Legendary guitarist Uli Jon Roth — whose groundbreaking work with SCORPIONS in the 1970s helped shape the vocabulary of rock and heavy metal guitar — has weighed in on the modern obsession with technical playing, and his verdict is blunt.
"Too many players start sounding like typewriters," Roth said. Rather than chasing speed and complexity, he urges players to communicate: "Play the notes that go straight to the heart and not too many."
His advice to aspiring musicians goes beyond the fretboard: "Learn the craft. Become a really good craftsman. You should know music, not just the scales and arpeggios." It's a critique aimed squarely at the era of hyper-technical shredding, where virtuosity often overwhelms expression.
Roth also distanced himself from the metal genre he helped inspire, describing his era with SCORPIONS as "melodic hard rock" and criticising the direction heavy music took after he left the band: "Everything went to 11 all the time — the guitar constantly hyper distorted, every drum beat fortissimo." In his view, the genre sacrificed dynamics on the altar of aggression.
On his own place in history, he remained humble. When asked about claims that he and MICHAEL SCHENKER helped shape rock guitar, Roth noted: "We were standing on the shoulders of other people" — citing RITCHIE BLACKMORE, BRIAN MAY, and DAVID GILMOUR as the English pioneers who truly pushed the instrument forward.