Guitar Player magazine readers have recently named Peppino D’Agostino the best acoustic guitar player in the magazine’s annual poll.

So, it looks like this guy is not so “never heard of”. But I have never heard of him, so thats why he is here.

I think he needs to cinch up that guitar a little higher. He still has a little bit of movement left!

D’Agostino was born and raised in Italy. He picked up the guitar after seeing his cousin perform at church in Torino. He is self taught and cites musicians like Paco de Lucia and Carlos Santana as influences.

[Via Modern Guitars Magazine]

I have had several people ask me “Have you heard Don Ross??” after learning that I love to play guitar. Well aside from others asking me that question, no, I had never heard of him. I finally decided to check him out, and I wish I had earlier. Don Ross is a Canadian guitar player from Montreal. He started to teach himself guitar at 8 years old and at 26 began to seriously pursue a career in music. He has over 10 albums to his name and has won the U.S. National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship twice.

His musical style can not be classified very easily. It is an instrumental kind of new age fingerstyle acoustic rock. He goes from very relaxing tunes to very up-beat technical songs. Here is one of my favorites from the videos available on YouTube.

If you do a quick search though you can find many more. Three songs I have listened to now and I can already see that he is going to become one of my new favorite acoustic artists.

If you like his music, head over to Don Ross’ official website and buy his CD.

I am not really sure what to think about this guys technique. I think the first half is very noisy and it doesn’t really sound that great for what he is doing. However, in the second half he does some really amazing acoustic tapping and then does some kind of slapping as well. I would be willing to bet that he has some experience playing a bass guitar.

Half good half bad. If he had have done the stuff from the second half all the way through I would have been much more impressed. Interesting technique though, and I am amazed with the amount of volume he was able to get with no pick.

Here is todays YouTube guitar fix. This guy has done a cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps on his Ukulele. I know, not quite a guitar, but I still think it is an amazing video. Lots of guitar players could learn a thing or two from Jake Shimabukuro’s playing. He has some amazing rhythm skills.

Here is an While My Guitar Gently Weeps Guitar Pro tab file for those of you who have Guitar Pro 5 and would like to learn it on guitar.

Enjoy.

Yeah, I’m just gonna do a bit of bragging right now. I got tickets for Jesse Cook, seats B1 & B2 for May 2007. I’m pretty stoked about it as I have never seen the guy play live.

Here is a music video of his:

Now yes, the video is super lame… and by some standards he is not an amazing guitarist, but his skills are nothing to scoff at and from what I hear he is amazing live.

Long story short I’m counting the days until the show.

Here is another video. Jesse Cook talks about his musical roots in Flamenco and Classical and how he developed his style. Then he talks about the music on his album Nomad. I just think it is amazing to see a guy who lives breathes and sleeps music. It is his entire life and I envy him.

PS, if you go to his website linked above, there are about 2 dozen tracks you can listen to. Then go buy the album.
(more…)

Zakk Wylde has been one of my favourite guitarists since the first time I heard him back in about ‘97. His style of pure speed shredding mesmerized me. For those of you who are new to Zakk, he started as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist in 1988, he had a side band Pride and Glory in the early 90’s, and then formed Black Label Society after that. His style is unique and is nobody’s but his own. Obviously he is famous for a few things like his use of pinch harmonics and “chickin-pickin”. But he still preaches the basics: Start off slow and build up speed.

Zakk Wylde - Pentatonic Hardcore

The following video is probably Zakk Wylde’s most famous. I believe it was originally distributed by the magazine Young Guitar. The instructional video is an hour long and has Zakk going through many different basic and advanced skills including Pentatonic scales, chickin-pickin licks, vibrato, pinch harmonics, alternate picking and much more. If you follow this video and practise it every day for about 3 years, maybe you will be able to shred like him.

(more…)

Although I mostly listen to hard-hitting metal bands, every once and a while I like to kick back and listen to some mellow tunes. When Crosby Still’s and Nash won’t cut it I like to slap in something from these artists. If you play guitar, or even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ll be able to appreciate the acoustic talent these players have.

One of my favorite acoustic albums is Friday Night in San Francisco, which is a live jam session with John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia, and Al DiMeola. It really has some great guitar playing.

Check out these guitarists for some great acoustic music:

Jesse Cook
Strunz and Farah
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
James Taylor
Al DiMeola
John McLaughlin
Paco De Lucia