Ex-MEGADETH Guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN: People Overuse The Phrase 'Play With Feeling'

Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman recently spoke to Metal Discovery about his February 2014 headline-grabbing comment that aspiring musicians should avoid instrumental music because it's a dead-end street.

"I don't have anything against the genre," he said. "[But] I'm not a fan of instrumental music [which makes me] the biggest hypocrite in the world, because that's what I play. But who listens to instrumental music? I mean, if I was giving somebody advice, [I would say] if that's what you love to do, then definitely do it, but it's not gonna be popular. It's a hard road ahead. It's not something I would recommend. Unless that's your calling in life as a musician — then, absolutely, I would recommend it — but I wouldn't say that it's a profitable field. I wouldn't say that it's a field where there's gonna be a lot of love coming back your way."

He added: "No, I wouldn't recommend it unless that's what you do."

Friedman also spoke about his disdain for the term "shredder," which seems to prioritize technique over emotional expression. He said: "That's a good way to put it. And emotional expression is one thing, but I think content is the most important thing."

He continued: "You know, people overuse the phrase 'play with feeling.' That's also very overused. Of course, we all want to do that, but I'd say content — musical content... If the musical content is good, and it makes people enjoy it, the technique is for granted.

"It doesn't take technique to play NIRVANA, and look how many people it pleased."

Friedman added: "It's wonderful music if it makes people happy. And 'shredder' just totally discounts any content… It's even worse than 'virtuoso.' I mean, virtuoso is one rank above.

"I just don't like it, but, you see, I don't really know the current terms, especially in English. But that word has taken on a new slang and it may even be kinda trendy, because guitar is on the uprise lately. So it may even be a compliment nowadays, and if it sells one more record, then I'm a shredder! [Laughs]"

Marty's latest solo album, "Inferno", sold around 2,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 186 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released on May 26, 2014 via Prosthetic Records (except in Japan, where the album was made available through Universal Music).