INSTRUMENTAL INQUISITION!
ADRIAN VANDENBERG
Guitar instrumentals have supplied some of music’s most evocative moments. Jason Sidwell asks top guitarists for their take on this iconic movement. This month we hear some wise words from the celebrated Dutch rock guitarist.
GT: What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you?
AV: Maybe slightly surprisingly, I am not a huge fan of most guitar instrumentals. There are quite a lot of exceptions though. For instance, most of what Jeff Beck has done, a lot of classic acoustic guitar, flamenco, gypsy jazz and scattered instrumentals by players that I love who usually don’t often do instrumentals. For me it needs to feel like a song where the guitar plays the melodies that a vocalist would do, and not a platform just to show one’s technical ability.