Saturday, December 01, 2007

Guitar (and other stringed instrument) heroes

Unless otherwise indicated, the links will load (from YouTube) the same videos that are embedded... hopefully that will help if you're reading thru Bloglines.

Youthful enthusiam: the Tuttle kids play the Beaumont Rag on mandolin & guitar. Holy crap. This would be good even if they weren't little kids.



(Click here for more of their videos.)

Unusual guitar playing, part 1.
An old favorite: Stanley Jordan. Karen hates jazz. The only time Karen can listen to anything resembling jazz is if Stanley Jordan is playing it. This is more bluesy anyway (Willow Weep for Me). Warning, this one is a little longish.



Unusual guitar playing, part 2.
Something new (for me): Andy McKee. He's his own rhythm section.



Lightning banjo: Just ignore the schmaltzy intro (Oh hi, I'm completely surprised that there's a camera on me!) - the song (El Cumbanchero) is great. (Todd Taylor, also a bit longish.)



Deb, are you that fast yet? ;)

This one is for Sabine, since she's learning the Ukulele (Jake Shimabukuro):



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Oh my. Makes me wish I'd kept up lessons. Maybe someone will give me a Bill Asher Lap Steel guitar for Christmas (Ben Harper series, please Santa).



Video link here if you can't see it. Isn't that a beautiful sound?

If you don't know me in real life, you may not be aware that I'm famous for acquiring musical instruments that I never quite learn how to play.

Piano - well that was my parents', so possibly that doesn't count. I took lessons for 2 years or so when I was a kid. I could probably still play Chopsticks.*

Classical guitar - check. I still remember many chords, including my favorite, Em7!

Electric guitar - check.**

Violin - check. Never even got my grandfather's old one fixed; I quit while I was ahead and gave it to my cousin, who does know how to play.

Dulcimer - I can play Amazing Grace and Go Tell Aunt Rhody (probably not without mistakes).

So... I could probably not learn to play lap steel without actually owning it.

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Ok, one more. Because I know Maktaaq can't get enough of YouTube.

South African Teaspoon slide guitar man, Hannes Coetzee:



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* I blame this all on my little brother and sister, who yelled, "Shut up! We're trying to watch TV!" every time I tried to practice.

** I blame this failure on the guy changing his mind at the last minute, and not selling me his Les Paul. I ended up with a pawn shop imitation that really wasn't that bad, but every time I played it I could only think, "This is not my beautiful Les Paul."

10 comments:

SantaBarbarian said...

Ottmar Liebert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtWMrD40fkk

I LOVE him!

robin andrea said...

That's fantastic. All of it. I love guitars too. I don't have one, but I love listening to really good guitarists.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty good at not playing the clarinet. It's not a string instrument, but maybe I can get a conditional membership in your club.


Pablo
http://www.roundrockjournal.com

(Blogger hates me.)

Rurality said...

Jill, I have to love anybody who plays barefoot!

RA, I can lend you one of mine, if you want to not play it. :)

Pablo, you're welcome in the club. But you probably need a few more instruments to not play.

Deb said...

Yikes! That banjo is too fast for me!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip on those Tuttle Kids. Made them my Sunday Music post. But hey, when it comes to guitar heroes, gotta go with Jimi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_k00iqNpxw&feature=related I knew the world was gonna be OK ten years ago when my son's high school friends started borrowing my Hendrix CD.

Ontario Wanderer said...

Amazing finds. Perhaps I should get my guitar, banjo, etc. out of the closet again.

Rurality said...

Deb, I'm sure you'll get there! :)

Hi Ellis, actually I don't know that much about Jimi. A little before my time I think. I don't have older brothers or sisters so I wasn't too aware of music until 1973 or so.

OW, yeah yeah! After you practice, then you can show us a video too!

Annie in Austin said...

Can I bring the mandolin I bought after seeing Grateful Dawg? It's so darned pretty, even if I still can't play it, I like to just hold it.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

mountainmelody said...

Fun! (even though my internet is too slow to really watch videos...)

I can play some songs on the dulcimer and am learning old-time banjo. I might learn more quickly if I spent more time practicing and less time online, though!