Shawn Lane's Terrifying Chops - A Second Look with Roy Marchbank
Shawn Lane released his first studio album "Powers of Ten" in 1992 through Warner Bros. Records. In a 2009 article by Guitar World magazine, the album was ranked seventh on the all-time top ten list of shred albums.
But was it actually "Shred"?
We asked Fusion Guitar Virtuoso Roy Marchbank to take a second look.
In this "Second Look" series we explore the styles and techniques of many pioneer musicians, in hopes of extracting as much knowledge from the music itself that they have produced over the years.
Roy Marchbank produces the initial video breakdown and transcription for us and then we continue the discussion on The Mediocratics Radio and Podcast. www.themediocr...
We begin this series on Shawn Lane in Honor of his memory.
We thank Vigier Guitars and Patrice Vigier for their assistance in this project.
www.vigierguit...
Comment below any questions or suggestions for analysis. Use the community tab here on this channel to suggest which selections you would like Roy to analyze and we also have a Guestbook/Blog on The Mediocratics website for further discussion as well.
www.themediocr...
All questions will be addressed in the upcoming Podcast as we dive even deeper into this selection in person with Roy.
The PDF file of each piece of music Roy analyses and transcribes can be found on The Roy Marchbank Guitar website : www.roymarchba...
Please subscribe to Roy's KZread channel as well here: / slanshroom
#ShawnLane #RoyMarchbank #ItLooksSpedUp
Join this channel to get access to Members Only perks:
/ @shawnlanememphis
Пікірлер: 83
This might be the most impressive video i’ve ever seen.
I have been waiting for someone to make videos like this for a decade.
@FloridaManMatty
19 күн бұрын
We all had to wait 30+ years since Powers of Ten was released for someone who COULD make videos like this!
im so happy to see a Shawn Lane resurgence happening, unmatched in soul and technique
Just wow. Fantastic Roy. Nobody has ever done alot of that since Shawn...and I mean I knew him well and have seen alot. Big congratulations!
@thelionpath
3 жыл бұрын
Haha hi Sean O'Donnell I'm Nick Collins from Memphis friend of John Olivio and Neal Bowen. Maybe you remember me from the 90's. Big nerdy keyboard player. I went to Saint Louis with you once to see Rush. John said you had good flooring business. Yeah bro this Scottish guy's transcription and playing is great. Nice seeing the licks slow with that clean tone. Miss Shawn's good spirit too.
@seanodonnell2508
3 жыл бұрын
@@thelionpath yeah man! Wow! What year was that Rush concert? Great to hear from you man! Are you on FB?
@andrewoverhere8525
2 жыл бұрын
In all my years in KZread's comment sections, this is the first I've seen where two people reconnected after half a lifetime. I hope you guys connected on fb!
Roy that was excellent! You know you’re bound to get egos who can’t take the fact that someone’s finally come along who CAN play Shawn’s most terrifying chops perfectly!!!! You nailed Shawn’s sound again! Loved these videos on Shawn and now can’t wait for those on Eric Gales. He’s also a favourite of mine !
Roy you’re the real deal man! Incredible tribute to Shawn. Love every insight you can give cos Shawn left us too soon but this brings back the magic and excitement of virtuoso mastery ! Truly excellent work.
Once again Roy, just absolutely mind blowing! Ladies and gentelmen, I know Roy has said he would put in 12-13 hours of practice in every day. You don't get to this ultra insane level of technical ability and NOT put the time in. They picked the perfect guy to showcase Shawn's playing and compositions. Bravo!
Beyond thrilled there is an official Shawn Lane verified channel. A beautiful legacy will never forgotten!
Fantastic! One important fact is that it shows clearly that every note is picked, as it sometimes is so fast that it can be perceived as legato. Unbelievably great playing 😁
Literally one of the best guitarist out there! Amazing! Keep it up.
Lightspeed has been attained!! That was amazing thank you!!🎸👏☄️🕊
Another awesome video Roy. Noone’s played Shawn like this since Shawn did it himself! Interesting rigrundown showing exactly what and how you’re going about achieving the tone etc. Can’t wait to hear your Nancarrow, you’re a beast to take that on!!!!
Absolutely breathataking Roy. Outstanding. My god!!
The first one is even more beautiful slower down. It’s almost unbelievable that someone came up with that in a few seconds. Is this one improvised?
Great job, Roy! Amazing!
Fantastic concept and series of lessons - I would love to see this turned into a Shawn Lane DVD at some future point covering songs from the HLS era as well. Cheers Roy
VERY.WELL.DONE!!!
Wow. Awesome stuff. Thanks so much for your work gentlemen!!
This video was the one I was most excited for. Can’t wait!
@verbalkent1997
3 жыл бұрын
@@CraftonBarnes Yes as always thank all of you guys for this great content! Watching Roy play licks always requires a double take. Actually quite a few double takes lol. Always loved the augmented licks Shawn would do so this is a treat!
Absolutely amazing
Can't wait for Kaiser Nancarrow, i hope you cover the main riff it's incredible!
Lick 5. 24 notes per second
This was just mind blowingly great and I think it would be time to declare that Roy is the monster here. With these Shawn solos we can see that Marchbank is helluva lot faster and more precise than Lane ever was and I for one, would like to acknowledge it. Roy really is the one above the rest - literally!
@biscobisco1882
2 жыл бұрын
If you honestly think these full speed licks are the result of genuine real-time guitar playing, I've got a bridge to sell you. Whenever Roy's playing in a 'live' setting (e.g. the Rowan Parker videos), his picking speed always maxes out at around the 16ths@260-270bpm mark (which is very fast) but is already getting pretty messy in terms of string noise, rhythm, double-striking and pick-scraping overpowering the actual notes. Then somehow when he makes these home studio videos with the suspiciously blurry camera, he's magically hitting 16ths@360bpm (a full 100bpm faster!) with quantised mechanical precision and extremely artificial MIDI-sounding tones? Doesn't compute mate - you're being sold a bill of goods here. Roy's very quick, but we've seen that his channel is full of videos where his hands don't match what the audio is doing. Shawn was as blazing fast and clean in an NYC dive bar as he was in the recording studio. Roy hasn't demonstrated he can 'play' like this anywhere outside his home studio.
@kurglekreutzer6344
2 жыл бұрын
@@biscobisco1882 Go watch Roy's, Up Close Technique Series, played live and think again. And yes, Shawn was fast or super fast, but let's be honest here, he could not tackle those licks at those speeds, not even close! Personally I don't get all the hate and envy that people seem to have for Roy! To me it seems that those people are just suffering from Cognitive Dissonance, meaning they can't accept the facts when they go against their prefered mode of "reality".
@biscobisco1882
2 жыл бұрын
@@kurglekreutzer6344 I've already watched those - they peak out around the speeds I mentioned, they don't show anything close to the 16ths at 360 bpm (32nd triplets @120bpm) being claimed here. So perhaps you'd like to think again? You haven't even referred to any 'facts'. It's not hate and envy my man, people simply don't respond positively to misrepresentation.
@kurglekreutzer6344
2 жыл бұрын
@@biscobisco1882 So basically you are saying that someone has claimed that everything is or must be played at 24 notes per second or it doesn't count? Well, ok then why don't you go by the same logic when dealing with Shawn Lane, I mean he once played a recorded lick at around 18 nps (alternate picking and only a few notes at that speed), so he must be a faker since all of his other playing was way slower than that! Poor Shawn, branded as a faker years afted his death! I guess he just couldn't live up to the hype and all that jazz! (do you see how insulting something like that would be?) The simple fact is that you have nothing from Shawn or anyone else (on the guitar), where they would try to play anything as technically demanding at those speeds (that you see in Roy's videos) because they couldn't and can't, but you have it from Roy, thus you can conclude that Roy is simply put faster, more accurate and way better at playing technically demanding things fast and that would be a verifiable fact. Now why is that a bad thing? I think it should be a great thing for us all!
@biscobisco1882
2 жыл бұрын
@@kurglekreutzer6344 WTF are you talking about!? I've never seen worse logic. Roy HIMSELF has put out a transcription and 'playthrough' here that is both a full 100BPM faster than his fastest live playing AND which is 10 x more precise, missing all the fret noise and roughness of his live playing AND reeks of plastic, quantized MIDI sonically. You don't see the problem here!? Shawn has never done anything remotely similar to these shenanigans - he just played and recorded his stuff, never claiming a picking speed himself. Shawn didn't only 'once' hit 18nps by the way, he has frequently hit AND surpassed that mark with equivalent speeds of 16ths @ 280-300bpm on his albums (both solo and live with Jonas Hellborg), in his live bootlegs, his Power Licks instructional, etc - genuinely LIVE settings in the 90s where it was far harder to get away with MIDI and DAW trickery like today's Instaguitarists partake in. Do yourself a favour, don't just google some shit forum post that says 18nps is Lane's fastest, try actually slowing the music down yourself with Transcribe and you might learn something. And what are you talking about with 'technically demanding'? That's subjective at best, and Shawn could play insanely difficult string skipping licks with huge 8 fret stretches at blazing speeds. You've provided zero substance, specific examples or 'facts' to support your claims here. Here's but one insane example: www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/inf8x9/shawn_lane_was_a_freak_of_nature_here_he_plays/?
I called the fire dept cause this lesson was smoking....
Omg dat picking technique
Amazing video!!!
Good stuff! May I suggest the solo for Hell is Other People from Personae? One of my fav Lane solos for sure.
Wow thanks
roy - new to the site - but wow somebody that takes on SL - the speed seems otherworldly - not sure as a 40 year player this is attainable without the proper genetic makeup and gifts - very amazed but it's one of those "why do I do it" situations - do you do the metronome incremental speed approach? spend months building up? either way damned impressive lesson
@Fractal_blip
2 жыл бұрын
Have you attempted this any?
@joewilliams3919
2 жыл бұрын
@@Fractal_blip I have over the years, but I never get very far with it. The stamina required and right hand/left hand dexterity required to even get close on these licks is just a mountain too high for me to climb!
@Fractal_blip
2 жыл бұрын
@@joewilliams3919 I can now say at thirty years old myself, its probably not even a mountain worth tackling; not to mention the culture of guitar-playing has changed drastically since Shawn was in his hayday (e.g., lofi guitar)
Fuckin hell.. What's your approach/method of playing that fast, it seems like yourself & marshall harrison are the only 2 I've heard play that frightening speed like lane
Love this shawn lane breakdown stuff, if you ever would have time would also love to see a video of shawns version of peace in Mississippi, would love to see that, i really think you would blow minds slaying delta blues, would also love to hear some inspired licks from solo
May I ask, what kind of pick are you using here? This does not looks like Phat Boy
@LawofThree
3 жыл бұрын
I switched to a D’Andrea .96 to get a more gnarly alt pick tone back at the saddle. Some of the legato is simply fingertip attack. For contrast the alt pick clip recorded direct to iPhone later in this vid I’m using a 9mm PhatBhoyIce.
Sorprendente!
Great playing and lesson indeed. What reverb are you using here? Is it just the spring reverb in guitar rig? I've never been able to get a spring reverb to sound like that. Sounds like some kind of shimmer reverb almost
Are you sure you don't have Shawn's hands?
I also have a guitar.
@meshzzizk
2 жыл бұрын
This is my favorite comment
Any chance we could see Powers of Ten up on spotify soon? Would love to be able to have the music again.
Good God!!!
Hey Crafton, do you know anything about getting POT and POT;live! Or even more stuff onto platforms like iTunes? Are there still problems with eyereckon too? Cheers
I’m very very good ..now realized I have to practice more , and I want to puke it’s exhausting.!
Lick 4, Esperanto?
Did Lane ever release an album??
WTF!!! 🔥🔥🔥
Yeah I quite within the first 30 seconds......
Would be cool to hear how it sounds without the keyboard effect
@LawofThree
3 жыл бұрын
What keyboard effect?
@ericnicolleau4331
3 жыл бұрын
@@LawofThree I don't know maybe piano midi... I've got the same sound with flstudio
@LawofThree
3 жыл бұрын
@@ericnicolleau4331 you mean the sound of the DI straight into the desk? That sounds digital, it doesn’t sound like MIDI. For reference you can hear what it sounds like recorded using an iPhone on this video.
@ericnicolleau4331
3 жыл бұрын
@@LawofThree maybe it's the use of your delays and reverbs, have you make a video about your tone yet?
@LawofThree
3 жыл бұрын
@@ericnicolleau4331 This video provides a rig rundown on what I have used on all the videos in the series. It explains in detail everything and you can see the settings clearly.
Lick 5 is inhumane
Maybe you could play a full tune by Shawn Lane.
@EricGalesBand
3 жыл бұрын
Can U?
@ShawnLaneMemphis
3 жыл бұрын
This series is strictly on the solos but your suggestion is duly noted and respected. - CB
@AJDOLDCHANNELARCHIVE
Жыл бұрын
@@EricGalesBand Can you spell?
@JadeTwo
Жыл бұрын
@@AJDOLDCHANNELARCHIVE No but he can play guitar better than you