Jump to content

Yngwie Malmsteen: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Undid revision 382103883 by ThatRockMetalGuy (talk)
Line 54: Line 54:
==Technique and style==
==Technique and style==


almsteen is known for his technical fluency and [[neo-classical metal]] compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and [[sweep-picking|sweep picked]] [[arpeggios]]. He is often considered one of the most talented rock guitarists of all time and is considered to be a pioneer of [[shred guitar]]<ref>http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_guitar-all.html</ref><ref>http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-guitarists-of-all-time.html</ref><ref>http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1916544,00.html</ref><ref>http://guitarplaylearn.com/?p=96</ref><ref>http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=18446</ref><ref>http://www.helium.com/items/852531-greatest-guitar-players-of-all-time</ref>.
Malmsteen is known for his technical fluency and [[neo-classical metal]] compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and [[sweep-picking|sweep picked]] [[arpeggios]]. He is often considered one of the most talented rock guitarists of all time and is considered to be a pioneer of [[shred guitar]]<ref>http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_guitar-all.html</ref><ref>http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-guitarists-of-all-time.html</ref><ref>http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1916544,00.html</ref><ref>http://guitarplaylearn.com/?p=96</ref><ref>http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=18446</ref><ref>http://www.helium.com/items/852531-greatest-guitar-players-of-all-time</ref>.


Also, Malmsteen favors the [[harmonic minor scale]], and often uses [[diminished scale|diminished]] [[arpeggio]]s and [[phrygian mode|phrygian]] scales and draws an influence from [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] and [[Beethoven]]. In an interview, Malmsteen confessed that his regular use of harmonic minor was because in the 1980s he was trying to move away from the blues-based [[pentatonic scale]]s that were frequently used at the time.
Also, Malmsteen favors the [[harmonic minor scale]], and often uses [[diminished scale|diminished]] [[arpeggio]]s and [[phrygian mode|phrygian]] scales and draws an influence from [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] and [[Beethoven]]. In an interview, Malmsteen confessed that his regular use of harmonic minor was because in the 1980s he was trying to move away from the blues-based [[pentatonic scale]]s that were frequently used at the time.

Revision as of 21:42, 31 August 2010

Yngwie Malmsteen

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (/ˈɪŋveɪ ˈmɑːlmstiːn/ ING-vay MAHLM-steen; born June 30, 1963) is a Swedish guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became famous and very influential for his neo-classic approach in heavy metal music, and is often seen as one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time.[1]

Early life

Malmsteen was born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm, Sweden, as the third child of a musically-inclined family.[2] At age seven, he saw a television news report on the death of Jimi Hendrix, an event which had a profound impact on his musical path. To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the thumb-sucking, molly-coddled plebeian Yngwie died, and was replaced by a Dionysian, guitar-shredding god". At the age of 10 he took his mother's maiden name Malmsten as his surname, slightly changed it to Malmsteen, and Anglicised his given name Yngve to "Yngwie". Yngwie also created his first band "Track On Earth" at the age of 10, consisting of himself and a friend from school on drums (Armin). Malmsteen was a teenager when he first encountered the music of the 19th century violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical music influence.

Recording career

1980s

In late 1982 Malmsteen was brought to the U.S. by Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records, who had heard a demo tape of Malmsteen's playing. He had brief engagements with Steeler, for their self-titled album of 1983, then Graham Bonnet's Alcatrazz, for their 1983 debut No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll, and the 1984 live album Live Sentence. Malmsteen released his first solo album Rising Force in 1984, which featured Barrie Barlow of Jethro Tull on drums. His album was really meant to be an instrumental side-project of Alcatrazz, but it contained vocals, and Malmsteen left Alcatrazz soon after the release of Rising Force.

Rising Force won the Guitar Player Magazine's award for Best Rock Album and was also nominated for a Grammy for 'Best Rock Instrumental', achieving #60 on the Billboard album chart. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (as his band was thereafter known) next released Marching Out (1985). Jeff Scott Soto filled vocal duties on these initial albums. His third album, Trilogy, featuring the vocals of Mark Boals, was released in 1986. In 1987, another singer, former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner joined his band. That year, Malmsteen was in a serious car accident, smashing his Jaguar E-Type into a tree and putting him in a coma for a week. Nerve damage to his right hand was reported. During his time in the hospital, Malmsteen's mother died from cancer. In the summer of 1988 he released his fourth album, Odyssey. Odyssey would be his biggest hit album, mainly because of its first single "Heaven Tonight". Shows in Russia during the Odyssey tour were recorded, and released in 1989 as his fifth album Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad.

Malmsteen's "Neo-classical" style of metal became widely popular among guitarists during the mid 1980s, with contemporaries such as Jason Becker, Timo Tolkki, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine and Vinnie Moore becoming prominent. In late 1988, Malmsteen's signature Fender Stratocaster guitar was released, making him and Eric Clapton the first artists to be honored by Fender.

1990s

In the early 1990s Malmsteen released the albums Eclipse (1990), The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection (1991), Fire and Ice (1992) and The Seventh Sign (1994). Despite his early success, and continuous success in Europe and Asia, by the early 1990s 1980s heavy metal styles such as neoclassical metal and lengthy, virtuoso shred guitar solos had become unfashionable in the US.

In 1993, Malmsteen's future mother-in-law, opposed to his engagement to her daughter, had him falsely arrested for holding the woman hostage with a gun. The charges were quickly dropped.[3]. Malmsteen continued to record and release albums under the Japanese record label Pony Canyon, and maintained a devoted following from some fans in Europe and Japan, and to a lesser extent in the USA. In 2000, he once again acquired a contract with a US record label, Spitfire, and released his 1990s catalog into the US market for the first time, including what he regards as his masterpiece, Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.

2000s

Malmsteen in Barcelona

After the release of War to End All Wars in 2000, singer Mark Boals left the band.He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Doogie White. White's vocals were well received by fans. In 2003, Malmsteen joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai as part of the G3 supergroup. Malmsteen made two guest appearances on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's albums Black Utopia (2003), and Blood of the Snake (2006) where Malmsteen is heard on the same tracks as Al Di Meola and Zakk Wylde. In 2004, Malmsteen made two cameo appearances on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

Malmsteen released Unleash the Fury in 2005. (This title may be a reference to an audio recording that supposedly captured Malmsteen's immoderate response to a flight attendant who spilled a beverage on him. The recording found popularity in filesharing networks as an example of the absurd behavior of celebrities.) He is married to April (Ebru Solmaz, born in Istanbul, Turkey)[4][5] and has a son named Antonio after Antonio Vivaldi, and they live in Miami, Florida. A noted Ferrari enthusiast, Malmsteen owned a black 1985 308 GTS[6] for 18 years before selling it on eBay, and a red 1962 250 GTO.[7] In the mid-2000s, he gave up smoking and drinking alcohol.

In 2007, Malmsteen was honored in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. Players can receive the "Yngwie Malmsteen" award by hitting 1000 or more notes in succession.[8] February 2008 saw the replacement of singer Doogie White with former Iced Earth and Judas Priest and current Beyond Fear singer Tim "Ripper" Owens, with whom Malmsteen had once recorded a cover of Ozzy Osbourne's song "Mr. Crowley", for the 2000 Osbourne tribute album Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy. The first Malmsteen album to feature Owens is titled Perpetual Flame and was released on October 14. On November 25, 2008, Malmsteen had three of his songs ("Caprici Di Diablo", "Damnation Game", and "Red Devil") released as downloadable content for the video games Rock Band and Rock Band 2. In 2008 Malmsteen was a special guest on the VH1 Classic show "That Metal Show". In the 10th of March 2009, Malmsteen's label Rising Force has launched his new release Angels of Love, an instrumental album which features acoustic arrangements of some of his best-known ballads.

In August, 2009, Time Magazine named Malmsteen #9 on its list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all-time.[9] Malmsteen recently released another album compilation entitled High Impact on December 8, 2009.

Technique and style

Malmsteen is known for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and sweep picked arpeggios. He is often considered one of the most talented rock guitarists of all time and is considered to be a pioneer of shred guitar[10][11][12][13][14][15].

Also, Malmsteen favors the harmonic minor scale, and often uses diminished arpeggios and phrygian scales and draws an influence from Bach and Beethoven. In an interview, Malmsteen confessed that his regular use of harmonic minor was because in the 1980s he was trying to move away from the blues-based pentatonic scales that were frequently used at the time.

Musical equipment

Malmsteen has been a longtime user of Fender Stratocasters (possibly influenced by one of his idols, Ritchie Blackmore). His most famous Stratocaster is his 1972 blonde Strat, nicknamed "The Duck" because of its yellow finish and the Donald Duck stickers on the body. He also has a signature Stratocaster. It comes in a Vintage White finish with a maple neck, either a maple or rosewood fretboard with scalloped frets and, from 2010, Seymour Duncan YJM Model pickups. For amplification, Malmsteen has always used Marshall heads and cabinets.

Band members

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Yngwie Malmsteen band members.
Current members

Discography

Steeler
Date of Release Title Label Chart positions US sales
1983 Steeler Shrapnel
Alcatrazz
Date of Release Title Label Chart positions US sales
1983 No Parole from Rock N' Roll Polydor 128
Live Sentence 133
2010 Live '83 Deadline
No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll Tour Live in Japan 1984.1.28 Audio Tracks
Solo
Year Album Publisher Chart positions US sales
1984 Rising Force Polydor 60
October 1985 Marching Out 54
1986 Trilogy 44
March, 1988 Odyssey 40
October, 1989 Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad 128
1990 Eclipse 112
November, 1991 The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection
1992 Fire and Ice Elektra 121
February 18, 1994 The Seventh Sign Pony Canyon
September 21, 1994 Power And Glory (Japanese CD Single)
October 21, 1994 I Can't Wait (EP)
June 6, 1995 Magnum Opus
November 5, 1996 Inspiration
September 3, 1997 Facing the Animal
February 4, 1998 Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E flat minor, Opus 1
September 18, 1998 Double LIVE!
September 17, 1999 Alchemy
March 15, 2000 Anthology 1994-1999
April 25, 2000 The young person's guide to the classics.1 *
April 25, 2000 The young person's guide to the classics.2 *
May 9, 2000 The Best Of: 1990-1999 Dream Catcher
November 22, 2000 War to End All Wars Pony Canyon
January 9, 2002 Concerto Suite LIVE With the New Japan Philharmonic
September 4, 2002 Attack!!
December 30, 2002 The Genesis
January 1, 2004 Oujya Ressou - Instrumental Best Album
March 10, 2004 G3: Rockin' in the Free World Epic
February 23, 2005 Unleash the Fury Universal Music
May 24, 2005 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Yngwie Malmsteen Polydor
October 14, 2008 Perpetual Flame Rising Force Records
March 10, 2009 Angels of Love
December 8, 2009 High Impact

(* Note: Yngwie Malmsteen does not perform on these albums)

See also

References

  1. ^ Fretbase, Time Magazine Picks the 10 Best Electric Guitar Players
  2. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20070930190937/http://yngwie.org/faq/
  3. ^ "Yngwie at Guitarsite.com". Retrieved 2007-05-26.
  4. ^ The Yngwie Malmsteen Tribute Series Stratocaster: By The Fender Custom Shop
  5. ^ Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra DVD End Credits
  6. ^ "roadgearmag.com". Retrieved March 2001. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ^ yngwie.org. Yngwie Answers Your Questions. March 16, 2002.
  8. ^ Xbox360Achievements.org - Guitar Hero II Achievement List
  9. ^ Fretbase, Time Magazine Picks the 10 Best Electric Guitar Players
  10. ^ http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/best_guitar-all.html
  11. ^ http://www.buzzle.com/articles/best-guitarists-of-all-time.html
  12. ^ http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1916544,00.html
  13. ^ http://guitarplaylearn.com/?p=96
  14. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=18446
  15. ^ http://www.helium.com/items/852531-greatest-guitar-players-of-all-time
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yngwie Malmsteen.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Yngwie Malmsteen.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yngwie_Malmsteen&oldid=382151105"