Funtwo Revealed (part one)

[Pangloss62]

I post the below NYT article on this internet phenomenon I somehow missed. There's a link to his video at the bottom of part two.

I thought it would be better, actually. He's fast, and precise, but it sounded not unlike a lot of Heavy Metal solos. I'll take Baden Powell with an acoustic any day. Nonetheless, I give him credit for becoming that adept at guitar.


[color="Navy"]By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN
Published: August 27, 2006

EIGHT months ago a mysterious image showed up on YouTube, the video-sharing site that now shows more than 100 million videos a day. A sinewy figure in a swimming-pool-blue T-shirt, his eyes obscured by a beige baseball cap, was playing electric guitar. Sun poured through the window behind him; he played in a yellow haze. The video was called simply “guitar.” A black-and-white title card gave the performer’s name as funtwo.

A still from the video “guitar” performed by funtwo on YouTube, a video-sharing Web site.
The piece that funtwo played with mounting dexterity was an exceedingly difficult rock arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon, the composition from the turn of the 18th century known for its solemn chord progressions and its overexposure at weddings. But this arrangement, attributed on another title card to JerryC, was anything but plodding: it required high-level mastery of a singularly demanding maneuver called sweep-picking.

Over and over the guitarist’s left hand articulated strings with barely perceptible movements, sounding and muting notes almost simultaneously, and playing complete arpeggios through a single stroke with his right hand. Funtwo’s accuracy and velocity seemed record-breaking, but his mouth and jawline — to the extent that they were visible — looked impassive, with none of the exaggerated grimaces of heavy metal guitar heroes. The contrast between the soaring bravado of the undertaking and the reticence of the guitarist gave the 5-minute, 20-second video a gorgeous solemnity.

Like a celebrity sex tape or a Virgin Mary sighting, the video drew hordes of seekers with diverse interests and attitudes. Guitar sites, MySpace pages and a Polish video site called Smog linked to it, and viewers thundered to YouTube to watch it. If individual viewings were shipped records, “guitar” would have gone gold almost instantly. Now, with nearly 7.35 million views — and a spot in the site’s 10 most-viewed videos of all time — funtwo’s performance would be platinum many times over. From the perch it’s occupied for months on YouTube’s “most discussed” list, it generates a seemingly endless stream of praise (riveting, sick, better than Hendrix), exegesis, criticism, footnotes, skepticism, anger and awe.

The most basic comment is a question: Who is this guy?

If you follow the leads, this Everest of electric-guitar virtuosity, like so many other online artifacts, turns out to be a portal into a worldwide microculture, this one involving hundreds of highly stylized solo guitar videos, of which funtwo’s is but the most famous. And though they seem esoteric, they have surprising implications: for YouTube, the dissemination of culture, online masquerade and even the future of classical music.

JOHANN PACHELBEL, the great one-hit wonder of the baroque period, originally composed his Canon in D Major for three violins, at least one chord-playing instrument (like a harpsichord or lute) and at least one bass instrument (like a cello or bassoon). With its steady walking rhythm, the piece is well suited to processionals, and the bass line is extremely easy to play, a primer on simple chords: D, A, B minor, F-sharp minor, G. A sequence of eight chords repeats about 30 times.

The exacting part is the canon itself: a counterpoint played over the bass, originally by the three violins. The first violin plays variation A, then moves on to B, while the second violin comes in with A. By the time the first violin gets to C, the second starts in with B, and the third violin comes in with A: like three people singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”

With 28 variations, the piece becomes supercharged with complexity only to revert to a simpler structure as it ends. If you hadn’t heard it a thousand times before — in the movie “Ordinary People,” in commercials, at all those weddings — it might blow you away.

Last year Jerry Chang, a Taiwanese guitarist who turns 25 on Thursday, set out to create a rock version of the song, which he had been listening to since childhood. It took him two weeks. Others, like Brian Eno, had done so before him, and some listeners say his arrangement is derivative of one composed for the video game “Pump It Up.” But one way or another, his version, “Canon Rock,” rocked.

Once he had his arrangement on paper — and in his fingers, since sweeping is above all a function of motor memory — Mr. Chang decided to publish his work. In the arena of high-speed guitar heroics, though, an audio recording is not enough; the manual virtuosity is almost like a magic trick, and people have to see it to believe it. So he sat on his bed in front of a video camera, fired up his recorded backing track and played his grand, devilish rendition of “Canon Rock.” He then uploaded the video to a Web site he had already set up for his band and waited for a response.

[Pangloss62]

PACHELBEL’S CANON, at its essence, dramatizes the pleasure of repetition and imitation. It should come as no surprise, then, that JerryC and funtwo have both attracted impersonators. Over the past year, as JerryC’s and funtwo’s videos have been broadly distributed on every major video-sharing site, hundreds of other guitarists have tried their hands at JerryC’s “Canon Rock.” Many copy the original mise-en-scène: they sit on beds in what look like the bedrooms of guys who still live with their parents. They make little effort to disguise their computers. And they look down, half-hiding behind hats or locks of hair.

Some imitators have gone further than that. A Malaysian guitarist claiming erroneously to be funtwo briefly set up a MySpace page, then shut it down. And this month, in Washington, a 12-year-old classical pianist named Alfonso Candra played “Canon Rock” for a small crowd at the Indonesian Embassy. He too claimed he was the guitarist in the “guitar” video. That was untrue, but Alfonso played his heart out.

This process of influence, imitation and inspiration may bedevil the those who despair at the future of copyright but is heartening to connoisseurs of classical music. Peter Robles, a composer who also manages classical musicians, points out that the process of online dissemination — players watching one another’s videos, recording their own — multiplies the channels by which musical innovation has always circulated. Baroque music, after all, was meant to be performed and enjoyed in private rooms, at close range, where others could observe the musicians’ technique. “That’s how people learned how to play Bach,” Mr. Robles said. “The music wasn’t written down. You just picked it up from other musicians.”

In this spirit, JerryC told fans on his Web site, “I don’t plan to make tabs anymore. The major reason is that it takes lots of time, and I think the best way to learn music is to cover it by ear.”

That educational imperative is a big part of the “Canon Rock” phenomenon. When guitarists upload their renditions, they often ask that viewers be blunt: What are they doing wrong? How can they improve? When I asked Mr. Lim the reason he didn’t show his face on his video, he wrote, “Main purpose of my recording is to hear the other’s suggestions about my playing.” He added, “I think play is more significant than appearance. Therefore I want the others to focus on my fingering and sound. Furthermore I know I’m not that handsome.”

Online guitar performances seem to carry a modesty clause, in the same way that hip-hop comes with a boast. Many of the guitarists, like Mr. Chang and Mr. Lim, exhibit a kind of anti-showmanship that seems distinctly Asian. They often praise other musicians, denigrate their own skills and talk about how much more they have to practice. Sometimes an element of flat-out abjection even enters into this act, as though the chief reason to play guitar is to be excoriated by others. As Mr. Lim said, “I am always thinking that I’m not that good player and must improve more than now.”

Neoclassical guitar technique has fallen largely out of favor in American popular music. It’s so demanding that many listeners conclude it has no heart and lacks the primitive charm of gut-driven punk and post-punk, which introduced minimalist sounds in a partial corrective to the bloated stylings of American heavy metal.

In the YouTube guitar videos, however, technical accomplishment itself carries a strong emotional component. Many of the new online guitarists began playing classical music — violin, piano, even clarinet — as children; they are accustomed to a highly uneven ratio of practice to praise. Mr. Lim’s fans said they watch his “Canon Rock” video daily, as it inspires them to work hard. When I watch, I feel moved by Mr. Lim’s virtuosity to do as he does: find beauty in the speed and accuracy that the new Internet world demands.

Even as they burst onto the scene as fully-formed guitar gods, they hang back from heavy self-promotion. Neither JerryC nor funtwo has a big recording contract.

At a moment in pop history when it seems to take a phalanx of staff — producers, stylists, promoters, handlers, agents — to make a music star, I asked Mr. Lim about the huge response to the video he had made in his bedroom. What did he make of the tens of thousands of YouTube commenters, most of whom treat him as though he’s the second coming of Jimi Hendrix?

Mr. Lim wrote back quickly. “Some said my vibrato is quite sloppy,” he replied. “And I agree that so these days I’m doing my best to improve my vibrato skill.”

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...&search=Search

[Flint]

I am so watching this as soon as I get home from work.

As a drummer, I've noticed another trend on YouTube: really incredibly crappy drum solos. I mean, really awful, total piece-of-crap solos. And I'm not knocking these kids - I'm sure they are really excited about the new level of double-bass or flam-a-diddle technique they have achieved - but . . . the whole world doesn't need to see your "baby steps" (and I don't intend that term in an insulting way). Get back to us when you've polished that new technique, maybe even can use it in a song.

Even worse, when they put their crappy solos on file-sharing sites, and load the title with a string of professional drummer's names, to get more hits on their crappy solo. Seriously. Shoot these videos as a learning tool, watch yourself to analyze flaws in mechanics or timing. But, keep it to yourself. People want to see amazing videos, not amateurish doodling.

[Pangloss62]

People want to see amazing videos, not amateurish doodling.

I hear ya. The "delusions of grandeur" syndrome is pronounced these days in almost all areas of art.

I like drums and drumming. Art Blakey comes to mind. Chico Hamilton too. I like Brazilian music a lot (Bossa Nova) and like Claudio Slon as a drummer. That bossa beat can be tricky. I like Conga, too. Candido, Ray Baretto. Puente still rocks on the Timbales.

Oh shit! I smiled

[Spexxvet]

What do you call the Japanese type of music that is all drums and gongs?

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

What do you call the Japanese type of music that is all drums and gongs?

I believe you mean TAIKO drumming? Very physical, and they shout in unison?

[Pangloss62]

Hey, did Terry Bozzio play with F. Zappa? I think I recall Frank introducing him on some live album.

Ambedexterity is something I don't have. I would make a miserable drummer, but I'm more than happy to listen to others drum away.

My favorite drummer plays for Spinal Tap, but he keeps dying in strange ways...

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Flint

I believe you mean TAIKO drumming? Very physical, and they shout in unison?

Yeah, like this! I remember it from the movie rising sun (?) Sean Connery & Wesley Snipes.

[Flint]

Have you ever seen Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez solo? He can hold down a clave pattern with his left foot, while soloing in various time signatures on the rest of the kit, with his remaining three limbs. Now that is something that you have to see to believe. Or Terry Bozzio, total four-way independance, playing his kit like a mini orchestra, with bass lines, melodies, and harmonies built with limb-specific ostinatos, and one limb or another also soloing somewhere. You have to see that in person.

[Flint]

Bozzio had his first big gig with Zappa, and he was never the same after that! In fact, Zappa wrote The Black Page for Bozzio.

[Pangloss62]

and he was never the same after that!

You mean in a good way?

And thanks for cluing me in to "El Negro." I'm gonna listen to some clips of him later.

The Black Page. Was that on Zoot Allures??

[Flint]

If you like TAIKO drumming, the thing to get is the album Ibuki, by Kodo.

[Flint]

If you like this guitar work, check out the album Passion and Warfare, by Steve Vai.

I don't want to be a spoilsport about this video (as built up as it was by the article) but, after all the hype, I thought it was . . . okay, I guess. You have to understand that this is coming from the persepective of a guy whose older brother was a weedley-weedley-weedley heavy metal guitar player, so I've been pretty heavily into virtuoso guitar work for many years. This guy is very good, no doubt. And the coolest thing about it is probably the exposure that an unknown dude like this can get, on the good 'ol internet. (This is the opposite of the crappy drum solos I was talking about earlier. this guy definitely should have shown this video to the world.)

[Pangloss62]

I don't want to be a spoilsport about this video (as built up as it was by the article) but, after all the hype, I thought it was . . . okay, I guess.

Not surprisingly, I agree with you. I think that anyone of sensetive discernment would note how the actual video was less than it was made out to be. Kinda Satriani-esque. I have a feeling that the author may have bought into the rhetoric of the commentors on Youtube.

[Flint]

If the guy who wrote that article ever heard Yngwie Malmsteen, his head would explode.