why I'm a fan of Grisha

First post of the new year. Well, over the past couple of years I have been getting back to playing my guitar more. It's mostly because of my son who started violin 2 years ago and the inspiration he has given me. This coming year I am planning on playing more and practicing as much as I can with the time available to me (which isn't much). I am playing once in a while at my church, frequently with my friend Tim who is a flute and wind player. It is fun for me and I can't think of a better place to play than during the worship giving glory to God.

Now on to this guy Grisha Goryachev. I mean, he's just raw talent isn't he? But also, he is teaching me about Flamenco guitar. All of the music he plays is a study of other, more prominent guitarists who came before him. In this case, this song was played by Paco De Lucia (video here). He's got it down pretty close to the way Paco plays it and that's not a small thing. But he makes it look so easy. I had a discussion with some friends about a year ago. We were talking about virtuosos and talented athletes. Do they discourage you when you watch them? Not me. I find it inspiring. When I see someone who can play so effortlessly, it makes me think that I can learn to play like this too. Well maybe not quite as good but still, I can learn it and get to a fair level of skill without much effort. It looks so fun that I want to try it.

Now along those lines (learning Flamenco guitar), I recently discovered this book by Dennis Koster. It is a great introduction to Flamenco guitar. It has a forward by Eliot Fisk (which says something right away about the content). It describes very well the basic dances and rhythms of Flamenco and gives a nice little history of the most famous players. I'm going to try and work through this and see if I can play a few Flamenco dances of the guitar. Stay tuned!