Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos

Subject: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 09 Mar 11 - 11:13 PM

Check it out!

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: Gurney
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 01:13 AM

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: Gurney
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 01:14 AM

Makes you want to give up, eh!

Don't know what happened above there.

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 05:22 PM

I have seen these links to North Korean "child prodigies" a hundred times before, and my response has always been the same.

These kids are force fed in exactly the same way as the "amazing" girl gymnasts in Romania during the Ceaucescu regime.

If YouTube had been around then you can bet your bottom dollar that everybody would have been oohing and aaahing over the likes of Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci.

Twenty years on, all these Romanian "prodigies " are in rehab, and sadly, the same fate awaits these North Korean girls.

But hey, don't let that spoil your enjoyment of the videos, these kids sure are cute ...

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 05:41 PM

But--

Don't let anyone ever try to tell me, "But I can't play a wide-necked classic guitar! My hands are two small!"

Yeah, right!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Mar 11 - 09:28 PM

My Rog thinks they look like avatars embedded in the video, but I've seen them before and agree with Murray. Wonder if they have any fun to play as just kids.

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:44 AM

Don Firth, right you are. Folkies and "rhythm guitarists" often want to use their left thumbs, not only for hitchhiking. Both is legal, but not part of virtuoso technique.

Murray, gymnast Olga Korbut was a Soviet citizen as a child, not Romanian. If she is in "rehab" (as indeed are many sportswomen, sportsmen, and instrumentalists, having started as kids, youngsters, or adults), it is a well-kept secret. With her harvest of medals and fame, many would envy her even if they knew her to be a wreck now.

Many kids want to be challenged to the limits of their special talents, and are refused this wish. Others are considered "mentally challenged" and thus frustrated. Street gangs and terrorist armies are recruited from both groups. This applies to all societies including North Korean.

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 10:06 AM

The children seem to be enjoying themselves, but I think they should be playing smaller instruments.

I'm suspicious of the soundtrack. Where is that sharply-defined melody (which almost sounds like a mandolin) coming from?

Not that there's anything really wrong with it, but I think the kids had some help.

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 12 Mar 11 - 03:50 PM

leeneia, I had the same impression, actually I think the soundtrack is completely prerecorded. The kids move their guitars away from the microphones without consequences on the sound. Such manipulations are quite usual on TV, as you doubtless know.

Nevertheless, they can play what we are hearing, including the mando-like repetitions (one girl only), with extraordinary precision - otherwise the cameras would have kept their distance. The training included show-biz, which we may readily criticise.

Subject: RE: Kindergarten Guitar Virtuosos
From: GUEST,John MacKenzie
Date: 12 Mar 11 - 04:15 PM

Virtuosi