above every body

  • *is going to tab this shit up*

  • WHAT DID HE CLOCK IN!?!?

  • 'thats jazz'

  • Damn! I always kept my Centrifugal Funk CD with shawn lane on it. He is amazing.

    Shawn Lane R.I.P.

  • That is ridiculous win skill.

  • If any guitarist starts getting cocky about his/her playing show then this; that will humble if anything will.

  • simply amazing, I've tried to do all the stuff he does, I've practiced for weeks and months for countless hours and it consumed my life!!!!! I still can't play that fast ): only one lick, only one diminished lick I can do up to speed!!! fuck me!! it's like breaking the speed of light I swear!

  • I used to be able to do half of that diminished like up to speed. I could do the whole thing sloppy if I two hand tapped it. I could never make those two minor third stretches with my left hand like he did. That's 8 frets from index to pinky playing that fast.  GOOOD GOD!

  • yeah, I don't know how I lost it all ):

  • I know how I lost it. I spiral fractured my pinky finger on my fretting hand playing football and literally could not make a fist without horrible pain for four years. It took another four years just to get full mobility back into the finger. However, I can dislocate it on que now. It doesn't hurt, but it's a cool party trick lol. That and it is crooked as a politician when you compare it to the pinky on my right hand. 8 years without practice screwed me.

  • wow, that must have sucked pretty bad ):

  • Yeah, the I went for a tackle and my pinky got twisted in a guys t-shirt and as I tried to pull my hand away, it like twisted the pinky in the opposite direction and spiral fractured my pinky 360 degrees all the way around from the top knuckle all the way down. The doctor told me I was lucky it didn't snap any of the flexor or extensor tendons or I would have been in surgery. I only had to wear a splint for God knows how long. I didn't want to pick up a guitar it hurt so bad.

  • damn, well how is the guitar playing, if you're playing at all?

  • Well as far as theory, chords, and rhythmic types of playing, I am fine. I have been back playing for almost two and a half years now so that is good. As far as my speed playing is concerned, I just don't have the amount of time I used to. I have been in medical school and playing for 5 or 6 hours a day didn't help make the grades I needed, so I would go for a couple of months and not play much at a time. I have a good bit more time now to devote to practice and I think I can get good again.

  • And by good I mean, playing my scales with 16th notes near to or aroud 140-150 bpm and 8th notes up to around 180-200. In high school and college until I broke my finger I could quite easily his those speeds with a little practice and get them pretty damn clean sounding. Believe it or not, right now, the problem isn't my left hand speed, it's my alternate picking. I can't get the two synced up correctly. So that is what am working on now. Speaking of which, time to go practice. Take it easy.

  • ahh yes good luck with that, usually I use lagato instead of picking them, hope you get it right.

  • The scary thing is, he could probably analyse all the notes and prove to you how organised it all was. One thing this isn't, is a "random shred".

  • he's so fast.....

    damn....

    it's a pity that Shawn already gone...

  • MOMMY! He ate my NES!

  • his legatos are sick!

  • my mom told me i could be anything and do anything when i grew up

    she lied, cuz there's no way im going to be anywhere near shawn in 100 years

    liar

  • ROFL!!!!

  • lol!!

  • this is what being in a intergalactical wormhole feels like

  • I just heard more notes in 3 minutes and 16 seconds that I'd hear in one hour of normal music. I type very fast, but I cannot even type as fast as this guy plays. Thats heroic virtuosity on display there

  • lmfao...hahahahahahah u are so true, dude this motherfucker is fast as fuck. The sad part is that he was inspired by fusion virtuoso Allan Holdsworth and even a guitar God like allan holdsworth even to this day cant touch what Shawn Lane did decades ago. he is God !!!

  • dude i just had like 9 babies

  • Shawn was a gift from God. The fastest and the most gifted guitar player ever born. RIP Shawn.

  • What brand of guitar its that?

  • he played Vigier guitars from 1995 on looks like it could be a Charvel but the headstock logo doesn't look right

  • i believe he is playing a carvin in this video

  • It's a Charvel. He didn't play Carvin guitars, at least not that I've seen.

  • yeah i think you're right it kinda looked like a carvin

  • Its a charvel, the same charvel he plays at most of his videos

  • @dittoddr Charvel 750XL set-neck model with arch top.

  • 0:44 insane!!!!!!

  • LOL

    he is a NINTENDO

  • FRIGHTENING!!!! LOL

  • and the best part is, he could explain to you every single note he played if he was alive, "Now you see right there I was shifting between aeolian and diminished arpeggios performed in 5ths all over the different positions of the neck." LOVE YOU SHAWN!

  • RIP SHAWN

  • the drummer is really good too.

    Also, is this 4/4 or some other weird time signature? I can't seem to figure it out.

  • 4/4 is not wierd but this definitly is a wierd time sig. The drummer is amazing.

  • Absolutely sick, as he got a bit older the melodies came out, and they were incredible....

  • fucking insane guitar player

  • sean rickman was the only guy who could possibly match shawm lane musicly and stylisticly.

  • I love it !!!!!

  • well i believe bucketead was taught by shawn lane so that would make sense

  • i thought buckethead was taught by paul gilbert?