yes... I'm looking and listening to my own thread here, remembering those Sunday afternoons.
That was in our house on Wallace Avenue, so that was up to grade three when I was eight.
Listening again I remembered, this is "Clair de Lune" by, if I can guess, Claude Debussy.
If you can call that music styling cues, what I kept as part of my musical inventory on guitar,
you'll understand why I chose this solo guitarist as another example of acoustic music being played on electric.
You might look right away and say that is an acoustic guitar, but it's not.
It's got all the styling cues of one, even nylon strings, but it's an electric guitar for sure.
In some ways, this performer is a blend of street busker, because he is out on the street,
and a rock performer, and that's something that's holding him back as far as expanding his audience.
Instead of a cigarette stuck in his strings by the tuners, he's got some incense.
You really don't want to have something burning associated with you onstage, especially in this meth-head age.
As in the era of classic rock, that would have suggested a joint, something that was illegal back then.
It could also suggest something heavier involving lighting up a flame, uh, a heat-seeking invitation.
And this is broad daylight, a public crowd as much as a family crowd, and incense outdoors doesn't make sense.
Just wearing a vest isn't the best way to dress, if you expect your audience to concentrate on your music,
or be respectful of dress codes or non-nudity that many potential audience members would appreciate.
It's always nice to start off being polite, and it's not as if he's a body builder or model on display.
If he wants to be dramatic and tear off his shirt to illustrate an extreme amount of stage presence,
while he's playing, that would work. Having a roadie come onstage to cover up his naked display of emotion,
and sexuality, is an r'n'b, soul and funk stage routine, something a modern rock audience could get into.
This is talking about being flamboyant, so let's recap. Incense stuck in his guitar, no shirt and long hair.
What isn't he doing that is far more ordinary? He really doesn't have any facial expressions.
That's so necessary to communicate to an audience who can't look closely into your eyes.
He's looking up and around, away from his guitar, but he's not doing anything to communicate.
When I think of an entertainer using facial expressions I remember Roy Clark on Hee-Haw.
This guitarist could be making some vocal sounds to accent the sound and fury he works up,
being a very good guitarist, really good, and the video even shows his boot moving a little,
but he's not moving it in time or even stomping it, what is ordinary flamenco technique.
Considering that I play guitar with the bass strings on the bottom with the highs on top,
what is a left-handed body with a right-handed neck, I always feel sorry for finger-pickers.
Some classical guitarists never get their little fingers to pick very fast notes or chords,
but when you have your opposable thumb up there with your two main fingers, it's easy right away.
When I started out, other guitarists would shake their heads and walk away when I started doing that.
And when it comes to bass notes, what am I doing, having my little finger for that.
Bass notes are never that fast or driven for most music, easy for a little finger.
Your little finger wants to move with your other fingers, making it easier to follow on bass.
Needless to say, having an opposable thumb to help with melody and chordal applications,
allows a more complicated technique right away without having to develop it, just doing it.
I really like this guitar player just for his playing, don't get me wrong.
He works up a sound and fury most solo guitarists never reach,
even it it's a subtle use of the electronics of his guitar.
Watching him made me think of using my favorite chord passages from Clair de Lune,
as a fast finger-picking part, having a wider tonal range than most finger-picking chords.
Having a cleaner sound for that just so the notes are easily heard,
and then adding effects and playing them at the original speed for more sonic depth,
would be a beautiful musical interlude to break up jazzy jamming.
With an aquatic sounding poetry to Clair de Lune chords,
instead of "The Flight of the Bumble-bee",
it could be "The Fight of the Remote Controlled Drones", something like that,
those little boats buzzing around on the water, an insistent finger-picking sound,
with shots and cannons going off as a musical build...
until all you hear is the sound of waves washing ashore, with the cries of those wanting rescue...
fading in the depths... as the merman you would be makes some impatient flipper sounds...
wondering what happened to your mermaid.
The world needs a new gypsy guitarist. I'm still looking.
Wearing a tight brocade vest with a flashy shirt with puffy sleeves,
playing standing up, walking around as if he's walking around the campfire,
stomping his feet like a flamenco dancer, grabbing a violin bow to beat the strings and bow them,
and wearing just one metal bracelet on his wrist, so he can wipe the strings as a slide guitar.
And if his fingers kept playing while he raised his picking arm up and pointed at the sky,
and shouted "Jimi... Jimi", making everyone look... while he fell to his knees and kept playing,
leaning back with his guitar pointing up... he'd be doing it all.
