Incredible musicianship....
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Start at 5:44

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVb-_14ZXeE&feature=player_embedded
    Thanked by 2gregp Earl_Grey
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    A couple of years ago when my oldest son returned from a West coast tour with his rock band, he called to say he'd heard a most amazing musician named Jake Shimabukuro and that I absolutely had to watch his Youtube video. Listening to it I had the same jaw-dropping reaction as when first hearing John Sebastian (the elder) play a Bach suite on the harmonica. That kind of artistry just didn't seem possible on a folk instrument.

    What is particularly amazing to me is that such musicians don't have models to emulate. A young violinist can hear for the first time a recording of Nathan Milstein and realize he or she wants someday to sound like that, but who among us hears such possibilities in a ukulele.
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    Well there is certainly the model of the classical guitarist. By this I mean not the ones who can only play chords but the ones who play a score with real notes or even play polyphonic pieces on the guitar. My guitar teacher Jerzy König was a wonderful example of this (he once played for the Polish National Orchestra if I remember correctly). We played lute compositions by John Dowland for example.

    Of course the guitar and the ukulele are different instruments, but they are closely cognate.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    A guitar virtuoso and innovator I consider even beyond Jake's genius would be Scotland's Paul Galbraith.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    Look at the mandolin. In my part of the country it is primarily used in country music. There is a body of classical literature written for it, which some country players may have never heard. I suspect it is similar to the ukulele in that it isn't the instrument so much, but how it is used and what music is played on it.
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Speaking of classical guitar and great musicianship, please allow me to mention my favorite guitar player, William Wilson. He plays guitar, mandolin and other fretted strings, with great expression and technical ease.

    William Wilson happens to be a devout Catholic and decent tenor who loves sacred music.

    http://www.williamwilson.com/

    Full disclosure: he's also my husband.
    Thanked by 4Robert noel jones, aago CHGiffen gregp
  • SamuelDorlaque
    Posts: 318
    A very talented theorbo player has been an interesting addition to continuos in recent years at the Carmel Bach Festival.
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