imho - Shawn was a genius first. He started out on piano/keyboard, then moved to guitar (he played other instruments too). He has said, he basically had the speed he had as an adult at the age of 12. I believe Shawn learnt 'light touch' on keyboard (using gravity over muscle). This (and piano dexterity+theory) probably helped him some. I think he also studied the ways other instruments (globally) used picks. Like Sarod Picking, as an example. Coupled with his intellect, i think Shawn came to 'realisations' about the guitar. Much faster than us mere mortals ;-)

Friends. This is as deep as guitar KZbin goes..

There are the guitar gods , the guitar gods then look up to Shaun lane, no one can relplicate this nor will they ever

Shawn is still the king.

We need to share this one for sure, THANK YOU. And when I worked with Shawn in the studio we discussed picking techniques a lot but the most fun was watching him doodle around with hybrid system of chicken picking and finger picking simultaneously that sounded like he had kicked on a delay pedal until you realized he was doing it on an acoustic. I really wish we had video of him doing the acoustic picking tricks. - CB

5:40 wtf what song is that?

Troy's studies focus on alternate/sweep picking mechanics, and even though Shawn did use those mechanics quite a lot, Troy already had other study cases for the technical aspects he shows: - Yngwie and Eric Johnson are the case for 2NPS downward pickslanting, and sweep picking mechanics - Michael Angelo Batio is the case for 3NPS and two-way pickslanting in general, whether in alternate or sweep picking Shawn is an untouchable God and we love him, but he had different mechanics: He didn't seem to be a 3NPS player, he played mostly downward pickslanting, and used hybrid picking/legato as a mechanical solution for patterns that would break the flow of his downward pickslanting, or would use groups of sixes that would even out the picking pattern to avoid switching pickslants. Shawn is definitely a beast to be studied in terms of his immense creativity, his mechanical problem solving, his speed and precision, and his physical ability to play such inhuman stretches, there's the spice of Shawn's playing.

The pick slant doesn't matter as much when econo picking. Yes I've hit Shawn Lane speeds, though of course not as cleanly, and some of those finger stretches are still very uncomfortable. It can be done though, and Troy's correct in the sense that it isn't as technically impressive as it is mechanically impressive. Econo picking can unlock greater speeds, but you still need to be a machine to do it at Shawn Lane speeds. Only guys I've seen get close are Rustey Cooley and Andy James, who seem to blend alt/econo picking quite effortlessly.

Ok i might be wrong but it looks like in all the examples he's doing economy picking and it seems based on what ik from other economy pickers that it is mostly downward pick slanting except for a few licks

The important thing is the Left hand grip on the entire neck....and how to Attack and Control the string[s] so that movement around the neck/scales, is controlled at all times. I can Shred for Bursts, but not like Shawn, or any other Shredder....I grew up listening to Hendrix, Trower and Gilmore....They were more Mood, Feel and Emotional Players...But I must learn to break out of old habits and do things the right way, again!

I'm in the category of "Can't play it even half as fast". While it's fun to watch if you aren't born with a certain percentage of fast-twitch and ultra fast-twitch fibers in you (those are real terms) you aren't going to be able to play it like those guys no matter how much you practice. It's a good thing I still enjoy listening to Hendrix, Bloomfield, Beck and Albert King among others who have the "soul" that gets to me.

troy grady has good points, but woooooow does he miss the point big time a LOT of the time

I‘ve seen Lane live doing a workshop in the 90s in Germany, Walldorf at a store called Session Musik. Never seen anything like it ever again - technique wise

I’m sitting here trying to describe what I just saw, as I have everytime with watching Shawn, and basically there’s not good enough language to describe how otherworldly and mind bending and terrifying I think his playing is…when guys like prime Paul Gilbert fresh out of GIT needs two hands to sound somewhat close to Shawn and still isn’t even close at all?!!! That says it all right there, anyone badmouthing Shawn is simply jealous or can’t comprehend what he’s doing, the latter I can understand!!!🙌🏽😱🤯🤣👏🎸🎶🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Shawn was just superfukkinnatural😮

Maybe with some MIDI programming?

eh... the elusive "snap picking" ah la Andy James is just sweep picking. In his example its down (g), up (e), up (d), down (b), down (g), etc... The pick motion is very clear in the video. The "snap" he's referring to is the way he's choosing to articulate the first pitch louder than the rest in the phrase. In Andy James's case it's the first "G" in the set of four notes of the e minor pentatonic scale. Weather Lane is sweep picking or not, the snap he refers to in his technique videos seems to only relate to the way he's articulating the first note of each sequence. The picking sequences vary but not the articulation. Not really a mystery IMO.

Try watching this in a room with a strobe light.

Plus remember he done all this amazing playing with sever arthritis, what an amazing wizard his was RIP, Shawn. You're missed by all.

Only guy that got close was vinny Vincent in the boyz are gonna rock solo.

Shawn Lane is a freaking legend. So is David Shankle, who's even less popular & talked about. Insane players... I'd love to see some professional analysis on both of their playing, it would be very interesting.

5.45. Mic drop. Holly shit 😅

Well i got one name for youor that brendan guy @roymarchbank youre welcome

And please ... no one say Yngwie (not taking anything away from YM).., just give Shawn the credit he deserves by saying he’s by far the most brilliant guitar player that probably ever lived. I’m not comparing but Matteo Mancuso’s playing style blows my mind as well🙏🏼

Shawn was a one off that we all as guitarists are still chasing that dream of actually thinking we could ever play at this alien speed .I just wish Shawn would have been more appreciated for his talent and was able to make more money 💰 for health insurance to maybe extend his life much longer 😔 than he got ,he was taking way to young as many are .he would only be in his early 60s now and had so much more to give he was a magician by the time he was 16 on the guitar and a master by 20 like Jason Becker he was sadly 💔 stricken with medical issues that i really wish we had a cure for by now .to be gifted like that on a instrument is truly a godly gift.

Its very true. People who haven't spent time with Shawn's videos and slowed the licks down can sound so dismissive, if only relative to how truly advanced Shawn was. A pretty good example for me is where he is playing live with Paul Gilbert. Its not even the technique. Its the speed with which the man could improvise legitimate musical compositions that were so eloquent , yet almost too fast for them to register. His piano playing and singing also demonstrate that his musical ear was keeping up with his mastery of technique.

Shawn Lane was a Circus. Brilliant technique but nothing I can understand or anything that comes to my heart. What a waste of talent... I know, I cannot do it better. But playing guitar should express something and not confuse your ears...

Does anyone know where I can find the full clip of Shawn from the end of this video? It's absurd!!!

too many notes. prefer the old style of 60s/70s

I know this is a bit late, but there is this video where shawn shreds a strat in his home, you get a really good wiev of his picking hand and if you look you'll see that he combines some sort of hybrid picking as well.

Wow, there's been nobody like this guy. Father God thank you for this man. Wow

not really a fan of his faster stuff, some his slower licks can put me to tears though

His technique was just a means to freedom.

"Roy Marchbank"!! Check him out, has a KZbin channel, covers Shawn's stuff, and is even faster than Lane.. never thought I'd see it, but tis fact. Again "Roy Marchbank"

not anyone can do that. lol It takes a genetic advantage it is perfect technique combined with muscle and tendon ability.

Trust this, if Shawn was ALIVE STILL, Troy would of had him on, time after time.

I dont think you understand what Troy is saying at all. Shawn is just faster at them. There is no secret to crack there. The same techniques are in a more accessible form, recorded in higher quality, by other guitarists who are simply not playing and thinking as fast. That does not diminish the other guitarists, even if the poster of this vide would have you believe otherwise.

I'm not deprived of ant sleep by the naysayers. Shawn is unique and will live forever as THE masterclass guitarist. If Shawn were alive today (I meet him 3 times at Anahiem NAMM convention/show) he would say just play the guitar so that you feel comfortable (not struggling) and it makes you happy. Shawn never thought of his wonderful gift and craft as a competition.

When Shawn went pop, we can here beautiful melodies in Get You Back, but when he was a bit serious, well, you can say that he was the Son Go Ku of guitar, or Bruce Lee of guitar, his speed, accuracy, tonality, just mind-blowing, and never been understood by any scientist that human can do such amazing speed. RIP Shawn Lane, your playing will always inspire us.

4:45 SNAP PICKING I had that video 10 years ago You can also do UP DOWN DOWN HAMMER. With that one I call that a " Half Snap" And do 5 patterns 2 note per string pentatonics Up Down Down Hammer next string UP Arch back to Down ( string skip) Down ( next string ) Snap Pick Repeat It is a combination of Economy legato and alternate...directional picking

You can argue "Picking Technique" all day long but it doesn't matter. This guy has everybody beat including Shawn, Guthrie, Paul and anybody else that comes along. Allan would have loved this guy. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oGmypKieiamonNk

Shawn normally didn’t play guitar much outside of gigs (coming from friends and family) from what I’ve read starting in the late 80’s, early 90’s. He was all piano for the most part. I think it made him a better composer/musician but I can’t help but think how much more impressive he would have been if all he did was play guitar. That’s saying a lot considering he is the most impressive technical electric guitarist I’ve seen.

Thanks for wrecking it SHIT EDITS

This just seems like a bunch of petty dick-measuring. To try and one-up Troy, I guess? Who's a fucking beast of a player? christ youtube is so depressing

He's casual playing like those genius fastest guitar players

Shawn was on a completely different level than anyone out there. We will never see another player with the skill set and talent that guy had, not in our lifetime anyway.

The thing about Shawn is this...there are things that Eddie did that no one back in the day would ever dream about being able to do...fast forward...now you have 11 year old kids playing eruption...but here is the real kicker...you still have people walking around that can't figure out how Shawn pulled off some of his stuff.... smiles....🎸🎸🎸

There are a lot of astonishing Guitar players, we all know that.....but then there are Shawn Lane and Allan Holdsworth. "There'll never gonna be another Shawn" (Guthrie Govan) "Shawn Lane is from outer space" (BUCKETHEAD) "if I ever met a Genius in my life, that is Shawn Lane" (Andy Timmons) Whatever Paul Gilbert said is the video. *Note* And the Guitar wasn't even Shawn's favorite instrument, was the Piano.

Shawns picking hand is turned over more. It's a different way of picking for sure. Hands seem a little smaller and zero tension.

Part of the dilemma until fairly recently is that while Shawn was both an amazing musician and also amazingly prolific, a great deal of his musical output is like many early jazz musicians--It was played at the moment, live and improvised, and all too often went (unfortunately) unrecorded. Some of this was because Shawn went on hiatus from the larger musical audience, either not performing, or if so only in local clubs near his home. Partly this was due to his health struggles, but also to a bit of disenchantment with the business of the music industry, and sometimes because he was such a perfectionist, and was always finding ways to improve upon his abilities not only on guitar but also piano that he couldn't bring himself to have his playing recorded for a public release, due to the fact that by the time he finished recording it, he would already be so much better or would have a better version to pursue in his mind that he would have been personally dissatisfied with the recording, and would find its release unacceptable to his own standards. The point is that for a good portion of his career there was just far too few recordings or videos of him, which contributed to his not becoming the household name that he deserved to be, even amongst guitar players, and made it very hard to grasp what he was doing since there were even fewer people who had actually seen him play over much his career, let alone had heard of him. Fortunately, he did start near the end of his life to do clinics and to get out and start recording again, and thanks to people who have access to those recordings and/or videos sharing them on sites such as KZbin we have an opportunity to actually see what is going on. But believe me when I say that the very first time I heard (and heard of) Shawn (maybe around 1982 or1983) play was on a track on one of Mike Varney's "US Metal" compilation albums. Shawn performed an instrumental called "Stratosphere II", and it did sound amazing, and was incredibly technical and fast, but as a 15-year-old novice who had barely had his first guitar lesson, I must confess, I truly had no idea what the hell was going on, and though I got that it was technically impressive, it never really sunk in musically what Shawn was doing--It was way over my head. Even to the extent that it did not impact me until maybe 15 years later when I began to learn more about Shawn's personal story, Black Oak Arkansas, his health issues, how he chose to hide away while he continued learning music (not just guitar playing) and collecting Jazz and Classical records. So I wouldn't bag too much on Troy for not having featured Shawn as Troy is roughly my age, and judging by his animated story of how he came to chase Yngwie's picking as the Holy Grail for most of his quest to develop his own speed and picking technique he has had the same exposure that I had to players and equipment and innovations in pretty much the same chronology, and I can tell those of you who did not grow up both personally and musically from the early 1980s forward, you just do not realize how lacking in availability Shawn's recordings were for a long, long time from that point forward. It's like there were rumors of this really incredible guy named Shawn Lane, but for decades that is the most 99% of anybody knew about the guy--Just rumors that he existed, and was the most unbelievable player you could witness, except virtually nobody had. You would have had to go to Tennessee and find the club he was playing in, if he was even doing that at the time, because there was no recorded output coming from him. I think it was after Guitar Player magazine finally sent someone to Tennessee to find him and interview him that Shawn finally began to re-emerge and slowly start to return to the public a little bit, but by that time he was really struggling with his physical health. A lot of us find it sad that Holdsworth never truly got the broader attention or success, but at least he had others like Van Halen, Zappa, Vai, and Meniketti who would champion him and talk about him in interviews. No one ever seemed to do that for Shawn until after he passed away. Anyway, that's my overly long explanation of why I do not think he gets his due either with average listeners, musicians (on guitar or other instruments), or music educators.