So are any of you guys into this kind of guitar playing? It's like basically playing the rythm, bass, lead (sometimes) at once. I can't describe it accurately but I'll include some youtube videos here. I've been playing with this kind of style for more over a year now and I've been searching the internet for tabs of some songs that I find pleasant to play with. I just want to know if any of you guys are into this kind of music and perhaps share tabs and techniques so that I can improve my style a bit.....
Needless to say, here are some examples:
Masa Sumide (Tears in Heaven)
Sungha Jung (Yesterday Once More)
Kotaro Oshio (Fight)
Kotaro Oshio (Be Happy)
There are a lot of other great fingerstyle guitarists like Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Andy Mckee and a lot more. I'm currently practicing a lot of their tabs and also scavenging the interwebs for tabs that are very difficult to find (some are for sale btw).
He has nearly 200 videos. Mostly square/enix games. Lotsa fingerpicking. Some mistakes here and there, but he's covering stuff that wasn't written to be played on a single instrument so it's pretty inspiring anyway.
I know it's not exactly the same thing but I'm really into jazz fingerstyle because it is just so insanely technically hard (for me at least). Comping chords+playing a bassline+improving on top of it is pretty impossible for me.
On May 04 2010 20:07 madnessman wrote: I know it's not exactly the same thing but I'm really into jazz fingerstyle because it is just so insanely technically hard (for me at least). Comping chords+playing a bassline+improving on top of it is pretty impossible for me.
This guy however, really takes the cake as far as multi-part jazz-guitar playing. This is one of his less melodic pieces, but its rhythmic ideas are fantastic.
amazing thread!! omg i love fingerpicking. When i first started playing guitar, all i played was rock and metal with a pick. I never learned chords and whatnot and all i did was attempt to shred and sweep pick. Then came gr 10 guitar class, and my teacher was a classical bitch and while the other classes learned rock, we learned classical fingerpicking style. GOD am i thankful that i never left her class =]]]!! Coz now i can play some really good fingerpicking songs. Dude if you want tabs to songs, either use ultimate-guitar.com or you can directly ask the author of the song to send you the tabs.
btw i went from heavy metal/rock to RnB =] the type of music i play on guitar now are songs like these =]
He has nearly 200 videos. Mostly square/enix games. Lotsa fingerpicking. Some mistakes here and there, but he's covering stuff that wasn't written to be played on a single instrument so it's pretty inspiring anyway.
Check www.gametabs.net , theres a thread in the forum with a lot of his arrangements (tabbed by fans)
On May 05 2010 00:43 Piy wrote: Well John Williams is the best living guitar player. Perfect classical style, so you should look him up I guess for some extra awesome.
On May 05 2010 00:43 Piy wrote: Well John Williams is the best living guitar player. Perfect classical style, so you should look him up I guess for some extra awesome.
On May 05 2010 00:43 Piy wrote: Well John Williams is the best living guitar player. Perfect classical style, so you should look him up I guess for some extra awesome.
On May 05 2010 00:43 Piy wrote: Well John Williams is the best living guitar player. Perfect classical style, so you should look him up I guess for some extra awesome.
Glad I took the time to patrol the blogs cause I found this.
I'm a classically trained guitarist for 11 years. I've studied with some very talented players (Kevin Vigil and Berta Rojas) as well as have master class instruction from Ben Verdery, Julian Grey, and other world-renowned players.
First off, I'd like to say that classical guitar is insanely difficult technically, musically, and physically. It is one of the most versatile instruments and there's so much expression you can achieve with it. No instrument can do what the acoustic guitar does IMO.
Unfortunately, I've fallen out of practice with classical guitar since the last few years I've been playing a lot more electric and not performing actively with any groups since I entered college. However, I still will share what I can:
Learn to read sheet music. You cannot capture a classical guitar piece with tab. It's not like rock music or jazz music where you have a large area of freedom for one, and it's also much too complicated. Have you ever seen the notation for a Bach fugue? You couldn't ever put that in a tab. You'd lose too much in the translation.
Change your strings often. I was very lazy about this but the tonal/volume difference is unimaginable. Also get quality strings. Do not use shitty Augustine Blacks or something. Get d'addario's. (I actually use a mix of hard tension d'addario's for bass and hard tension Augustine Regals for treble; regals are kind of difficult to find though, I usually ordered them from a guy in Baltimore). Experiment around with tensions and manufacturers for the sound that fits your guitar best. The right strings will make your instrument sound twice as good.
Don't worry about playing fast or accurately at first. Tone is king. I was horrible about this, but a few years have given me insight into my mistakes. It doesn't matter what you play if you don't play it well. Work on getting your fingers to strike at the right angle. Work on getting smooth right hand movement and smooth left hand connectivity when fretting. It sucks, but do exercises and practice just getting that perfect sound.
Get a quality instrument if you feel your technique is ready for it. While a good player with good technique can make a $100 yamaha sound decent, the instrument will limit you severely. My concert guitar cost about $2k. That's low end for a concert guitar. If you are a beginning player don't worry about it, but as your technique improves you will find the instrument severely limiting.
That's all I wanna write for now, feel free to PM me if you have more inquiries/questions. I don't think I have any solo concert recordings unfortunately, but I can see about posting some group performances I did. I'll try to find some. (one of my favorites was Lotus Eaters by Andrew York for the LA Guitar Quartet - we rocked that piece =D)
edit:
That John Williams performance was stifled by the shittiness of Youtube. I have seen him live and he is a fabulous player and a fantastic musician. I suggest only listening to high quality recordings for classical music. Youtube quality is not good enough.