Walz Guitar - Worlds Fastest Guitar

I saw this a few weeks ago but this is the first time I'd seen a full version. This reminds me of growing up playing guitar in the 80's. We seemed to be speed obcessed. The more notes, right or wrong, the better. Picking every note, check. High bpm scale practice, check. Sweep picking, check. Boxed "shred" tools, check. etc. etc. etc.

Of those, you might notice that anything musical is missing. In the 80's, around 1987-88, there was a bunch of 'the fastest guy ever' type of bands. These were usually zero hit blunder bands. (Huh, if you reuse that phrase remember you got it from here. lol) People had drill attachments with rotating picks. What lacked was musical ability. This was like someone who could run a race fast, stupid fast, but had no ability to strategize and to pace. It's neat-o but not great.

So, here's the world's fastest guitar player. He's fast. Really. I don't know what else he does though. I'm sure he's a better player than me. This video brings up, why? It's nice, but why?

Here's another point of view. This comes from a classical newsgroup, but the person was talking about playing jazz. As a working musician, which many of us aspire to be, you get paid the same amount for playing at tempo as you do for playing double speed or faster. In other words, playing extra notes doesn't yeild extra pay like working extra hours. It's like doing extra work for just the gratitude of doing it.

Anyway, the speed record:

WORLD RECORD GUITAR SPEED 2008 - More bloopers are a click away

Related Links:
(http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.classical.guitar/browse_thread/thread/49b9bf64489d09a9?hl=en)