of a great RHCP song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2mkYv3JrjU

SPSHOOTER

Very nice!

Incredible.

One question: Where was the percussion coming from?

Pretty damn cool.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Incredible.

One question: Where was the percussion coming from?

Watch his elbow.

Jim

Been watching his videos for a while. This one is pretty cool, covering the "Last of The Mohicans" song:

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Incredible.

One question: Where was the percussion coming from?

Watch his elbow.

Jim

It isn't just his elbow, he also uses the heel of his hand and the side of his thumb, and those little rectangles stuck on the guitar top are essentially little drumsticks that he hits with thumb, making them hit the top, to get a different sound.

Some of it is also strumming muted strings (besides strumming, you also touch the string, so the note can't ring out and you just get the pluck/click sound).

A lot of musicians that use this style also play little percussion fills with their fingertips.

Some of my favorite musicians that do this are Rodrigo y Gabriela, who started out as Mexican heavy metal guitarists before switching to classical/flamenco guitar. Most of their albums are just the two of them on two nylon-string classical guitars and nothing else.

Here's a live performance of one of their songs that is a great demonstration of some of these techniques. Besides being used throughout the song, they break into a pretty interesting "drum" solo on the guitars at about the 1:00 mark.




Link to original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT9hvyDvKHA

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Incredible.

One question: Where was the percussion coming from?

Watch his elbow.

Jim

Partly. What you’re hearing is a staccato full hand slap of the strings against the fretboard with the right hand while the left hand is muting them also to keep them from ringing played through a looper pedal that he must have set up before he started the track, the resultant sound is the higher pitched one you hear repeated. He looks down at one point before he incorporates the elbow beats against the guitar top because he’s adding those sounds into the loop. A looper pedal is just a little floor computer with a momentary switch for input control that allows solo players to create their own backing tracks live on the fly, in layman’s terms. Since acoustic instruments produce a wide range of potential percussive sounds, one can create drum beat, in this case, a simple one simulating a kick and snare drum with little effort.

None of this is at all to take away from his talent and performance, but realize he’s not doing all the percussive parts live the whole time, they’re being looped.

There you go, Smudge. I saw him generating percussion from that remarkable guitar early on, then did not see him continue, but still heard percussion. I also did not notice him stab a looper pedal, but that’s the most likely answer.

Whatever those percussive devices are, he’s hitting them with his right thumb. He must be able to control the looper in the same way, because there are times he is clearly NOT continuing to hit them, but the sound continues. At appropriate moments, it stops completely.

Incredible player and an incredible instrument

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
Whatever those percussive devices are, he’s hitting them with his right thumb. He must be able to control the looper in the same way, because there are times he is clearly NOT continuing to hit them, but the sound continues. At appropriate moments, it stops completely.

He's not using a looper.

Every sound in the video is produced live with the guitar.

The percussive sounds don't come from the little rectangles. They let him hit the guitar top with something hard to get a different sound from hitting it with something padded (his fingers, hand, and elbow).

The guitar body itself is the "percussive device."

He also does a lot of it with his elbow, the heel of his hand, and his thumb directly on the top of the guitar, as well as by strumming muted strings.

Watch the sections where he is both fretting and strumming the top, six-string neck, for example starting at 1:00. He is hitting the top of the guitar above the strings with the heel of his hand and his thumb while playing.

camera work made me a little sea sick,
its kinda weird ,


with out watching the vid , I don't think I'd listen to the song , as played

You're right about the clap buttons, but from 1:00 to at least 1:22, he's not producing a clap sound live. The right thumb on the guitar top doesn't make that sound and neither does anything he's actively doing with his hands, including not hitting the clap buttons.

Yes, his attack is percussive and he's getting string bounce off the fretboard, but as many times as I instant rewind it and as close as I watch either hand, there's some extra percussion I'm hearing that my eyes can't account for.

From the video details:

quote:

Luca uses a Stage Scape M20d by Line 6
https://line6.com

Has a built-in 20 second looper. Since we never see his feet, and once he's got a foot on a pedal and doesn't have to move it, he could have a real simple loop of a clap that he's turning on and off to fill what he can't play all the time. I want to believe that kind of playing is possible, but Occam's Razor says he's running a simple loop of the clap to fill here and there. I gave it a quick watch before and didn't notice all the clap button hits, and went back and gave it a very, very close look but I think we'll have to just disagree on this one.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
camera work made me a little sea sick,
its kinda weird

Yeah, I didn't like that.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
You're right about the clap buttons, but from 1:00 to at least 1:22, he's not producing a clap sound live. The right thumb on the guitar top doesn't make that sound and neither does anything he's actively doing with his hands, including not hitting the clap buttons.

Watch that section again. The percussion line is a repeated "thump ... click ... thump ... click."

You can see him hitting the guitar with the heel of his hand to make the "thump" and hitting it with his thumb to make the "click." He gets the "click" sound by hitting the top close to the edge with either the side of the knuckle where the bone is right under the skin or with his thumbnail. I pulled out my acoustic guitar to confirm and I can make that sound with either method.

if you watch his other videos you will notice he uses his feet a lot as well. Not saying he did this time, just that he does and you really can't see his feet during the song.

That's astonishing. And very, very cool. Inspires me to go, you know, strum on my six-string.