[themckman]

I'd be curious to know if you create music or are just a listener. It's easy for someone who doesn't actually write music to write off a lot of that as "boring exhibitionism". But if you watch those guys play or talk about music, a lot of times you genuinely get the feeling that that's just what they hear it in their head. It's just how music is supposed to be to them.

I'm a guitar player myself, and don't really care for Vai/Satriani type stuff; there's just something missing. I have been getting into some more recent progressive shred and am having a hard time finding anybody that seems to really be pushing the genre forward as much as Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes. Both are extremely talented and just seem to "get it". Another guy who is right up there is Paul Ortiz. He's got some pretty serious keyboard chops, too.