Was Randy Rhoads ACTUALLY That Good?

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:02]Hey, this is Cameron and welcome to the reaction log. Whoa, whoa, whoa. All right, we got a special spicy one here for you. And by that, I mean I have a topic. This is a topic that you guys have been asking for for a while and I've been kind of avoiding it partially because there's not a lot of videos that I can find online, but it's Randy Rhodess. I've been hearing you.

[00:00:22]Apparently, he's a classical guitarist, too. Well, you know what? I'm a classical guitarist, and I'll be the judge of that. In all honesty, I'm just kidding. If you're a classical guitarist, which you know, maybe I should introduce myself. I am a classical guitarist here on YouTube. And what does that mean? It means that you probably started off playing rock music when you were a teenager because that's what teenagers do. They play rock guitar. That's some teenage stuff. And then you make a decision. Are you going to go to school? Are you going to get an actual major? Or are you just going to major in music and just kind of keep the party going? And if you do that, you got to pick jazz or classical. Classical is the most adjacent to uh the Randy Road solos that you were learning. So, you might as well do that. And that's what it means to be a classical guitarist.

[00:01:01]Hey, we're going to look at Randy Rhodess. And a lot of you have suggested this. There's too many of you to name, but thank you for that. And I have a few things in store for you. One that you guys have talked about a lot is the song D. We're going to listen to that, see how it is musically. We're going to try to observe the technique, what we can observe. I also found a guy who arranged it for classical guitar in the more traditional sense. I know that it's like an acoustic recording, but it's it's still in the middle of a metal album. It doesn't really sound like a classical recording, but I found like a legit classical recording of it. We'll look at those. I'm kind of curious though, just to start things off. 1978 Randy Rhodess private lesson. What? Dude, I know a thing or two about private lessons. So, maybe we could jump into this first. I have a feeling that when I click on this, there's not going to be a video and it's just going to be an audio recording cuz it seems like every Randy Rhodess video is just a bunch of audio and then you just get like a nice sweet montage of pictures of Randy Rhodess.

[00:01:56]It's really annoying when you're trying to make a reaction video about them, but all right.

[00:02:02]Oh. All right. So, it's a lot of pictures flashing at me. Hold on. Let's see.

[00:02:08]Those are freaking scale charts right there. Let me Let me get that. Can I see that clean? Can I see that clear? What scale is that?

[00:02:15]>> It's good rhythm.

[00:02:16]>> That's nice.

[00:02:17]>> Okay. Now, the thing is you can use those coming in out of any type of rhythm. A I'll show you how I just use it.

[00:02:23]>> It's just audio. All right. How do we use that rhythm?

[00:02:32]>> I feel like because it's Randy Rhodess, I know what that little run was.

[00:02:37]>> Was it that? All right. What are we going to learn here today?

[00:02:40]>> Another riff that has that.

[00:02:41]>> Let me get that one.

[00:02:42]>> Oh, why don't I just do it real slow?

[00:02:44]It'll take you a long time to write that out.

[00:02:46]>> Just to name the notes.

[00:02:47]>> Okay.

[00:02:48]>> Okay.

[00:02:48]>> Yeah. Wait, what is he saying? Wait, instead of writing it out, why don't I just play it slow and you just memorize it? No, don't write it out because then you'll take a little bit of time, but you'll have it forever. Just memorize it, bro. What are you stupid?

[00:03:00]>> First one is A E C G.

[00:03:07]>> Is he talking about doing something like that? All right, maybe you should just watch him play it, not write it down.

[00:03:13]God, I can't do that fast.

[00:03:16]First one is A, E, C, G.

[00:03:21]>> It's amazing he actually knew the names of the notes. I would have just called that pentatonic uh second, third, fourth string. I don't know.

[00:03:32]It's crazy how I played rock guitar for like seven years and I can't do that.

[00:03:36]I've never actually I try to get vulnerable here on sore hands.

[00:03:43]Hey, if you want to cast stones about how it's crazy how I can't do that very well. Can you do this very well?

[00:04:00]>> Boom. Did I just put in a shot of me playing something crazy on stage? It's been 6 months on that one, sucker.

[00:04:06]>> First one is A E C G. Okay. And >> the picking in all of them is down pull up.

[00:04:15]>> Okay.

[00:04:17]>> Next riff is C A E C. Okay.

[00:04:23]>> Wait. So he said C A E and then C. What?

[00:04:29]>> C A E C. I wonder if he's doing all pulloffs or if he's just doing H.

[00:04:41]And in case you're wondering what I'm doing there, what I think he's doing is like note pull off note like down pull off up.

[00:04:52]Maybe he's picking that first one.

[00:04:55]It's one of those things that I'm going to need a few days for my hand to acclimate to it.

[00:05:02]C B G F sharp.

[00:05:17]Hey, I can't play it. But we kind of get the point. I wonder who he's teaching.

[00:05:20]Is he teaching some billionaire that hired Randy Rhodess specifically to teach him his own song? Hey, I want to learn how to play Crazy Train. Where else should I go other than the source itself? How much does Randy Rhodess charge for a lesson?

[00:05:33]Tune your guitar, bro.

[00:05:35]>> That scale.

[00:05:36]>> All these guitaristic charts, man. This is it right here.

[00:05:39]>> When the song where you get on top of your shoulders and you do something like that.

[00:05:45]>> Yeah, you do something like that.

[00:05:54]>> Am I in Guitar Center right now? I'll add two. You have a separate grouping for when you play. You think major minor, right? Right. Think awesome.

[00:06:04]Think of it as it own. Okay.

[00:06:06]>> All right. I'm sorry about that. Okay. I think that's enough from this lesson.

[00:06:10]Hey, let's take a look at a different lesson, shall we? Can we get a video that's not a freaking slideshow, please?

[00:06:16]Randy Rose teaching a diary of a madman.

[00:06:18]>> Diary man is sure.

[00:06:19]>> Hey, it's probably from the same session. He's teaching Diary of a Mad Man now. Nah, we don't need a video of it. It's fine.

[00:06:25]It would be comparable to an A with a flatted fifth. So in other words, you got a root third, then you flat to E.

[00:06:33]Gives you that dissonance.

[00:06:35]>> Dissonance or donance. You know what I'm saying? Uh, all right.

[00:06:41]Something's a little familiar about this one, huh?

[00:06:56]I don't think we're going to figure this one out from the video. Hey, in the spirit of Randy Rhodess and rock music in general, maybe it's about time that we make a pilgrimage over to Ultimate Guitar. Hey, here it is. Diary of a madman. Ultimate Guitar is actually a wonderful resource for tablete. It's sort of the common man's IMSLP. This could be loot tab. You don't know, you know, like it could be actually really academic what we're looking at here. And in fact, seeing this in tab form is kind of funny. This is something that you guys mentioned when I did that Angie and D4 video. This is the actual Leo Brower influence because this is literally just Leo Brower and I am reading the tab.

[00:07:38]Yeah, pretty cool. That literally is just Leo Brower, isn't it?

[00:08:00]That's the kind of stuff I was expecting when I hear that you have Leo Brower influence. Well, you have to just straight up play Leo Brower in your music, right? This is pretty cool, though, cuz it shows that he really likes that kind of stuff. And apparently, according to you guys, he was classically trained like in his youth. You know, it makes sense that he would draw from this stuff. All right, I guess the last thing I want to look at is D perhaps. So, let's uh do that and then I think we're all going to go home.

[00:08:22]Oh, wait. Unless is this going to be a video of him actually? Are you a little nervous?

[00:08:27]>> Oh, video. No audio, though. Of course.

[00:08:30]Dude, I hate that they do this to me.

[00:08:32]All right, let's listen to D. Uh, this is going to be a beautiful classical tune. We got our nice little skulls here, of course, and our smoke and Aussie Osborne looking all crazy. All right, Polifia moment. Uh-oh. First thing I notice, the recording is pretty unlike the recording techniques that you'd hear in classical guitar music. At least from what I've heard, it's kind of thin sounding and it almost sounds like a duet of maybe a steel string and a nylon. Let's keep listening. Sorry.

[00:09:11]I think it's a duet between a classical and a steel string.

[00:09:18]Third trills epic boach moment except it goes the other way. They went that I don't know. It's still voice exchange involving the lowest string of the guitar, which like it's hard not to hear the beret of 996. Uh, when you hear that nice enjoyed it. It's very much like not in any style that I've heard. It it sounds it's uh it's definitely a new sound of like counterpoint and stuff.

[00:10:01]And again, at least from what I've heard, it doesn't seem to be mimicking like Baroque style like in any way that's like that meaningful. Uh but it is pretty guitar music which is pretty cool. And it's probably not supposed to be this big sounding grand thing.

[00:10:15]Probably just this quiet interlude moment. And uh that's why the sound isn't so gigantic. Like when you listen to classical guitar albums, they make the reverb just like enormous. For example, let's just look at like any freaking What have I been listening to?

[00:10:30]Maybe this Barios album that I've been listening to like this.

[00:10:40]I guess I'm talking about the clarity.

[00:10:41]I'm also comparing uh Randy Rhodess classical finger style technique to like the best in the world at playing like classical guitar classical style music on their nylon string. So, it's not really fair. All right. Let's just compare the sound again.

[00:11:06]I don't know. What do you guys think?

[00:11:07]How's that sound to you? Hey, here's somebody playing D on a classical guitar with classical style and technique.

[00:11:13]Let's hear what that sounds like.

[00:11:26]It's funny how this is like easier for me to understand and listen to. I'm just glad that this guy showed up in a blazer and his guitar is kind of pointed up this way. Just one recording and it's only a nylon string. It's like, "Oh, okay. I actually hear the counterpoint a little more clearly now." Okay.

[00:11:51]You know, those harmonics are the only thing that I don't really like about this composition. They just don't feel like they resolve. This piece is very clearly meant to be written as like a counterpuntal sort of homage to like Bach, I guess, or just like Counterpoint in general. Though, it sounds like a more modern interpretation of counterpoint. Like it doesn't sound like strictly like 18th century or anything like that, but it does sound like it's trying to resolve things in a way that is typical. And the harmonics are just like it's like nice music and then just random harmonics. It's like what is that?

[00:12:27]Like it's such a misdirection, which if that's on purpose then fair enough, but it just sounds like uh musically strange, you know? And that's my usual criticism for that kind of thing. Like you you see this a lot when steel stringers will like do that and it's like you have no control over what that sounds like. So you can just go it's like that's not a resolution. What was that? Like it's just random notes.

[00:12:53]It's like I don't know. It's not a resolution but also it's new and it's fresh and it's modern and it doesn't have to like follow all the expectations that some crusty classical person like me or anyone else might expect of it.

[00:13:05]So, it's also all about what are you trying to do, too? I don't even know what I'm going on about right now.

[00:13:10]Listen, I have been a guitarist for the majority of my life. Over half of my life, I'm pretty sure, actually. Uh, that's not true. It will be true pretty soon, though. I started when I was 11 and I'm 28 now. Uh, oh, wait, it is true. I've been playing for more than 11 years. Yeah, never mind. I I'm bad at math, I guess. Randy Rhodess has been a part of that journey, especially early on. So, the last thing I want to do is disrespect him or anything like that.

[00:13:33]I'll disrespect him in the thumbnail and title, don't get me wrong. I will totally do that. I don't care. But he's a legend and I've learned his music and I've taught his music because his music, like some of his riffs, like particularly Crazy Train, I think, is one of the top 10 beginner to intermediate riffs to be foundational in your technique to allow you to become a shredder and like the first 5 years of your playing or so. It's so thoughtful and you can play it using almost all of your fingers. I think you leave out your middle finger, but that's okay. It's a pretty strong finger already. You can teach kids to strengthen their pinky by using it. I'll actually in case you guys don't know this riff. It uses really thoughtful counterpoint like this pedal point here.

[00:14:14]And it's something that you can just play over and over. And honestly, just that contribution alone is enough for like legendary status. And of course, he's done so much more, too. In fact, if you send me some more stuff about Randy Rhodess, I'd be happy to look at it.

[00:14:27]It's hard to find stuff on him. Nobody filmed him. like they only recorded some like lessons audio and stuff like that and it's just hard to find stuff in Randy Road. So, if you have something, let me know. I'd love to look at it. But for now, I think we can go ahead and wrap this one up here. So, of course, if you made it this far, be sure to subscribe and leave a like. Hey, I have a recital class coming up. It's going to start in like uh a week or so. Finals are almost done. Um I still have a 16page paper I have to turn in.

[00:14:51]Practicing is good. Be sure to practice your guitar. That's an important thing to do. Hey, like I said, it's all love.

[00:14:56]He's a legend. I recognize that. I'm a nobody. I also recognize that, too. We can be nobodyies together, you and I. I mean, not Randy. He already is a legend.

[00:15:05]But we can certainly talk about him and uh just kind of have fun and uh view him through this classical lens that I uh claim to have, I suppose. All right.

[00:15:14]Well, oh, Rutin's delight. Buy some merch and I'll see you in the next one.