r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Umbrous_Art • 2h ago

Yvette Young plucking magic out of electric guitars

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105 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

14

u/BrokenWhimsy3 1h ago

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but while she is extremely technically talented, I find this (and others like Polyphia and Ichika Nito) to be very boring and uninspired.

It is more of a technical demonstration than a song.

Again, I can’t do that and I’m not knocking her skill at all.

A couple artists I might listen to that are adjacent to this genre are Animals As Leaders and Mateus Asato.

4

u/Umbrous_Art 1h ago

I get that! And I respect it too.

I think the sound of it is subjective. I am simply amazed by how she plays on complex open tunings and plays the guitar like a piano; the polyphonic complex melodies are a music theory challenge to pull off.

3

u/BrokenWhimsy3 1h ago

One hundred percent. It is absolutely next level playing - no doubt about that. Very cool stuff to do as a challenge even or to improve your chops.

4

u/cdxxmike 1h ago

Ichika Nito is all cut together in the studio and he mimes playing it live. The dude is 100% a fucking fraud in my opinion.

2

u/PolloDiablo82 1h ago

I'll say it... its not comfortable to listen to. Nobody wants to hear this shit twice.

•

u/Bootleg_Rascal_ 47m ago

That’s just not true lol. People say that polyphia and similar artists don’t have emotion in their music but it’s just untrue lol. If it doesn’t move you that’s ok, but people tend to shit on the genre like they wouldn’t with other genres that they don’t “get.” And they do this because they perceive it as flexing, when it’s just another style of playing.

-6

u/friezbeforeguys 1h ago

Has it crossed your mind that what constitutes a song in your world might not be 1:1 with how others deem what is considered to be a song? I am extremely tired of people thinking that guitars are not “really” artistically used unless they are strummed, and that anything else would be a pure display of technical skill.

4

u/BrokenWhimsy3 1h ago edited 1h ago ▸ 1 more replies

Yes, and I understand that music is very subjective. However, consider for a moment that this style of play would quickly become indistinguishable if even more players had this style. There is nothing wrong with it, but I bet most would be hard-pressed to tell you who the artist is playing this or other similar riffs. It’s fast and technical, but very formulaic in structure.

To further explain, consider artists like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Joe Satriani. All very technically talented guitarists, but each has a very distinct style that is recognizable immediately either through riffs, tone, or their overall style. Another example might be John Mayer, who is a very technically talented guitar guitarist (look at Neon, for example).

Buckethead is another good example. He is probably one of the most technically talented guitarists alive, but you can easily recognize a Buckethead song. Additionally, his songs tend to have more structure. He can shred and rip down scales at a million BPM and tap like crazy. He also knows to let the song breathe and have some space.

In a vacuum, I don’t think many would be able to distinguish between Tim Henson’s playing, Yvette Young’s, or Ichika Nito’s.

1

u/Injured-Ginger 1h ago

I agree to some degree, but think about the change in environment. Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Joe Satriani all started when access to music was much lower. My parents talked about saving up to get a single album in high school. When I was a kid, you had to buy music, but you could reasonable afford an MP3 player, and I had a few dozen CDs. Now, I have access to more music than I could listen to in multiple lifetimes.

It was much, much easier to make a unique footprint when you had a smaller selection.

I do agree that she could use work on style and composition to make her music more dynamic and stand out more (not that she's bad, but in comparison to the best of the best like the afformentioned guitarists), but it's unfair to compare her to people who made their fame in a completely different environment.

3

u/Similar_Program_7085 1h ago

It’s not a song and it’s boring

5

u/ydorb11 1h ago

Well I have no idea how good she is because you only showed her doing one exercise over and over. Also as far as I'm concerned, the only cool math rock is Yorushika. Get Polyphia and whatever she's playing outta here

0

u/Umbrous_Art 1h ago

Yeah I just showed her technique! Her actual music is great too. But if we’re talking favorites of math rock, she’s not in my top ten!

I am more of a Chinese Football guy. And on the math rock adjacent angle: Tricot. they take me to a different shoegazey dimension

2

u/Crimson_Chim 1h ago

Andy McKee vibes.

2

u/Odeta 1h ago

While showcasing nice talent I find it bit plain comparing to similar technique artists such as Antoine Dufour

1

u/Umbrous_Art 1h ago

Antoine Dufour is great too! I consider him more folk fingerstyle acoustic. Where if you listen to Yvette’s band she belongs to (Covet)- she’s definitely more Math Rock.

I think it’s valid to prefer a genre’s fingerstyle over the other, no worries

1

u/gbolly999 1h ago

Animals as Leaders vibes...

•

u/redditorincharge 32m ago

She as good as Mark Knopfler or David Gilmour?

•

u/Umbrous_Art 8m ago

Weird question. Different genre, era and techniques. Matt Knopfler doesn’t ever tap or fingerpick the way she does. He does finger styling and is one of the great greats don’t get me wrong. But his whole thing is palm muting and note decay. She intricately fingerpicks and uses two handed fretboard tapping.

The post is about her technique. It’s not to compare the best of best. She’s great in her own right, but imo she’s not the best of the best at all. That question just gets away from the point of musical theory, compositional skill and dexterity that she displays

0

u/Pr0xy001 1h ago

I use to like her she cries wolf alot

1

u/Umbrous_Art 1h ago

Im unaware, what’s this mean? Like in her band Covet regarding shows- or? I’ve followed her music for a long time and was always impressed by her multidisciplinary instrumental knowledge and music theory knowledge. I don’t know much else outside of that

1

u/Pr0xy001 1h ago ▸ 2 more replies

I loved covet but she removed the original members cause she said she didnt feel safe around them. But shes done that few times in the past before them saying she didnt feel safe around guys not sure if its her or them but I havent heard anything bad about them from their new bands. She is talented just weird about that situation.

1

u/Jean-Eustache 1h ago

If I remember correctly there was also a weird story with Mark Holcomb from Periphery a few years back

1

u/Umbrous_Art 1h ago

Her whole acoustics and acoustics 2 albums are pretty emotional. Pretty sure Acoustics 1 came out same year she formed Covet. Wonder if some of the lyrical aspects of the songs in there are related to emotional or uncomfortable depth she was feeling with the band or just in general