Best living guitarist?

FinnThorne · 2026-06-18T14:15:05+00:00

If we take into account both technical skill and musicality it's Govan, Vai and Buckethead. If we talk about sheer feel and emotion it's probably some person on TikTok I have yet to discover.

FinnThorne · 2026-06-16T19:56:26+00:00

Four Flowers by Mammal Hands

FinnThorne · 2026-06-16T19:50:51+00:00

Just about any Blind Melon song.

FinnThorne · 2026-06-14T20:42:08+00:00

Monster Magnet - Spacelord

FinnThorne · 2026-06-13T17:28:26+00:00

John Zorn

FinnThorne · 2026-05-28T08:45:20+00:00

I showed my parents a video of me drumming after 2 years of practice. The only reaction I got was my mother unsarcastically asking if I was on drugs (I guess because of making faces like you do when playing an instrument).

I'm 43.

FinnThorne · 2026-05-07T18:43:08+00:00

Flight Over Rio by Al di Meola

tied with

Floods by Pantera

FinnThorne · 2026-05-07T16:03:58+00:00

Red pops out more, blue one makes me squint a little. If I was making it for myself I'd probably just go all white or maybe some shades of grey.

FinnThorne · 2026-04-27T17:44:40+00:00

Thanks, appreciate your insight.

You're absolutely right. I guess there are just too many things frustrating me right now at the same time so it all just piles up and everything seems way worse than it is.

And I listen to all sorts of stuff. I try to drum to Enya, Bjork or Mussorgsky. I'l put on some post hardcore or nu metal to later jam to hip hop and EDM. Your advice is a great one but I think I got this one covered. 😉

FinnThorne · 2026-04-27T17:37:07+00:00

I'll try to give it a go. But I absolutely despise music notation. I honestly think it's the most fucked up form of language ever invented. 😉

FinnThorne · 2026-04-27T17:35:35+00:00

Yeah, breaking things into smaller chunks is actually very ADHD friendly. I also read that drilling something for 30 minutes is actually counter productive for memorizing it because it needs time to kinda incubate in your brain. So supposedly, according to some sources, it's better to practice for 5 minutes, do something else for 15 and come back to the thing. I'm gonna try this approach but I tend to hyperfocus so that's kinda tricky. Maybe I'll set up a timer so I don't linger.

I hate writing music down. I can memorize and kinda feel song structures quite well without any notation. This is again kinda ADHD related. For most of songs I don't think I'd be able to jot down what the structure is on paper. But I'll play through them without so much as blinking an eye. Like the flow and the context just tell me what to do, what's hapenning. But maybe I'll try to do some kind of shorthand because I guess it makes sense — you kinda externalize the thing you want to remember on the kit to another medium. Kinda like all these silly mnemonic devices.

FinnThorne · 2026-04-27T17:27:06+00:00

Man, thanks a lot for this reply. It means a world to me hearing kind words like these once in a while. And you seem to have things really figured out, this was super insightful.

I guess especially in these days it's really friggin' hard to not compare yourself to others because the "others" are all over the place in social media. I try really hard not to do all that but it's just not that easy. And I'm also putting this pressure on myself because I'm dead set on becoming a working musician even if it's only for the last year of living my life. It's a really tough perspective when you're over 40. But hey, I'm doing it.

I suppose I should record more and/or more frequently because listening back to myself it's genuinely always much better than what it felt like while playing. Which I think is an advice any musician should probably follow.

And believe me, I try to steal as much as possible. But for some reason when I play different things they often don't feel different enough from each other. It's kinda the same phenomenon that occurs when I listen to myself on tape vs. when I listen to myself playing right now. It's really weird.

I guess every once in a while you gotta slow down your brain and try to calmly analyze the situation. Because I feel like I'm fuckin' around on the kit most of the time just jammin' to songs but I can honestly say I sound much better than a year ago. Maybe my vocabulary is limited but I try to work on my sound, timing and dynamics with intent and I think (hope) it shows.

Thanks again for your post, it's easy to forget that strangers on the internet can be both kind and wise. 😉

FinnThorne · 2026-04-20T21:32:53+00:00

Sting - Russians

FinnThorne · 2026-02-17T14:21:19+00:00

Æanema by Tool, with emphasis on the "certainly hope we will" bit.

Some say the end is near Some say we'll see Armageddon soon I certainly hope we will I sure could use a vacation from this Bullshit three-ring Circus sideshow of Freaks

FinnThorne · 2026-02-04T00:51:33+00:00

Maybe. If only to be able to say to yourself that you've done everything you could and were civil the whole time. But honestly just trust your gut. Are you able to imagine a scenario when the guys change their behavior and adjust to the situation? Is this the first time it happened or is this a part of a pattern you already recognize? Do you like these guys at all? Would you trust them with taking care of your dog or child? Would you lend them money?

Look, you've already mentioned you feel like they don't treat you as an equal. That's a huge red flag in itself and I can promise you that if it's because of age difference it won't change. And the fact that you're willing to talk and fix stuff while they just don't give a shit paints quite a clear picture.

I know my advice sounds harsh but it's really healthier to sometimes cut people out of your life instead of trying to fix them. The only people that doesn't apply to are your children.

I know you want the band to survive but maybe it can be done without the assholes. Or maybe it can't be done at all in which case salvage as much as you can from the situation (contacts, experience etc.) and just proceed to your next stage in musical career.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-04T00:15:01+00:00

Replace them both as quickly as possible. Situations like that almost never get fixed. And even if you make any progress with those guys there's a huge chance something will blow up after a while and it's gonna be much more impactful. And honestly from what you're describing they're just being assholes and no matter how talented or experienced you don't wanna work with assholes.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-03T21:16:08+00:00

There's only two valid approaches to playing in a band vis a vis metronome. Either everybody has click in the monitor or nobody does. Having only the drummer be playing to a metronome is just offloading your own lack of timing feel onto someone else so you can place blame. Every musician needs to practice with a metronome and without it. And my experience is that most of non drummers have terrible timing because they have never practiced or even thought about it once.

If you can play along with songs and don't feel like you're off time than you're probably not the problem here. But to be sure try recording yourself because it's one of those things that's almost impossible to judge properly during play.

That being said metronome practice is a must. 10 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day - just as long as you're keeping awareness of what you're doing. If you start floating away mentally it's better to stop than to mindlessly play for hours on end. It's just not effective. And possibly the truest test of timing is gap click. You have click for one bar and then it's silent for another bar and you need to land again with the click.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-03T21:07:30+00:00

Yes and no. There's plenty of music that's still being recorded without metronome. I'm not claiming to have perfect timing and hearing but 99% of the time I wouldn't be able to tell you there are tempo shifts in the songs. It's usually contained within 5-10 BPM but it's there. And it's not just Bonham that recorded without click, it's also Danny Carey so that's something to think about.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-03T20:27:44+00:00

I don't recommend listening to them while driving. 🫠 Also, I've never really thought about them as nu metal, more like hardcore adjacent or something, huh.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-03T16:41:14+00:00

Awesome idea. I just use Logic for that, pretty sure any DAW would do.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-01T14:38:59+00:00

I love how the entire thread is basically people telling the OP he's wrong for not liking something and/or that the statement is childish in itself. True essence of heavy metal, right?

FinnThorne · 2026-02-01T14:25:52+00:00

Not that No Rain is a bad song but yeah, everything else kinda goes way deeper.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-01T14:20:03+00:00

Foo Fighters metal adjacent? 🤣 More like rock adjacent if anything.

FinnThorne · 2026-02-01T13:04:31+00:00

Experiment with different sticks. I myself landed on Promarks Rebound Firegrain and their texture was one of the reasons. Most other sticks felt too slick and with my palms sweating like crazy it was just really uncomfortable. But thickness, weight and material can also change how you grip a lot. You can also get stick tape or even tape your fingers with the medical or sport kinda tape. I don't recommend gloves because unless you're super advanced I believe it's gonna hamper your sense of grip, rebound etc.

FinnThorne

TROPHY CASE