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]

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Zakk Wylde – Machine Gun Man Video (Headbangers Ball)

Now this next video I think is my favourite ever. It is Zakk playing Machine Gun Man (Pride and Glory) on an acoustic at Headbangers Ball. Not only does he show of his insane acoustic shredding skills, but he blows me away with his amazing singing ability. Some people can sing, but you can always tell a good singer when they can maintain their tone when singing at full volume. This video gives me goose bumps pretty much every time I watch it.

Zakk Wylde – Pentatonic Speedballer

This last video is title “Zakk Wylde – Pentatonic Speedballer”. Essentially it is just him shredding and you watching. If you happen to have the book that goes along with this though you would get the tabbed music so you can follow along. I find it entertaining to watch, but from a learning perspective it doest really have much to offer on its own, unless you are already that good. I like it because he plays a lot of bluesy riffs in there and tosses that in with his shredding.

These three videos should give you an idea of Zakk Wylde’s playing style. I suggest you just do some searches on the video sites like Google Video and YouTube to see what else you can find. He has quite the cult following and I’m sure there are a lot more out there.

Happy shredding.