Scott McGill LIVE at the NYC FretLess Guitar Festival 2006

[johnmmcguire]

Fretless guitar is still a relatively new instrument, and Scott McGill is doing as much as any guitarist (if not more) out there to advance it.

Critics of this video should understand that the performance is very easy to take out of context: there is no bass; there are no keyboards, recorded loops, or any other supporting rhythm instruments behind them, and; this is just an on-the-spot improvisation (with only fretless guitar and drums).

Scott McGill is a world-class guitarist -- period.

[jammerz1972]

Cool performance with Ritchie DeCarlo and Scott McGill--all critics can stuff it.

[andarcalabar]

@jammerz1972

I agree, McGill flat out Rips-It-UP here!

ac

[cptnwham]

holy shit what the fuk is this guy smokin! sounds like a electric discharge kids stepping on his guitar he should change his name to sausagebender! how does he put the bend in it you think?

[babel1967]

This cat looks like he is Jones Beaching. Yep, he is defineately Jones Beaching.... In You Face!!!

[carlosloggiodice]

"atonal music..." as simply as shit... come on.. this is not music.. music is about feeling.. this is not music.. come on.!

[gemmymaster]

ha he teaches me theory he was telling us abhout this performance he was just like "yeah, just picked up this fretless and jammed"

[hlmguitarsaxman]

ha ha he has my dads name

my dads name is scott mcgill!

[carlosloggiodice]

amazing..?? come on.. anyone could do this with 16 bottles of beer and a guitar out of tune.. where is the musical aspect..? scott mcGill make me sick.. people put this guy like he is a genius... but.. i don't think so.. i would like to know what people like steve vai, scott henderson, erick johnson think about this guy..

[HamerD]

Atonal music can be done in many different ways, that's the thing. Atonal playing with structure and argument is quite enjoyable, compared to just a bunch of random notes. There really is a huge difference between drunken crap and good atonal playing. Check out Ornette Coleman.

You should maybe try to open up to the world of atonality, starting with Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern. Check out Allan Holdsworth for someone who does it on guitar very well just like Scott.

[carlosloggiodice]

2:55 "atonal music" ?? come on.. it's just crappy ramdom notes and exercises.. i think it's impossible those ugly notes could really make people feel the emotions of music... and this guy playing music without structure, form, feeling... come on guys.. i know this guy has skills.!! but, this is not music..

[HamerD]

Well emotion doesn't feature in atonal music, as far as I see it. Atonal music is about enjoying the freedom and being excited by its exploration, and what someone can do to make a tune sound valid but not bound to a specific key or chord. It's about excitement and not about emotion.

Believe me, if you put enough effort into listening to a wide variety of atonal music you will suddenly have this light switched on and at least appreciate it enough to accept it as a valid art form.

[ibanezbloke]

Why do people keep saying music is about emotion? That can be one aspect of it, but it is by absolutly no means the measure of it.

[BryanBetts]

wish that i could have been there to see this performance. i saw scott on his new vigier surfreter last september at the old franklin school house in new jersey...amazing! scott is an amazing creative force on guitar and is definitely pushing the envelope and expanding the boundaries that conventional thinking for the guitar has set thus far. too bad people criticise what they don't understand. thanks for posting this video! do you have the remainder of scott's performance?

[B16bitch]

i wanna see him jam with the likes of marty friedman

[Gilliatt83]

great.....

[papalinatava]

please define the difference between music and sport...

[HamerD]

sport is ultimately about winning and music is ultimately about sharing emotion.

[kylemcc]

Scott is incredible. I studied with him for a few weeks this past summer. He can really play. I think his secret is that he studied classical guitar when he was 18.

[twangkenstein]

i like this guy :)