Editing Jimmy Page (section)

== Artistry ==
{{Quotebox
| quote = A riff will come out of.. this whole thing of do you practice at home and all that. Well, I play at home and before I knew where I was, things would be coming out and that's those little sections or riffs or whatever. At that stage it's selection and rejection. It's whether you continue with something or you go, 'No that's too much like something else,' and then you move into something else. If you've got an idea and you think that's quite interesting, then I'd work and build on it at home. "Rock and Roll" was something that came purely out of the ether.
| author = Page, on his creative process, as quoted by Daniel Rachel in ''The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters'' (2014)
| source = <ref>Rachel, Daniel (2014). The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters. St. Martin's Griffin (published 7 October 2014). pp. 64</ref>
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| width = 25%
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Though routinely cited as one of the most important electric guitarists of all time, Page viewed himself as a composer first and foremost, and likened his compositional and [[Song structure|structural]] styles to [[classical music]]. He described his approach to composing as "building up harmonies, orchestrating the guitar like an army."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scaramangapublished |first=Jenna |date=2022-08-19 |title=The greatest guitar albums of the '70s: Getting the Led out with Sabbath, the Who, Pink Floyd and more |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/greatest-guitar-albums-of-the-70s |access-date=2025-03-14 |website=guitarworld |language=en}}</ref> Prolific in creating guitar [[riff]]s, Page's style involves various alternative [[guitar tunings]] and melodic solos, coupled with aggressive, distorted guitar tones. It is also characterized by his folk and eastern-influenced acoustic work. He is notable for occasionally playing his guitar with a [[cello]] bow to add a droning sound texture to the music.{{sfn|Case|2007|p=294}}{{sfn|Lewis|Kendall|2004|p=67}}{{sfn|Fast|2001|p=210}} His [[acoustic guitar]] playing style was described as unconventional, full of strange angles and unexpected shapes and changes." Rob Power of ''[[MusicRadar]]'' assessed, "It’s almost unfair that one of the greatest electric warriors of all time, a riffmeister of repute and a rocker almost without parallel, also happened to be a brilliant and thoughtful acoustic player as well. Jimmy Page’s musical magpie act and boundless virtuosity meant he was able to take almost any genre or style and bend it to his will."<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Rob Power |date=2017-06-16 |title=The top 20 acoustic guitar heroes of all time |url=https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-top-20-acoustic-guitar-heroes-of-all-time |access-date=2025-03-14 |website=MusicRadar |language=en}}</ref>

Page's guitar playing style has been described as "extremely eclectic." His work with [[the Yardbirds]] and Led Zeppelin has drawn comparisons to the "wild abandon often associated with [[Jimi Hendrix]], the passion and grit of a seasoned bluesman, and the sensitivity of a [[Folk music|folk]] musician."<ref name="auto"/> Page's influences include [[blues]] and early [[rockabilly]] guitarists such as [[Otis Rush]], [[Buddy Guy]], [[Hubert Sumlin]], [[Cliff Gallup]] and [[Scotty Moore]]. According to ''[[Guitar Player]]'', "he combined these influences with a strong interest in the [[occult]] and plenty of his own studio savvy to paint a musical landscape" through the band's music.<ref name="auto"/>

Page came up with a great deal of material used in Led Zeppelin by tape-recording himself noodling on the guitar on [[Cassette deck|cassette]]. He said, "I'd be expanding on an idea and then I'd go back and I'd review it. So a lot of it you can hear train wrecks as you're playing through the song -- I'm just working and trying stuff. Then I'd come back, as you say, and extract what appeared to be the shining bits, if you like, as opposed to the bits, and then I'd lace them together. That's how the sequence of the song would arrive."<ref name=":1" /> He further explained, "I [would] just [be] experimenting on the guitar and I [would come] up with this thing and I [think], 'I'm not losing that!'"<ref name=":1">Rachel, Daniel (2014). The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters. St. Martin's Griffin (published 7 October 2014). pp. 64.</ref>

===Music production techniques===

Page is credited for the innovations in sound recording he brought to the studio during the years he was a member of Led Zeppelin,<ref name="guiwo">{{cite journal |last=Tolinski |first=Brad |author2=Greg Di Bendetto |date=January 1998 |title=Light and Shade |url=https://www.guitarworld.com/brad-tolinskis-light-shade-conversations-jimmy-page-revelatory-portrait-led-zeppelin-guitarist |journal=Guitar World |access-date=11 May 2014}}</ref><ref name="sonic">"Rock's Sonic Architect", ''[[Classic Rock Magazine]]'', December 2007</ref> many of which he had initially developed as a session musician:<ref name="d&c">Ian Fortnam, "Dazed & confused", ''[[Classic Rock Magazine]]: Classic Rock Presents Led Zeppelin'', 2008, p. 41.</ref>

<blockquote>This apprenticeship&nbsp;... became a part of [learning] how things were recorded. I started to learn microphone placements and things like that, what did and what didn't work. I certainly knew what did and didn't work with drummers because they put drummers in these little sound booths that had no sound deflection at all and the drums would just sound awful. The reality of it is the drum is a musical instrument, it relies on having a bright room and a live room&nbsp;... And so bit by bit I was learning really how ''not'' to record.<ref name="NPRPage" /></blockquote>

He developed a reputation for employing effects in new ways and trying out different methods of using microphones and amplification. During the late 1960s, most British music producers placed [[microphone]]s directly in front of [[amplifier]]s and drums, resulting in the sometimes "tinny" sound of the recordings of the era. Page commented to ''Guitar World'' magazine that he felt the drum sounds of the day in particular "sounded like cardboard boxes."<ref name="guiwo" /> Instead, Page was a fan of 1950s recording techniques, [[Sun Studio]] being a particular favourite. In the same ''Guitar World'' interview, Page remarked: "Recording used to be a science" and "[engineers] used to have a maxim: distance equals depth." Taking this maxim to heart, Page developed the idea of placing an additional microphone some distance from the amplifier (as much as twenty feet) and then recording the balance between the two. By adopting this technique, Page became one of the first British producers to record a band's "ambient sound" – the distance of a note's time-lag from one end of the room to the other.<ref name="RS2006" />

For the recording of several Led Zeppelin tracks, such as "[[Whole Lotta Love]]" and "[[You Shook Me]]", Page additionally utilised "[[reverse echo]]" – a technique which he claims to have invented himself while with the Yardbirds (he had originally developed the method when recording the 1967 single "[[Ten Little Indians (Harry Nilsson song)|Ten Little Indians]]").<ref name="guiwo" /> This production technique involved hearing the echo before the main sound instead of after it, achieved by turning the tape over and employing the echo on a spare track, then turning the tape back over again to get the echo preceding the signal.

Page has stated that, as producer, he deliberately changed the [[audio engineer]]s on Led Zeppelin albums, from [[Glyn Johns]] for the first album, to [[Eddie Kramer]] for ''[[Led Zeppelin II]]'', to [[Andy Johns]] for ''[[Led Zeppelin III]]'' and later albums. He explained: "I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."<ref name="guiwo" />

John Paul Jones acknowledged that Page's production techniques were a key component of the success of Led Zeppelin:

{{blockquote|The backwards echo stuff [and] a lot of the microphone techniques were just inspired. Using distance-miking&nbsp;... and small amplifiers. Everybody thinks we go in the studio with huge walls of amplifiers, but Page doesn't. He uses a really small amplifier and he just mikes it up really well, so that it fits into a sonic picture.<ref name="uncutinterview"/>}}

In an interview that Page himself gave to ''Guitar World'' magazine in 1993, he remarked on his work as a producer:

{{blockquote|Many people think of me as just a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms&nbsp;... As a record producer I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape – the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin.<ref name="autogenerated1" />}}