A friend of mine turned me on to guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela this week, and damn they are amazing.
If you haven’t heard them yet, here’s how I recommend trying them.
First, watch this instructional video they have about guitar technique. Yes, it’s a bit slow, but watch. Now, I don’t play any instruments, but I suspect even better-than-average guitar players would be staring at Gabriela and thinking, “Holy shit! How does she do that?!”
Then, watch this amazing rendition of “Stairway to Heaven,” paying special attention to the players’ hands. Damn. The artistry is amazing.
Now play it again and just close your eyes and listen.
It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?
9 Responses to “Rodrigo y Gabriela”
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I'm a freelance copyeditor specializing in fantasy and science fiction. SF/F novels I have copyedited have been finalists for (and have sometimes won) the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Endeavour, Golden Spur, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Locus, Philip K. Dick, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy awards. In 2007 I became the first and only copyeditor ever short-listed for a World Fantasy Award.
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It was my lucky day coming here today! Thanks so much for this. I was turned on the RyG a few months ago thanks to radioparadise.com.
Gorgeous.
(I love how they have a bottle of wine between them. I think I saw Gabriela drink from her glass in the live show — but they both have water bottles by them, as well.)
Wonderful! Thank you so much for posting these.
I discovered them a while back using Pandora and purchased their album. The album has several videos of them doing their stuff and it is simply amazing (much better than the grainy YouTube.) The music is wonderful, I really enjoy the fast-paced guitar strumming style they have. New Flamenco music can be a lot of fun to listen to and it actually works really well for me as background music when I write, there are no words to distract the thought process..though RyG tends to be fast and energetic enough that its actually distracting and I end up just listening to them.
See if you can get a video of Gabriela in “Juan Loco”……….
So that’s who that is…been hearing that version of StH in Starbucks on a fairly regular basis, and liked it. I get pretty much what she’s doing with her right hand, though I don’t know if I could do it without practicing quite a bit. But that sort of thing–it takes a while to learn, but often once you finally get it, then you’ve got it.
I’m a great fan of finger-style guitar, from the classic masters to the early bluesmen to jazz pioneers to the American school of John Fahey through to all sorts of modern people. If you like them, you might check out the California Guitar Trio or Kaki King, who is odder but who I really like.
This is an awesome post. I enjoyed it so much. He is excellent. But she is the Lioness! Sometimes , it sounds like she is playing three instruments. I listen to a lot of smooth jazz and the best songs often feature more than one award winner. These too can be amazing, still I’m sure most of the smooth jazz greats would be astounded by her talents.
I love Rodrigo y Gabriela. First saw them on Leno (?) earlier in the year, and almost immediately bought the album afterward. I learned acoustic guitar for a couple of years, and wanted to start learning flamenco-style, but finances got tight at that point and I had to quit; I sold my Spanish guitar before we moved, and I think it was the hardest thing that I had to sell.
So watching Rodrigo y Gabriela is a joy for me. Even knowing much of the mechanics of how they play, I’m still astonished at how good they are.
Oh, also, see if you can find video of “Diablo Rojo.” It’s my favorite tune on the album, and sweet jeebus but it flies!
I’m glad you all enjoyed it so much! I’ll look for the “Juan Loco” video, Tar. I did check out the “Diablo Rojo” video, Jason, and I do love it. It’s also my daughter’s favorite song by them so far!