Guitar Today

The 11 year old classical fingerstyle guitarist from South Koreo whose guitar is nearly as big as he is. Sungha Jung says its’ his dream to become a professional fingerstyle guitarist. Seems like he’s already gotten there to me.

Sungha had been watching his Dad play the guitar for a while before deciding to pick one up himself, only a few short years ago. When he is not in school, Sungha can be found practicing for up to three hours a day. Sungha uses a custom guitar to fit his body size body, on it, Thomas Leeb wrote “Keep on grooving to my friend.”

He says it usually takes him about 3 days to learn, practice and then videotape a new song, which he then uploads to his Youtube profile. More difficult peices can take him up to a week. He says he started off by learning music by-ear from the videos he watched online but has recently started using tabs that are available from the authors.

On his page you can find his renditions of artists like Elton John, The Beatles, Nirvana, Bon Jovi and many others. Its hard to say where he will be in ten years if he keeps at this rate, but it is obvious he has a natural talent is destined for greatness. There’s no telling how far his skills can take him.

It is really inspiring to watch this young master at work. Lets put it this way, I’ve been playing guitar for almost as long as he has been alive and cannot compete.

Here he is playing ‘More Than Words’

Kiss from a Rose - Seal

And a rendition of ‘Tears in Heaven’ that I think might make Eric Clapton’s jaw drop

Sungha even has his own interpretations of songs as composed and arranged by fellow Youtube star, Andy McKee.

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