Chords for What Makes a Virtuoso?

We live in the era of virtuosos.
Because of YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, you can see
virtuosic performances by people from all over the world on all different instruments.
When I
was growing up, occasionally you would see a performance like this on Ed Sullivan of a young
[D] Yitzhak Perlman. _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Or even [Eb] this performance by Oscar Peterson, essentially giving a master class on the
Dick Cavett show, another one of the biggest talk [Dm] shows of the 70s.
Sweet Georgia, _ _ if you invent something, _ [Ab] _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] there's an alternative line, then you can play the same
thing [Ab] with two hands. _ _ _
[Gm] _ [Fm] _ _ [Gbm] _ _ [Cm] _ [Bb] _ _
_ [F] _ _ _ [Eb] Can you imagine seeing something like that on [N] Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy
Fallon?
A player like Oscar Peterson giving a master class with the host, asking them questions
about how they reharmonize things or how they play two-handed octave lines.
Now getting back
to virtuosity, because of these learning tools like YouTube and Instagram, Facebook, any kid
anywhere in the world can go on at any time and watch any of the masters from the 40s, 50s, 60s,
all the way through today.
And they can learn the techniques [Cm] that they never would have ever
been exposed to when I was a kid.
[Gm] _ _
[A] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [Bb] _ [Gm] _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ [Bb] _ [Ab] _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _ [F] _ [E] _
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[Eb] [E] You [Ebm] _ _ [N] never even heard these things or let alone seeing them.
Just
like seeing Eddie Van Halen tapping the first time when people heard it, they didn't know what
it was.
It's actually an incredible time.
There are guys like Rick Graham, for example, who's [Am] a great
guitarist who's on YouTube [C] and Instagram giving away [Am] his ideas about technique [N] and playing for
free.
Now virtuosos have been around since the beginning of Western music.
If you think about it,
all the greatest composers like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Paganini, you don't have to
have heard recordings of them.
You just have to look at their music and read contemporaneous
accounts of their playing.
People said that Paganini was possessed by the devil and had four
joints in his fingers [G] because they were so [A] mesmerized by his playing. _
_ [Dm] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [A] _ _ _
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_ [Gbm] _ [E] _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
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[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
That was violinist
Jascha Heifetz playing Paganini's 24th Caprice.
_ Let's check out some other great classical [C] virtuosos. _ _ _
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_ [C] _ _ [F] _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _
Now _ _ _ [B] these artists only have the music that the composers wrote for them, which happened to be
_ _ these incredibly virtuosic [N] works that only the greatest players can play. _
Kisson was just playing
the Chopin Opus 28 Prelude in B-flat minor, _ and you have to be a virtuoso to play these pieces,
especially at those kind of tempos.
Now what makes jazz, fusion, and rock completely different than
classical music is that you're actually improvising, or at least you're trying to improvise.
So this type of virtuosity has a second component which is equal, if not more important, which is
inventiveness.
What are they playing in these fast passages?
If you slow them down, will it have the
same effect or will it be even more [F] impressive?
_ [E] _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [Ab] _
[Fm] _ I [F] say yes.
The people that are true virtuosos, if you
slow down their playing to half speed, the stuff becomes even more incredible.
Let's listen to some
jazz, fusion, and [Gm] rock players.
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[Db] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
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_ _ _ _ Think _ _
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[Gm] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
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_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Abm] _ _ about it.
We live in a time where any of these videos are available for anyone at any time
to learn from.
[G]
Virtuosity isn't always just about breakneck speed.
This [Db] clip of George Benson
is virtuosic because it is grooving so hard.
_ [Bb] _
[Eb] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ [Bb] _ [Eb] _ _ _
[Bb] I'll [F] take that clip any day over the fastest
shredder guitarist out there.
Remember, it's not how fast you play, it's what you play when you're
_ fast.
That's all for now.
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