Monday, August 28, 2006

"He's a guitar wizard..."

I am a child of the sixties and seventies, so I have an affinity for rock music. I am also a product of high-school band, orchestra and choir - so I have always appreciated rock/alternative arrangements of classic music. (For instance, I have always loved Emerson Lake & Palmer's classic arrangement of Copeland's Hoedown).

So imagine my surprise when I read this article about a mystery guitar player, identified only as "funtwo," with an amazing style of playing and an astonishing arrangement of Pachebel's Canon in D. The guitarits turns out to be Jeong-Hyun Lim, a 23-year-old Korean who taught himself guitar over the course of the last six years. Now living in Seoul, he listens avidly to Bach and Vivaldi, and in 2000 he took a month (a MONTH!) of guitar lessons.

Obviously, he has a accompaniment tape playing - he admits that openly - but people who know say the guitar-work is genuine. I think it's pretty amazing.

You can see the amazing video here, and see a blog (more attuned to guitarists, I think) about the backstory here.

What an incredible display of talent. Just color me granny-smith-apple green with envy...

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