Yea, I've seen this kid before. He makes me want to quit playing guitar, haha. I've been playing almost as long as this kid has been alive and he can outplay me. I'm no slouch but this kid is just nucking futs.
But how come it's such a chore to sit through this merely 3 and a 1/2 minute clip? I mean, it's impressive for a minute or two but this just further enhances my belief that supreme talent almost never equals good music. I know this has probably been discussed before along with Petrucci, Vai, Satriani and the likes. I like some songs from each of them. But maybe a little performance disability or laziness can actually be the main ingredient to great songwriting.
For the love of god the kid isn't even 10 years old. Cut him some slack. I was still playing hot crossed buns on the piano when I was his age. This kid has plenty of time to learn how to write songs.
The main ingredient to great song writing is not disability or laziness. The main ingredient to great songwriting is creativity. Suggesting that people who are not technically capapble are somehow automatically better song writers than people who are is just dumb. It's creativity, folks, creativity. Technique and creativity are not mutually exclusive, however they really don't tend to have a large impact on each other when it comes to learning to play an instrument. As you get more technical, you don't necessarily get more creative, and as you learn to be more creative, you don't necessarily learn to be more technical.
Unfortunately, all most people that aren't familiar (I mean VERy familiar) with technical guitar playing have only heard catchy, less technical music, and then straight up shred. Most people are introduced to Dream Theater on the concept of "LOOK HOW MANY NOTES THEY CAN FIT IN THEIR SOLOS!" without having all their hooks and emotionally grabbing sections pointed out in the same way.
Listen to Pain of Salvation, songs like "Handful of Nothing" and "Beyond the Pale" are highly emotional and will grab if you like no other if you give them time to sink in(they're not a "first listen" band, they take time). Interestingly enough, they are also highly technical. Especially handful of nothing (I hereby challenge every guitarist on this board to learn the first riff. It sounds amazingly simple but I guarantee you as soon as you try and play it your head will be spinning. To give you an idea of the skills these guys have, the singer plays that riff and sings at the same time).
Simply put, technicality and good song writing, when you get right down, have very little to do with each other. They are not mutually exclusive, nor does one really enhance the other. Suggesting that better music comes from technically less proficient musicians though is somewhat goofy.
. I agree that he definitely did not choose the best possible thing to play, though, in terms of being musically interesting. 