Just wondering if anybody on this board has heard of a guitarist by the name of Mike Kinsella? He’s played in smaller unknown bands (such as American Football and Owen) so I’m not holding my breath. Just curious. And if so, what do you think of his guitar playing?
Sorry - no clue. If you have a link or two so we could get a sample listen, post 'em here…
Here we go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-99Bh56Ack
Ignore the first fourty seconds or so… It might seem monotonous at first but once he gets into it he starts playing some amazing melodies.
Okay - I saw it. From a purely technical perspective, he is a decent acoustic fingerpicker. He doesn’t do anything particularly demanding. His melodic sense seems solid, but nothing jumps out as special in a standout way.
Sorry if you wanted to hear more positives…what made you ask in the first place?
Haha… I wasn’t fishing for positive answers =)
I asked mainly because I was trying to learn a few of his songs.
I think what’s interesting is his use of different tunings. That, I’ve never been able to figure out. Some guitarists are good at making up different tunings and then play beautifully. Others - like me- are not.
Yeah - sorry I didn’t mention that he appeared to be using alternate tunings. Seriously, if you can figure out what tuning he is using, then playing the song should be a snap.
As for me - I don’t use alternate tunings, except for a Cheater’s G that I do in order to play Keef/Rolling Stones’ tunes or other songs that use an Open G tuning. Couldn’t be easier - just drop the A string down a step to G - then just play the middle 4 strings. Very easy to do in a band setting…
I know of him, but I’m not a fan of he or his brother.
Yeah, I’ll have to give that tuning a shot at some point. Right now I’m fiddling around with a DADF#bC# tuning. Pretty interesting.
Ah, well at least one person had heard of him =)