“I’m not that fast on the guitar, but I don’t want to be”: David Gilmour explains why speedy solos never interested him
Can’t shred? No problem. Plenty of top-tier guitarists prefer to take things slow, and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour is one of them.
In a new chat with NPR, Gilmour explains why speedy chops have never interested him. “I’m not that fast on the guitar, but I don’t want to be,” he says. “Even if I could, [my style] is what I love. It’s what I’ve spent my whole life doing.”
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While people often inquire as to why he prefers a slower style, the Pink Floyd legend insists its something he “doesn’t really think about”, personally. “I don’t pre-think things very often,” he explains. “I’m not trying to work out what would be new and exciting or different. I’m just hunting for an emotion, in the moment.”
“I started out playing music in bands when I was 16 or 17, and I’ve never stopped…” he continues. “[Musically], I just follow where I’m led.”
Last November, Gilmour also explained his slower, more “tuneful” approach in an interview with YouTuber Rick Beato. While slower solos come easily, Gilmour admits that he struggles to feel inspired when the pace kicks up a notch.
“I wasn’t gifted with enormous speed on the guitar,” he told Beato at the time. “There were years when I was younger were I thought I could get that if I practiced enough. But it just wasn’t ever really going to happen.”
Gilmour isn’t the only artist to reflect on the struggles of attaining high-speeds on the fretboard. In fact, in his later years, Eddie Van Halen even told Guitar Player journalist Jas Obrecht that he’d grown tired of whiplash-fast playing. “Sure, that’s fine and dandy when you’re young… playing as fast as you can doesn’t really hold much water for me now,” he said in 1991.
The Van Halen icon even admitted that quick playing can sometimes even detract from a song, as its more of an “ego” boost to showcase your skills than to make a track better. “To me, a solo is to highlight song – it’s not to show off,” he concluded.
Later this month, Gilmour is set to release a live album, The Luck and Strange Concerts. The 17 October release will be full of live versions of tracks from his 2024 solo record, Luck and Strange.
Gilmour is also in the midst of releasing teaser tracks for the 50 year anniversary of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album, Wish You Were Here. A deluxe boxset is due to drop this December, which will include plenty of demos and live recordings from the era.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
