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“You’re hearing somebody’s life, not techniques learned from a book”: Marty Friedman on why it’s hard to replicate a guitarist’s playing style
“There’s guys who think, ‘Okay, I’ll do a half-step bend and then I’ll sound like Marty.’ No, it’s not that simple.”
Marty Friedman. Credit: Jun Sato
Some guitarists can learn every scale, master every technique, and still never quite capture the magic of their heroes. According to Marty Friedman, that’s because guitar playing isn’t just about “techniques learned from a book” — it’s about personality, experience, and the intangible essence of a musician’s life poured into every note.
The former Megadeth guitarist recently spoke on why replicating another player’s style is nearly impossible, using his own experience with Dave Mustaine’s rhythm playing as an example.
Speaking on Masters of Shred, Friedman explains how their contrasting styles somehow meshed perfectly during his time in the band.
“At the time, I wasn’t really so conscious of it, but Dave really has a unique rhythm style that’s really his, and it’s very important to the sound [of Megadeth],” the guitarist says [via Loudwire]. “And I believe that I have a very unique lead style, and the fact that they, very luckily, worked together, like a watch.. you know how in the watch, things interweave.”
“They just happened to — like peanut butter and chocolate — they happened to work out. They could’ve just as easily clashed, and it would’ve been a dumpster fire.”
Friedman goes on to praise Mustaine’s rhythm playing, noting how different it was from his own approach. “I think his rhythm playing — I remember when I joined the band, I’m like, ‘This is really, really unique.’ It was very difficult for me to get to the point where I was confident with it,” he explains. “I never got good at it. I got passable at it, long enough to play in the band for 10 years. But I never really got good at it.”
“It’s one of those things — it’s a person,” he continues. “I can’t be that person. And no one can be me when it comes to leads. There’s guys who think, ‘Okay, I’ll do a half-step bend and then I’ll sound like Marty.’ No, it’s not that simple. Or you can say, ‘I can mute the string like this with my palm, and I’ll sound like Mustaine.’ No, it’s not that simple.”
“It’s a lot of very personal choices, lifestyle choices, that translate into guitar. And I don’t really know to explain this very well, but you’re hearing somebody’s life. You’re not hearing techniques learned from a book.”
For Friedman, it’s the culmination of all these factors that gives a guitarist their distinctive sound: “I think Dave’s playing is very — the second you hear it, you know it’s him,” he says. “And the same thing goes for my playing, and I think we were lucky that guitar media and people out there picked up on that back then.”