Evil (Discouragement) on YouTube

[Edward John]

Shit like this is why I started the #metalminute hashtag on IG. Keeping the emphasis on doing quick hits with no overdubs, coverups, or hundreds of takes to make it perfect. People who do this sort of thing discourage real players of all skill levels and they should be taken out behind the barn and put down. Leon really shows how easy it is to make "pretend" awesome guitar videos. I hadn't thought about some of these ways, but for sure - they all suck. They're all cheating for the sake of cheating.

A lot of the time, the mistakes can make a performance.

 

[Cedric L]

You know, there is a positive aspect that you forget. If you play a solo (or a riff) 100 times to make it sound perfect, you practice by the way.
If you stop after 3-4 attempts because you don't want to "cheat" you won't get better.
There are mistakes which are only audible if you listen to your record. You won't hear them while you are playing because you are concentrated. That's why I started recording myself. I wanted to hear the smallest mistakes.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

You're right. I record every jam I do and my improvs are usually one take. Maybe 2 if the first 30 seconds sucks but in all honestly I already know the melody so the first 30 is usually planned before picking up the guitar. Everything else is whatever comes to mind. The slips are everywhere in the arpeggios right now but that's the new techniques and speed increases. But a lot of the time the mistakes are unnoticed to a common ear. But listening back I find every one. I ow what I wanna do and I can always tell when I completely miss it but the best part about improv and performances is if you act like it was meant to go that way no one will ever know the difference.

 

[Lindsey]

I think doing a few takes to get a solid one is fine, but doing this sort of thing, or doing 100 takes until it's perfect is a bit much. For the Metal Minutes, I never do more than 3 complete takes, but that's just my personal philosophy/rule and an arbitrary number.

At some point doing 100 takes could be considered practice or warmup if you're lacking that, but you should be able to play it the 101th time as well.