yngwie malmsteen profile

yngwie malmsteen profile

here we have yngwie malmsteen, one of the biggest pioneers in the world of heavy guitar.

renowned for his tight leather clothes, absurdly huge ego and ridiculously good chops, malmsteen made a name for himself in the early 80's by forging a new genre of music; neoclassical metal, a genre combining classical elements from the baroque era with heavy metal elements. the result? wankery.

if guitarists and non guitarists know 1 guitarist, they know malmsteen, even if just by name. his ego is legendary, although it is not without reason. malmsteen is probably THE grandaddy of shredding as guitarists know today. he is one of the masters of sweep picking and especially alternate picking and his technical skils are (well, used to be) second to none.

he developed a unique and new style of guitar playing that had never been seen before; incorporating classical arpeggios (chords played note by note) and violin like techniques to the world of guitar and has inspired many a pasty teenage wannabe rock guitar hero as well.

he broke onto the scene in the early 80s and, unfortunately, since then, his style has changed by about...0%. he has seemed to have been caught up in his fame and newfound style and hasn't progressed still. these days, he still struts around in tight leather pants playing the same types of songs he was 25 years ago, only a bit sloppier.

malmsteen is also famous for using almost exclusively stratocasters (THE iconic electric guitar, see picture) with scalloped fretboards. this means the wood between the frets has been carved out, which means there is no contact with your fingertips on the wood. this results in a much smooth bending action.

a commonly overlooked aspect of malmsteen's arsenal is his vibrato (vibrating the string with the fretting hand, causing the pitch of the note to waver). it is flawless. he produces wide, smooth and consistent, violin-inspired vibrato. good vibrato is a key element in guitar. it is unique to stringed instruments (you can't, for example, do vibrato on a piano) and many players are identifiable through their vibrato and every player has a unique approach. vibrato and bending are hard techniques to master as you essentially turn the guitar into a non-fretted instrument, meaning hitting the right pitches and not making the notes go sharp is all down to your hand and muscles

malmsteen's licks are inspired from classical violin players like paganini; they include fast, smooth, wide intervallic (meaning they span lots of notes) runs. curiously, malmsteen was first inspired to play guitar because of jimi hendrix (more on him later).

malmsteen has recently released a new CD which contains only acoustic work, yet it is, unfortunately all classicaly influenced. i don't think we will ever see anything else from him.

malmsteen is either a love or hate player. there is not much inbetween. he is often accused of having "no emotion" in his playing but i think he deserves a spot in the highest registers of guitaristry for his contribution to the modern school of guitar. he is, for example, the reason paul gilbert has developed his picking style to what it is today.

here is a good summation of his skills and virtuosity.