Technically Difficult Guitar Parts

[Dana5140]

Since I do not play guitar (I played bass), I am not in a position to know the difficulties involved in the material you posted, Alan, which is all pretty damned impressive. Notably, you teach guitar, so I am certain your knowledge of theory and modes and so on sees way deeper than I do into this question. And thank you for posting your bandcamp link- damned good!

When I think of hard guitar and teaching, I think of Frank Gambale and his sweeps, which I understand is not easy. And man, 164 time changes? Crazy!

I found this piece, which is very interesting: Read what Acker says about playing harmonics with one hand and slurs with the other...

[AdventAlan]

Since I do not play guitar (I played bass), I am not in a position to know the difficulties involved in the material you posted, Alan, which is all pretty damned impressive. Notably, you teach guitar, so I am certain your knowledge of theory and modes and so on sees way deeper than I do into this question. And thank you for posting your bandcamp link- damned good!

When I think of hard guitar and teaching, I think of Frank Gambale and his sweeps, which I understand is not easy. And man, 164 time changes? Crazy!

I found this piece, which is very interesting: Read what Acker says about playing harmonics with one hand and slurs with the other...

Thanks very much for your kind reply (including the nice words about Advent). Frank Gambale is certainly a great player and his first instructional video was actually one of the very few purchases I ever made of this type that actually had a significant impact on my own playing. (I was also fortunate to catch him live at the very first gig he ever played with the Chick Corea Elektric Band, which was pretty amazing.)

That Brandon Acker video you shared is interesting as well. The piece almost seems to be composed as an exercise in technique, but also in a musical way that makes the piece work well on its own. I'll have to share this with my band mate, Greg Katona, who is a trained classical guitarist as I think he'll enjoy it too (and I'm curious to hear his thoughts on the piece).

Since you mentioned having been a bassist, I thought I'd share this video that I just discovered over the last hour as well:



This discovery came as a result of a 27-item list of recommendations for Brazilian musicians, bands, and albums that a previous adult student left for me at the front desk. (I hope his work schedule eventually allows him to study with me again, as we had a lot of fun in our lessons.)

Cheers!

[Quantum Cat]

[Yaman Aksu]

Yeah the piece sure is difficult but to me the performer isn't separating the notes very well in the first minute. That's the only part I looked at so far. I should look up how fast Paganini intended this to be -- he might be playing faster here than he needs to. My go-to performance of Caprice 24 on classical guitar on youtube is

https://youtu.be/98y0Q7nLGWk

which separates the notes very well during that first minute and is great throughout.

[Yaman Aksu]

Correction: Actually he's doing the separation very well during that first minute, he just has a few rough spots during the first 15 seconds.

I should look up how mechanical Paganini intended this to be.

[Quantum Cat]

^^^ They are both masterful to even play this piece cleanly, but I would agree that your go-to performance is the better one - to me Li Jie has the better timing and tone IMHO, she's simply amazing. What a prodigy she was and what a shame she doesn't seem to be performing or touring as a soloist, she appears to be languishing in an associate professorship at Bejing's Central Conservatory of Music. Seems to me she had the potential to be a leading light in the classical guitar world, but perhaps performance and fame were not for her, who knows?

Of course the piece was written for violin and is incredibly difficult on that instrument and there are some staggering performances of that to be found on YouTube as well.

[Dana5140]

Thanks for the piece by Glecio Nascimento; that's a bit of a hoot, and reminds somewhat of the kinds of things Victor Wooten does for fun. It also reminds me of other great Brazilian musicians, with huge talent, such as Egberto Gismonti:



Speaking of bassists, this clip of Mohini Dey and Federico Malaman playing is a killer, and more for what is happening behind those lead lines:

[Dana5140]

[Yaman Aksu]

Recently ran into the youtube of a guitarist that has amazing performance videos of him playing Knopfler parts (especially from Alchemy – those who know the album well will know what exactly I'm talking about once they see the videos…) dating back to when he was maybe 10? (I think he's been playing since he was 5), and although Knopfler guitar parts is what that account mainly has there's this one vid of him there performing this song MS based on the Friday Night at SF version really sync'ed well

https://youtu.be/C1J0OGiyzR8

which is not easy in a single 10+ minute sitting like that, but he's playing Al's parts which, if you're an intermediate+ guitarist who uses a pick, I know firsthand will not be terribly hugely difficult after maybe a few hours of run-thru practicing, especially if you're using a fast thin neck like that Ovation neck and if you're not even trying to match the speed in some parts super exactly. But a pick user will consider Paco's parts difficult obviously, it's a different style and guitar. It's the right-hand that can often get trickier here in this song, in terms of things like super fast picking and syncopation and etc especially if you're trying to fingerpick Flamenco-style (!) as a mostly pick-user-by-training (which I don't try), with the left-hand being pretty much doable without huge difficulty under moderate practicing.

[AdventAlan]

Hi again,

I haven't had much time to think about other technically difficult (composed/written) parts, but this video happened upon my Facebook timeline recently and thought it was worth sharing:



Though it kind of borders on a parlor trick in my view, the results still work well musically and I don't think I've ever seen someone use this particular harmonics technique so adeptly.

Cheers,


Alan

[Quantum Cat]

^^^ Well that's quite a parlor trick. Nearly up there with Tommy Emmanuel in terms or harmonics technique I'd say.

[Dana5140]

A lot of people use tapping technique, but I do not think any are better than Preston Reed:

[progmatist]

A lot of people use tapping technique, but I do not think any are better than Preston Reed:

With the possible exception of Stanley Jordan:

[Scott Bails]

Using only those two videos to judge, I'll take Jordan.

But the other guy is obviously incredibly talented, as well.

[Dana5140]

Going back to bass players, Charles Berthoud is so insanely gifted on bass it makes me cry. And he is so young! I know there are tons of really talented bass players out there- Vic Wooten, Hadrian Feraud, Etienne M'Bappe, Jeff Berlin, John Patitucci, Stan Clarke and so on, Davide Biale (Davie504)- but Berthoud turns out clips like these weekly, each one outrageously difficult.



Edited to add this clip- it is from 3 years ago, before Charles was really known, and he takes up Davie504's challenge- this is funny:

[unclemeat]

This is a hard one to play (with a plectrum).



This is demanding.



And on the OMG ! level...

[Zeuhlmate]

The sound could be better, but ... Try this at home.

[AdventAlan]

Going back to bass players, Charles Berthoud is so insanely gifted on bass it makes me cry. And he is so young! I know there are tons of really talented bass players out there- Vic Wooten, Hadrian Feraud, Etienne M'Bappe, Jeff Berlin, John Patitucci, Stan Clarke and so on, Davide Biale (Davie504)- but Berthoud turns out clips like these weekly, each one outrageously difficult.

This one is pretty cool indeed. I don't think I've seen a metallic fingerboard on a fretless bass before (though I have seen one on the bass side of Steve Adelson's half-fretless Chapman Stick). It's interesting to see how Charles is able to add some convincing slapping in this context too.

[Dana5140]

Alan, I would love to see Charles play as a member of a band. I've missed those few times when he has stepped in to play with others, but he is mainly now a content creator on youtube. Has finally gained over a million followers. To put that in perspective, Davide Biale (Davie504) has over 12,000,000 followers- as a bass player! Charles just seems to be a really nice fellow, a Berklee grad, and truly talented. Davie plays a role, so his youtube personality is not how he is in real life, where is more quiet and thoughtful. Dude is like basketball player tall!

Loved this clip of him flying from Italy to Phoenix just to play the octobass.

[Dana5140]

[Gravedigger]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Thanks for that, Dana... that was beautiful!

[Garden Dreamer]

I can play several Steve Howe classical pieces but I've lost count of how many times I've attempted "Clap" and just given up. I need Steve Howe fingers to reach some of those stretches without getting completely tangled in the strings...

[3LockBox]

All guitar parts are technically difficult for me.

[AdventAlan]

Hi again,

I'm not sure how this one ended up in my YouTube "Watch Later" queue (and apologies if it was listed here earlier and I couldn't find the reference), but it seems like a good candidate for the list:



Of course, when the composer writes her (or her) own parts, I suppose there's an advantage in regard to anticipated playability.

Cheers!


Alan