# It's official.



## WillingWell (Aug 17, 2007)

Acoustic tapping and percussive playing of the acoustic are now cliche.

Except for Justin King and Kaki King whom I believe to be related in a secret cosmic way.

Erik Mongrain, get a real job you hippy.


----------



## Leon (Aug 17, 2007)

i wouldn't call it cliche, exactly. sure, it's blown up in a big way recently, but that doesn't make it any less of an interesting style. infact, it's a GOOD thing that more people are doing it. maybe someday some bright kid might come across a video of some guy doing it online, and go, "wow, i want to play the guitar now!"

just because you can't fit that style into your back pocket anymore doesn't mean it's gone sour


----------



## distressed_romeo (Aug 17, 2007)

It's true there are a lot of people doing it these days, but there's still a lot of potential in the style. I think a lot of guys make the debt to Preston Reed a bit too obvious. I've heard quite a few acoustic players on Youtube who seem to have based their entire style on his. One thing I've always thought would be awesome is using this sort of acoustic playing in the context of a metal band.
Kaki's an interesting one actually, as she's deliberately veered away from that style now. Her newer stuff is much more singer-songwriter orientated, and the guitar playing is a lot more supportive and melodic. She's awesome, and has definitely found her own niche now, but when I first heard her, the debt to Preston Reed was really really obvious, no matter how great the music was. Hopefully a some of these other guys will develop in a similar way.


----------



## Leon (Aug 17, 2007)

i think that's the word i was looking for... development. as the style grows, it will develop in new ways, which is good. perhaps what you're seeing, WW, is a bunch of players using that technique in the same style.

give it time . apparently, it's already developing, according to Brother DR


----------



## Drew (Aug 17, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> It's true there are a lot of people doing it these days, but there's still a lot of potential in the style. I think a lot of guys make the debt to Preston Reed a bit too obvious. I've heard quite a few acoustic players on Youtube who seem to have based their entire style on his. One thing I've always thought would be awesome is using this sort of acoustic playing in the context of a metal band.
> Kaki's an interesting one actually, as she's deliberately veered away from that style now. Her newer stuff is much more singer-songwriter orientated, and the guitar playing is a lot more supportive and melodic. She's awesome, and has definitely found her own niche now, but when I first heard her, the debt to Preston Reed was really really obvious, no matter how great the music was. Hopefully a some of these other guys will develop in a similar way.



trade Preston Reed for Vai and you get Jemsite. This is nothing new. 

Personally, no discussion of the genre is complete without a "Michael Hendges kicks ass" or two thrown in for spice.


----------



## WillingWell (Aug 17, 2007)

Ha ha, I know, I'm just being goofy guys. But yeah, there's way too many videos of the acoustic tapping stuff like those guys do that sound exactly the same. You can tell some people develop their own style in it, like I think Andy McKee sounds a little more unique and Dominic Frasca is a weirdo, but a lot of it today sounds exactly the same. DADGBD tuning, abusing harmonics and pounding on the back of your acoustic.

I've always like T-Cophony too, his playing always seemed sort of mystical in a way to me.


----------



## eleven59 (Aug 18, 2007)




----------



## distressed_romeo (Aug 18, 2007)

Drew said:


> trade Preston Reed for Vai and you get Jemsite. This is nothing new.
> 
> Personally, no discussion of the genre is complete without a "Michael Hendges kicks ass" or two thrown in for spice.



Damn straight!


----------



## distressed_romeo (Aug 18, 2007)

WillingWell said:


> Ha ha, I know, I'm just being goofy guys. But yeah, there's way too many videos of the acoustic tapping stuff like those guys do that sound exactly the same. You can tell some people develop their own style in it, like I think Andy McKee sounds a little more unique and Dominic Frasca is a weirdo, but a lot of it today sounds exactly the same. DADGBD tuning, abusing harmonics and pounding on the back of your acoustic.
> 
> I've always like T-Cophony too, his playing always seemed sort of mystical in a way to me.



No worries dude. I'd noticed the same thing before.

It's like any other new style...some people will inevitably just mimic it rather than putting their own spin on it. It's the same as when bassists started playing fretless instruments and abusing chords and harmonics when Jaco came on the scene, or when guitarists all started playing the same few triplet-based tapping licks when EVH first appeared. Just give it time, and hopefully the style will begin to expand.


----------



## Trespass (Jun 27, 2008)

Don Ross will always have made the style for me. He made it music, and not just badass sound effects with melody.


----------



## telecaster90 (Jun 27, 2008)

It'd be cool to see someone using that technique and incorporating snare drum rudiments for the rhythmic parts  I think there's tons of potential in this style


----------



## The Dark Wolf (Jun 27, 2008)

No comments about bumping old threads, please. He used the search, it's pertinent, it's all good. Continue discussion.

Thankee Sai.


----------



## Durero (Jun 27, 2008)

The original post just completely pisses me off here, and I'm trying to figure out why.

I think it's because to me it kind of makes a point but misses the point at the same time. The cliche has nothing whatsoever to do with tapping on an acoustic or any other playing technique of any kind. The cliche is composing & performing music that follows a popular trend far too closely - and lemming-like musical behavior is never inspiring or enjoyable to see.

But to call anything a cliche in the first place just because you've seen a bunch of similar videos on YouTube is pretty stupid don't you think? YouTube is fucking _designed_ to take videos from all over the planet and group them together by their similarities. 

I don't care if you've seen a hundred or a thousand acoustic tapping videos on YouTube, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to find more than a handful of players who do it in your city.



Ok I'll stop ranting now. This just presses my buttons for some reason.


----------



## RgAscendant (Jun 27, 2008)

While I agree with Durero, I think it's more to do with the fact that most people that do it are totally unoriginal, and they all sound the damn same. And there are also too many videos on YouTube with 'BEST ACOUSTIC PLAYER EVER!!!!' and all they do is hit the guitar and tap a couple of harmonics. But I do think that in a decade or so, once the fad dies down, some development will be made and it'll be original and interesting again.

And just for the record, Eric Roche was amazing, RIP.


----------

