Question I've had for a while

[sora2252]

I've been wondering, I know hide was the lead guitar player and that he was awesome at playing guitar as well as writing music. But between hide and Pata, who was the better technical player? I've heard arguments both...

I was also wonder if hide very skilled in music theory or was he simply an "ear player". What I mean by this is, did he know how to read and write music for the guitar or did he play simply with a good ear. I have yet to hear arguments for either. The question for Pata.

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I'm new to X and I've developed a deep connection with this band, and I'm just looking to understand them more as musicians. 

[Matthias]

In the early days they shared lead-duties pretty even, but hide became more and more of the lead guitarist afterwards. I would assume he was able to write music for the guitar, because he managed to get a number of solo/other bands album done.

[Wick]

Hi,

Good question I've heard a lot of contradictions.

In the "old X" Pata played many solo's aswell so I'm not sure if you can call hide the lead gitarist there.

Personally I think Pata's technique looks more solid. His right hand is a bit more natural while hide really streches his fingers. In my opinion relaxed and natural is often better but on the other hand it's really important to hit the strings strongly so it shouldn't be too relaxed either. Using mainly the wrist is important (what they both do). What I also think is important is to have a fluent movement of the hand. This because alternate picking will be easier and it's more economical (faster/less movement). I think hide is really good at this and in hitting the strings strongly. hide is a bit better then Pata at this, Sugizo is quite bad at this and for example Kaoru of Dir En Grey really has some issues here. In short a relaxed and controlled movement of the wrist is key. This is why I dislike Sugizo.
Next is palm muting. I think hide is better in palm muting. His hand is rather straight on the strings but he keeps good contact.

So at first, looking at right hand technique, Pata looks more solid but hide has some strong points which I think are underestimated.
Now the left hand...
hide learned playing the guitar by himself, books, etc. You can see that in his technique. It's funny that even if both guitars play the same notes, hide and Pata often prefer to play it on a different way (some parts of Rose of pain for instance). I think it's nice to see both have a different approach. They both had their own band, are experienced guitar players and thus know what they want.

If you take a good look at how they play solo's, hide's way is not always elegant but it works (example: part in the blue blood solo is unlogical). Pata's fingers look nicer but he has hardly uses his pink in solo's, which strange since he's using it a lot in chords etc.. This does give him some problems which also become clear now he is older. By looking a lot of performances I think Pata made more mistakes then hide. Playing high notes on a les paul is more difficult then on a mockingbird but this is not to blame. hide is actually more solid.

I think hide is more flexible and improvises more. In his solo's ofcourse (hide no heya) but also in standard songs.

Conclusion is that hide is the better musician (composing and performing) but although Pata technique looks more solid, hide is underestimated and perhaps more solid than Pata.
I don't think I have to say more about Sugizo...

About myself: I've been playing guitar over three years but I'm not geat at it. I have all bandscore of X JAPAN including the live live live ones. Together with my brother I've been going through many dvd's correcting some tabs so they are 99.9% accurate. This gave me some knowlegde on this subject. I sometimes ask for an opinion of a friend of mine who is lead gitarist of a powermetal band.

It's a rather large comment but I'm curious what other people think.

[sora2252]

I play guitar too!!!

I can see what you're saying about the differences in technique. So are you sure that hide used books when learning to play? Did he ever say this in any interviews or anything? Do you know how Pata learned? Was he self taught as well?

[Wick]

I read it somewhere but don't know if it's a good source. I have some guitar magazines (including the rocking 'f book) that feature hide  but my Japanese is not great so I can't check it. Looking at his technique though it's very likely that he taught it himself.
I don't know if Pata had guitar lessons but I remember that he made some kind of instructional DVD. So he seems quite certain of his way of playing which might suggest that he had lessons. This is just a speculation though.

There was a sort like discussion about technique on jpopsuki. There were some people that think differently about it. I'll quote some things of the forum which sometimes are a bit disrespectfull I think.

We're in an age these days where guitarists are a little bit 'ten a penny'. You only have to scower youtube for a couple of seconds to find an amaeteur guitarist more talented than hide. Still I imagine that Yoshiki thought that hide's style was more suited to the direction he wanted X to take.

by Leigh

hide killed X
I used to be a big fan, but the percentage keeps dropping. But i'm still very comfortable in between 1985-1990 though.

by biteyourself

I like Sugizo as a guitarist, I consider him way better than HIDE for performing X songs (hear his solo on X on the Extasy Summit '92 or Silent Jealousy and Kurenai in the 2008 shows), his style is way clearer than HIDE for the metal styled songs. Don't get me wrong, I praise Sugizo only because of the style he plays live on such songs only. I would never in my life think of replacing HIDE with Sugizo for X. HIDE represented better what X was all about, and personally I prefer him over Sugizo, obviously.

by Saga

Pata is better than hide, Sugizo is better than hide
but i still love hide

by darthchilli

So, many different opinions...a shame they hardly give arguments.

[andi3]

I think Sugizo today is technically much better than hide was. Just by watching the recent X concerts with Sugizo. I also play guitar (over 10 years)

[Wick]

ok, that's good to know but could you please tell why

[Beauty/Broken]

ok, that's good to know but could you please tell why

I think in terms of the confidence and precision of his playing Sugizo is superior to both Hide and Pata. I think that Pata has always been the muddiest player of the three, and at least on the evidence of X Japan's filmed concerts, most prone to error.

It's quite difficult to compare Hide, Pata and Sugizo as they are all very different guitarists. If you send Pata away to do his own thing then he'd probably play something bluesy or heavy rock sounding, if you sent Hide away he'd probably play something more in line with funk or psychedelic and if you send Sugizo away you can probably expect something screeching and Nu-metal sounding.

All three different styles involve an array of different techniques which I think play to each guitarist’s strengths and may be difficult to replicate easily by another. The only middle grounds we can use to compare the guitarists are their performances with X Japan as they are generally all playing the same parts. Even then, each player adds their own affectations or style to the playing to blur the lines even further, I think even on this evidence it comes down, in the end, to taste.

From my personal experience, I’d say that stylistically some of Hide’s playing is actually most difficult to copy. Take Scars and Rusty Nail for example, these are both solos which hide composed himself and are very much akin to his personal taste in playing. I’d say to replicate the way in which he plays these exactly is much, much more difficult than playing something like the guitar parts in Art of Life, which stylistically on guitar, are quite minimal.

[Crock.Extinction]

About technicaly, it's difficult to say who's better, because nobody plays the same way. When I started to play guitar, I ask to many musician if there was a right way to play, and indeed, there is, but they also told me that one will play the way he feels more confortable.

Pata and hide are awesome, their technique is different. Pata makes more mistakes than hide, but hide is not as fast as Pata ...

About Sugizo I can't say much ...

And about Music Theory, I believe that every musician has to know, at least, the cromatic scale, and the major scale, to be able to write music and to improvise.

I've been playing the guitar for almost 8 years, and I have taught a few guys to play.

[Wick]

I agree that it's hard to compare guitar players and that there are more approaches on how to play the guitar and you should pick the one that fits you most.
Most of us are on the same line when comparing Pata to hide but not yet on Sugizo...

I've compared Silent Jealousy with hide to the new one with Sugizo a couple of times.
I see what you guys mean with Sugizo's playing being more clear.
He's also using more reverb and vibrato's. This sometimes makes it sound better but it's not real skill, more a matter of taste.
The solo's of X JAPAN aren't fast and Sugizo really does a good job.
 
Power metal has to be tight and the fast tremolo picking should be no exception. I can't hear the guitar clearly on the new X JAPAN concert so it's a bit hard to jugde that.
So, Sugizo's playing sounds good but this is also about technique!!
I still think hide's right hand technique is much better for fast tremolo picking then Sugizo's. Much more solid.
Looking at their left hands. Well hide sometimes had a strange way of playing some parts but Sugizo...really loose and way more awkward.
At the second part of the intro of Silent Jealousy Sugizo slides with his indexfinger from 55 to 77. That's just sloppy.

In the song it's a shame that Sugizo doesn't use alternate picking for the clean part in the brigde.

And about Music Theory, I believe that every musician has to know, at least, the cromatic scale, and the major scale, to be able to write music and to improvise.

Someone else also told me the importance of that. I really have to learn the scales. Good point.

[sora2252]

Yeah I think it's really important to understand major scales and the chromatic. And I've noticed that hide uses the pentatonic scales a lot when playing. If I'm not mistaken, Sugizo was classically trained in other string instruments, like the violin. This is probably why he has a very clear sound.

[vegarrrrd]

sugizo just has way too much uncontrolled vibrato, don't really like that. i always liked hide's playing, he always has some cool signature detail in the way of playing i think. i learned to play mostly from listening and watching him, the big difference in his and pata's playing is that pata mostly, if not always, picks every note and hide plays legato mostly. also pata plays things in a pure rock way mostly while hide is more experimental, which shows in what they've wrote.

some of the reason pata makes more errors than hide during solos live is that pata always (one little exception or two maybe) plays the higher part, and the 22fret les paul isn't good for that. plus he has his guitar quite low which makes it even worse.