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jack70
12-28-2003, 06:25 AM
Here's a 4-minute live solo performance of Rodney Branigan, a young Texan, playing 2 guitars at the same time. Haven't heard of him before, but he appears to be doing a lot of touring to slowly make a name for himself (a good business model IMHO). Very much in the vein of Michael Hedges sound/style-wise, although Hedges was a more exacting musician. Quite neat just the same. I plan to get his CD down the road.

Now the bad news... it's an MPEG video (.mpg) file that's 40 megs! If you have broadband, that's only a few minutes... if you don't have broadband... ferget it (sorry). It IS worth watching IMO.

Right click and "save target as" to somewhere on your hardrive and then watch it offline in full screen mode. It's got good stereo sound too.

Two Guitars (http://www.brokenguitars.com/twoguitarsMPEG.mpg)

Swish
12-28-2003, 07:38 AM
Thanks for the link Jack. That's pretty good stuff if you ask me. I think that some of what he's doing is not as complicated or as difficult as it would appear to the casual viewer/listener. With the type of pickups on those acoustics, along with open tunings, you can sound pretty amazing. Playing a melody on one while strumming the open strings on the other isn't too big a deal, although he adds lots of flair to it and certainly plays very well..

Have you ever seen Stanley Jordon live? He plays just one guitar, but he plays a melody by hammering on the frets with his right hand while playing chords/rhythms with his left hand. It appears that they use similar techniques even if they go about it in different ways. It sounds extremely complicated, and it looks like it too! I tend to get bored with all that virtuosity though. It's fun for a bit, then I want a SONG, not just someone showing off ala Bela Fleck. Yes, Bela is incredible, but I just get bored with "fabulous" musicians.

Have you seen Howie Day videos yet? It appears he's trying to be another Michael Hedges, but he's not even close when it comes to his guitar skills, and his songs are pure pap if you ask me. Boring as all get out.

jack70
12-29-2003, 09:03 AM
Thanks for the link Jack. That's pretty good stuff if you ask me. I think that some of what he's doing is not as complicated or as difficult as it would appear to the casual viewer/listener. With the type of pickups on those acoustics, along with open tunings, you can sound pretty amazing. Playing a melody on one while strumming the open strings on the other isn't too big a deal, although he adds lots of flair to it and certainly plays very well..

Have you ever seen Stanley Jordon live? He plays just one guitar, but he plays a melody by hammering on the frets with his right hand while playing chords/rhythms with his left hand. It appears that they use similar techniques even if they go about it in different ways. It sounds extremely complicated, and it looks like it too! I tend to get bored with all that virtuosity though. It's fun for a bit, then I want a SONG, not just someone showing off ala Bela Fleck. Yes, Bela is incredible, but I just get bored with "fabulous" musicians.

Have you seen Howie Day videos yet? It appears he's trying to be another Michael Hedges, but he's not even close when it comes to his guitar skills, and his songs are pure pap if you ask me. Boring as all get out.

I agree with you about the "apparent difficulty aspect" for the non-musician viewers ... what he's doing isn't of the "virtuoso" level, although it's above what many average guitarists could pull off. But it IS neat, if only because I don't think I've seen it done like that before (I'm sure it has though). Certainly Hedges and others have done similar sounding things with their own setups (special 20 string guitars, and duel-neck guitars, and other hybrids). And certainly Hedges WAS a virtuoso of the guitar. Branigan's performance there was more NEAT than virtuoso-like, but I got a kick out it. I figure he does that in part to make himself a little different from the pack in trying to break himself into a national market... the music biz is as tough as any to do that. He seems to be doing lots of small dates to make himself widely known, something that's worked for a lot of big name musical stars today (Tori Amos, Phish, Dave Mathews, etc)

I did find his chord progression about halfway through that piece as "better" than what I'd expect from a mere "showman hack", so (from a musical aspect) it does make me want to get one of his CDs to find out if he can really write superior lyrics and melodies too. If so, I'll get legitimately excited. I don't follow guitarists all that much these days.... rarely read any of the mags out there anymore (of which there are a lot), so I'm not hip with who's doing what these days (Haven't even heard of Howie Day).

It's hard to work in that genre (acoustic guitar master) because most Jazz/folk/rock hybrid variants have all been done before over the past 50 years, by someone. Unless you have a gimmick (playing 2 guitars LOL), or are REALLY proficient, the odds of making a living doing that are pretty low.

I agree Fleck and many other virtuosos have a tendency to bore me because the material's soul doesn't match the virtuosity. It's why I consider writing melody a far more difficult feat. There are literally dozens of great musicians in every city, some of which are scary good.... but few even "pretty good" songwriters and lyricists. One of my latest comps was of live 30's musicians (String)... lots of missed notes and errors... but the melody and soul makes the need for technical "perfection" seem foolish. We tend to get hung up on that "perfection" today... I've got lots of such sterile sounding, technically-pure CDs I've wasted good money on.

I've seen Jordan on TV a few times, and have a couple CDs. Haven't heard of him in years... wonder what's become of him.