Ultimate Rhoads

If you listen to Goodbye To Romance you might hear a familiar chord progression used from the 1790's. It's Pachelbel Canon in D. Wow! It's everywhere...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

Compare them:

Pachelbel: D major (tonic), A major (dominant), B minor (tonic parallel or submediant â€â€

I can sort of hear it. I remember hearing that Randy was really into Pachelbel and Vivaldi etc...
It sounds like he took Canon and just tweaked it a bit.

I think this is no concidence really.
Ozzy always talked about ´Goodby to Romance´ as his ´Beatles´ song.
Thnx for the clip!

the four seasons rock, ive seen some great heavy metal versions of canon in D look out for them on youtube

Have you ever seen the guys of Children of Bodom doing Vivaldi's Summer? Oh my, it's nuts. Vivaldi is amazing.

Randy Rhoads was a harmonic combination of a (plugged-up) Nicole Paganini, Pachelbel and shades of Maestro Bach.





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Cool excerpts. Where did you find those? I've never seen it written down so concisely or eloquently...

RR-ElectricAngel wrote:Cool excerpts. Where did you find those? I've never seen it written down so concisely or eloquently...

Those excerpts are from a book titled: "Rockin' the Classics and Classicizin' the Rock: A Selectively Annotated Discography:0738837547:DUXBURY JANELL R.".

Do a Title Search, or ISDN search "0738837547" to find a hard copy.

Your right about "concisely" or "eloguently". I try to describe the music I hear now and than, yet, it confuses some people. There are probably more classical themes "hidden" in Randy's music for sure. Good luck on hearing and describing them.

Ray

cableguyxx wrote:that video was entertaining, thanks.

Regarding Diary Of A Madman: surprised this wasn't mentioned in that book. From the Diary of a Madman wikipedia entry:

Guitarist Randy Rhoads, was taking classical guitar lessons while on the "Blizzard of Oz" tour. The opening acoustic riff is simply a variation on Cuban composer Leo Brouwer's Etude #6.

Very Cool to all you guys on this thread, BRAVO BRAVO !!!

Six_Strung_Out wrote:Randy Rhoads was a harmonic combination of a (plugged-up) Nicole Paganini, Pachelbel and shades of Maestro Bach.

Where do you hear any Paganini in Randy ?

Stiltzkin wrote:

Six_Strung_Out wrote:Randy Rhoads was a harmonic combination of a (plugged-up) Nicole Paganini, Pachelbel and shades of Maestro Bach.

Where do you hear any Paganini in Randy ?

It is not so much related to "hearing", it is more of the reputations of those two string players and the times they performed in.

To save me some typing, I copied and pasted a few paragraphs about Paganini off of Wikipedia. Prior to the Internet I had read many hard cover books about Paganini (I wish I had those books in hand right now).

Paganini did play the guitar besides being a supreme violinist.

Paganini developed the genre of concert variations for solo violin, characteristically taking a simple, apparently naïve theme, and alternating lyrical variations with a ruminative, improvisatory character that depended for effect on the warmth of his phrasing, with bravura extravagances that left his audiences gasping. Randy Rhoads recordings (live concerts in particular) are still enthralling listeners to this very day.

Paganini was capable of playing three octaves across four strings in a hand span, a seemingly impossible feat even by today's standards. His fingering techniques included double-stops, parallel octaves (and tenths), and left-hand pizzicato, which are now routine exercises for aspiring violinists. Aspiring electric guitarists today use Randy’s many lead guitar techniques to provide a starting point for their own performance evolution.

Eugène Ysaÿe once criticized that the accompaniment to Paganini's music was too "guitar like", lacking any character of polyphonism. Sometimes a Randy Rhoads guitar solo sounds like a violin.

In performance Paganini enjoyed playing tricks, like tuning one of his strings a semitone high, or playing the majority of a piece on one string after breaking the other three. He astounded audiences with techniques that included harmonics, double stops, pizzicato with the left as well as the right hand, and near-impossible fingerings and bowings. Randy did not overdo his instrument tricks. But he had more rabbits left in his magic guitar hat to pull out if needed. Who knows what novel technique he might have used if he had lived longer.

Paganini was the preeminent violin virtuoso of that centuryâ€â€

Although it is an often over used comparison, to compare an accomplished modern day rock guitarist to Paganini, I think Randy's playing is very violin like in its phrasing. And there has been some excellent comparisons by Six Strung Out too about the context they both performed in.

As for comparing the virtuosity of Pagannini I hope Randy holds up better over time than Paganini. Paganni is not performed much in concert halls now and the problem of a Paganni recital is the same one that sadly faces us guitarists...the audience is made up of people who also play the instrument.

Luckily Randy seems to reach beyond Guitarists and attract non musicians too which is a remarkable achievment.

I think one thing we as Randy Rhoads fans may take comfort in as Randy prioritised melody over EVERYTHING first and foremost in his playing. Randy was not a gratuitous Guitarist. Randy had great, great wisdom and this shows by the volume of people that are touched by Randy's music who are actually non musicians!!

By the way the video was great! That guy is a smart guy under the goofing LOL.