Man she was incredible. I’d love to go see her live but I don’t know who
she is? Please help!
;j
Oh, dear. I’m an idiot. I double posted
And another question: What is that style of guitar playing called? It consists almost solely of hammer-ons and both hands are employed on the neck almost like a piano player on the keyboard. I’ve seen it done many times before (Micheal Hedges does it, for example), but I don’t think I’ve ever heard what it is called.
Hmmm - didn’t watch. Still recovering from baseball. From the description of the technique - it has nicknames, but I know of no official name of using hammer-ons and pulloffs, not actually using your strum hand to pluck - I would’ve said Stanley Jordan, who is a monster player of jazz. Buy you said it was a woman - therefore I don’t know…
Yeah, I caught that last night, as well. She was pretty incredible, her name is Kaki King.
That’s called tapping, or two-handed tapping.
Thank you much! I went to her website:
http://www.kakiking.com/everybodylovesyou/
but it doesn’t look like she’ll be touring in the Los angeles area anytime soon.
Dammnit !
Didn’t see it but am intrigued as I like all the players you’re comparing her with.
Checking the Late Night site I got to : Kaki King
Preston Reed also does this style of guitar playing. I’ve seen him live twice, and he is the single best player I’ve ever caught in person.
Sad to say that Michael Hedges USED TO do it…he was killed in a car accident (apparently fell asleep at the wheel) several years ago. A truly gifted guitarist, and usually very funny in concert.
Aargh! No way! I had no idea he was dead. Damn he was good.
I call 'em double-hammers (or triple-hammers*). Eddie Van Halen popularized the technique but didn’t originate it. Now it’s a pretty standard part of any lead guitar player’s toolkit. Doing it well requires as much musicianship as any other playing technique.
*You can use the open string or not, and you can hammer with two fingers on your left hand or just one before hitting the string with your right.
WOW! I can’t believe I missed seeing this. Having just checked the clips on her website, I am off to buy her album. She sounds promising.
Yep, Michael left us several years ago, but you can still watch him a bit. There is an Artist’s Profile video of him that you can order from here, which is well worth it.
Or you can get the old Windham Hill in Concert on dvd, which has him doing five songs (including Aerial Boundaries), and is almost better, even though it’s shorter (or his part is, anyway).
Those who were impressed by Kaki but have never heard/seen Michael Hedges are well advised to check him out. Truly a great loss.
Did anyone here notice that the bass player in Friday night’s Bela Fleck and the Flecktones appearance did several bass solos using the hammering technique? Most interesting.
And please, can anyone tell me the name of the wonderful song that they did?
So, who did originate this technique?
And, does anyone have a web audio clip of the OP artist playing something? Thanks.
Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) classic guitarist from Spain who helped modernize guitar techniques including hammer-on/offs, and/or supported strokes.
BTW Hammer strokes w/ slack key guitar is dated to about 1825 in Hawaii (IIRC) introduced by the Spanish. I assume this technique is what Tarrega improved upon. He also moved the position of playing the guitar. Holding it the way most do today as opposed to upright like a cello or a bass…the old guitar was a bit longer than modern “standard”. Still, I’m sure glad he turned that sucker on its side. 
Now, if you were referring to recent history…a lot of old blues players been doing it for years. But, Les Paul put the juice to it. 
Seems like I recall Chuck Berry hammering a few.
It’s kind of a natural thing to want to do IMO.
Say M/J…
that even has a sample of his work. You can hear the hammer strokes throughout the intricacies of this piece.
Damn, if I could hit those licks…
I got blisters on my blisters
STANLEY JORDAN, people. STANLEY JORDAN.
plnnr - I mentioned Stanley Jordan in my post, the 4th post in. FWIW, for those who don’t know, Mr. Jordan is a huge talent who uses the tapping style pretty much exclusively. Was really big in the late '80’s, still popular now…
and t-keela, thanks for the education on the origins of tapping…