Guitar World Young Guitarist of the Year

BlueStrat

Some seriously talented young players on here - with kids like these perhaps the future of guitar is much better than we thought.

well done to each one of them!

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/introducing-your-young-guitarist-of-the-year-2020-finalists

Barquentine

All very good players who have put in the hours. I wonder what the future holds for them? There are so many virtuoso guitarists now it must be hard to find a career path.

Sassafras

I wish these youngsters weren't so good. It makes finding work for mediocre players like me so much harder.
I'd make it illegal for kids to take up guitar.

Barney

Some great technical young guitarists about but I often think lot have missed the the musical factor part of it associated with the blues usually ..and went straight to shred mode ...

ThePrettyDamned

Barney said:

Some great technical young guitarists about but I often think lot have missed the the musical factor part of it associated with the blues usually ..and went straight to shred mode ...

Is blues more musical? 

I find a lot to enjoy in classical Bach and modern metal, and I don't find it musically or emotionally lacking.

Barney

ThePrettyDamned said:

Barney said:

Some great technical young guitarists about but I often think lot have missed the the musical factor part of it associated with the blues usually ..and went straight to shred mode ...

Is blues more musical? 

I find a lot to enjoy in classical Bach and modern metal, and I don't find it musically or emotionally lacking.

I suppose it depends what you listen to really ...I can always tell the players that have missed that side of it though and went straight to shred ..I find emotion in classical but not normally modern metal ...I could be listening to the wrong things though 

Sassafras

They're all very skilled but they also all sounded the same.
FWIW  I preferred the Finish chap, Huno, I think he's called.

markslade07

Technically they are all very good but you could stitch all the videos together and you’d think it was one track. 

I do wonder if this style of playing brings about a successful career in music...

Philly_Q

They're all extremely impressive, and crikey they really are young - I was expecting a load of twenty-somethings. 

But I found it hard work listening to all five in succession.

That's nothing to do with their musical styles - and I don't think they all sound the same - it's just my problem with instrumental music in general, especially when they're playing over backing tracks rather than jamming with other musicians.

(Three of them quote Plini as an influence - embarrassingly, I've never heard of him.)

p90fool

Very skillful, but a bit depressing hearing a load of children stuck in the 1990s. 

I suppose there hasn't really been any development in guitar music since then, or at least not enough to hang a stunt contest on, anyway.  

They're very talented though, and I'm sure at least a couple of them will find their own path.

Loobs

Why is it always shred? Is that the only way to impress a judge? 

hotpickups

At least they haven’t been spending their valuable childhood constantly staring at their phones Not my style of playing at all and agree with some comments above about emotion and always a shred fest. I just hate that fizzy sound.  It does feel a bit of a circus act sometimes. But then again I felt that at a Bonnamassa gig I went to once. Guitar solos can get a bit tedious after a while when there’s no song to them  

Im sure we’ll hear more from some of them in the future though. I wish them luck. It’s a saturated market out there now 

TeleMaster

p90fool said:

Very skillful, but a bit depressing hearing a load of children stuck in the 1990s. 

I suppose there hasn't really been any development in guitar music since then, or at least not enough to hang a stunt contest on, anyway.  

They're very talented though, and I'm sure at least a couple of them will find their own path.

https://youtu.be/RXGwVJCdV6A

hotpickups

TeleMaster said:

p90fool said:

Very skillful, but a bit depressing hearing a load of children stuck in the 1990s. 

I suppose there hasn't really been any development in guitar music since then, or at least not enough to hang a stunt contest on, anyway.  

They're very talented though, and I'm sure at least a couple of them will find their own path.

https://youtu.be/RXGwVJCdV6A

Nice video  

imalrightjack

Sassafras said:

They're all very skilled but they also all sounded the same.
FWIW  I preferred the Finish chap, Huno, I think he's called.

I don’t really care for this kind of thing but had a look out of curiosity. Impressive skills but nothing that really interested me, although technically amazing.  However, I’m really not sure why you think they all sound the same though 

Dominic

All great but they all play the same kind of processed shreddy guitar
shame no Country players or Jazz styles 
Personally I find that kind of music that I can't hum or whistle the tune of to be very much the elevator music of the future

Sassafras

I suppose it's the nature of competitive musicianship that you have to impress the judges with flashy fretboard pyrotechnics.
That's why I thought they all sounded the same. That and the horribly compressed and processed to buggery sound.

merlin

Young Athlete of the Year. 

Canned, processed, chopped up into bit sized pieces, flavoured, tinned, shrink-wrapped etc etc. 

Good luck to them though. Hopefully a little maturity will help them find something to actually say. Outside of the mass marketed, mass media, digital related playground. 

And I really hope they find that space and do well. 

DrJazzTap

They are very impressive, far better than when I was a kid. I know they are all shredders, but lets be honest they are super young. Its a tad unfair to expect them to be nuanced composers. 

axisus

I so loved that style of music for years, technically amazing players. I have to admit though that I reached saturation point some years ago, and now I don't feel inclined to even click on the link. There are just too many 'amazing' players now, I'm not that excited by it any more. I need something more emotive. 

My favourite guitar solo this year is a slow one from Pendragon. Nothing difficult going on at all but it conveys emotion.

idiotwindow

Philly_Q said:

(Three of them quote Plini as an influence - embarrassingly, I've never heard of him.)

Why's that embarrassing? I've never heard of him either and, frankly, don't want to. We all have different tastes but this kind of music is not something I'd ever choose to listen to. Are these really the best young guitar players that this magazine can come up with? Are there no young bluegrass, 'roots' or classical players worthy of inclusion? In truth, I don't know this magazine – is it some kind of shreddy metal focussed publication?