[KGIII]

One can see how comfortable she is with the guitar - like being an extension of her.  First time I've seen her and the guitar.  Last night when one YouTube led to another I discovered another lady who seems to be an acting artist with her violin to the point of acrobatic.  I'm more taken with the pianist Joseph, but she's definitely acting as though her life depends on it.  With gusto.  

Yeah, that's an act - usually. Violin/fiddle players are quite fond of it.

And, in truth, the audiences like it. During our encore, we'll often play Free Bird. During this, we'll jam out on the solos and I'll go over to stand in front of another guitarist. We'll then reach across and play each other's guitar - for the solo.

This looks impressive but it's really not that hard when you know what you're supposed to be playing.

So, there's quite a bit of showmanship that can go into it.

One of my favorite guitarists is a guy named John Petrucci. One of the things that's remarkable about him (he's a neo-classical metal player) is that he actually watches what he's doing. When he's playing, he's usually watching his fretting hand. That's because what he's playing is damned difficult.

Those flashy guitar bits where they guitarist watches the audience and maybe throws horns or sticks his tongue out while headbanging? Those aren't difficult parts to play. If they were technically difficult, the guitarist wouldn't be able to do all the theatrics.

Also, with videos... Take some care...

Lots of those aren't actually showing the artist playing the song. LOL The music was recorded already and they're just acting. Music videos, like the professional ones, do this all the time. I find it infuriating, 'cause I'll be watching what the musicians are doing with their instruments only to realize it hasn't a damned thing to do with the tones actually coming from their instruments!

They're doing hammer-ons when the music is obviously string bends. They're playing single-note lead parts while the song is actually just chords at that time. It makes me unreasonably angry when I see it. I shouldn't get angry at it, but I do.