I just discovered this young guy and thought I’d bring him to the attention of the board’s musicians and anyone else who might admire precocious musical ability. As for me, my mind’s blown! I’ll post a few of the videos that brought him to my attention and then follow with a clip of him performing Gary Moore’s Parisian Walkways at age 11. The vocal performers in the first two clips leave a little to be desired but it’s worth sticking around to watch/listen to this kid play. His name is Andrei Cerbu.
Fascinating. He’s a great player. Amazing how things like Youtube lessons and Guitar Hero have made it so much more straightforward to learn. That is not a kid who had to figure out exactly where to drop the needle for the bazillionth time to figure out Whole Lotta Love.
Solid musicianship, but they really need to work on their miming for the videos. There are parts where it’s blatantly obvious that their hand movements don’t match the sound that’s being played.
Yeah, I noticed that too but I figured they were playing on top of a backing track to compensate for times when it would otherwise take two players to produce the sound.
I used to wonder how a band like Silverchair could come up with a song like Tomorrow at the age of 15 and 16 years old. Now I know. The young people in the videos I posted are not only precociously talented but have been working at it for years despite their youth. I’ve been aware of Sina, the drummer, for a while now. She’s smart and a very hard worker, and she has lots of help - primarily from her father who’s a musician himself. And it’s obvious from Cerbu’s playing of Parisian Walkways at the age of 11 that he’s been at it from a very young age.
Cerbu doesn’t play that much Zeppelin but it’s amazing how much he looks like Jimmy Page. You can certainly see the influence.
And good point, WordMan. Not being a player I was unaware of how torturous it must have been in the old days to figure out how to play a tune.
Oh Lordy, yes. There’s a reason you have videos of precocious little genius kids pulling out great covers of songs. More power to them, but hilarious. It’s like a person who build fires from sticks all their lives being handed a book of matches.
Back in the day, we traded techniques and specific riffs like they were gold. Some guy showed me the tapped-harmonic intro for Van Halen 's Women in Love and it was like I found some super secret code. Now, its 30 seconds on Youtube.
Yeah, kind of like back in the day we crossed the country and travelled over mountains on horseback or in covered wagons, and it took months. Now we fly across the country and the mountains in an airplane and it takes only a few hours.
Having said that, I had no idea you guys worked so hard for such tiny and precious bits of knowledge. I admire the old school guitar heroes even more now. When you hear of guys like Jimmy Page, who become studio musicians in their teens, the impression is that the talent is inborn rather than slavishly developed.
I was hoping you’d post to this thread, WordMan. Your contributions always contain good info and interesting insights, and I appreciate 'em.
And speaking of old school guys, the real proof in the pudding is in the writing. In the final analysis, playing covers well is a skill. Writing that stuff is where the real talent lies. Still, in the comments section of nearly all those cover videos are comments by guys who’ve been playing for 40 years or so and still can’t do what Sina is doing on drums or what Andrei Cerbu is doing with his guitar, so it appears their ability really is special.
These kids are playing it smart. They’re collaborating with other talented kids in other countries and developing fan bases around the world. Sina has done an album of all original stuff, accompanied by some fine musicians who’ve written the other parts, and both the album and her playing are pretty good, IMHO.
As for me, I can’t seem to stop watching videos I posted in the OP. Every time I come home I fire 'em up again. It’s like these covers have given the songs new life. But dang, that little blonde girl is painful to listen to. I hope she’ll get good in time, but when compared with that little 12-year-old Ann Wilson clone or some of the other singers her age I’ve seen on AGT and so forth, I’m not too optimistic.
But then again, people weren’t too optimistic about Tom Brady early on, either.
This kid is blowing my mind! The thing that really strikes me about him is how his guitar seems to be an extension of his body. He never looks like he’s having to work at the music he’s playing, it just appears to flow out effortlessly and naturally. Contrast that with the drummer, who, as good as she is, appears to be concentrating and thinking about every note.
I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this kid.
The biggest issue with a talent like his is: there’s a whole new crop of these precocious musicians. They all receive the same benefits of that online book of matches. Now what? I will be interested to see how many of them can rise above, like Ed Sheeran, who started off busking. I hope many can, I am simply not sure how it works these days. But I bet it starts with writing your own songs.
Is Guitar Hero actually relevant? I had understood that the controller for that game, while looking like a guitar, still just had buttons to press, just like any other controller. Is there any real guitar skill you can learn from that game?
I have no experience with it other than watching my kid do it. I would say it did two things: 1) made guitar-playing look possible and cool; and 2) got the player a bit more aware of moving their hands to the rhythm of the song being played. Guitar requires more than that, but it’s a start.
Maybe a sense of timing and rhythm, but otherwise, not really. You’d want a game like “Rocksmith,” which uses a real guitar, to actually learn some guitar skills. The drums on these games, though, is somewhat helpful and I feel can translate more directly to real instrument skills, but still is no substitute for playing on a real kit.
You’re welcome. And I agree that the ability to write good songs will be what determines these kids’ future success. It’ll be interesting to follow their progress and I wish them the best.
You are most welcome. And yeah, his voice leaves quite a bit to be desired – at this point, at least. In the comments section of the videos where he sings he comes in for a fair number of discouraging comments regarding his singing, but he’s said he doesn’t care, he enjoys it and it adds to his enjoyment of the music. I actually admire him for this. Not too many 14-year-olds would be self-possessed and confident enough to put themselves out there like that and keep doing it despite the criticism. I have a feeling though that in time he’ll become a pretty good singer. His Romanian complicates things for him too. I expect that as he becomes more proficient with his singing he’ll overcome that as well.
Yeah, isn’t she amazing? Don’t know if you caught it upthread but she was 12 years old when that performance was recorded.
Andrei has a few Joe Bonamassa covers on his Youtube channel and I’m gonna have to burn through 'em tonight. I won’t post them all, but I will post this one as an example.
Oh, and here’s an amazing cover of Gary Moore’s Still Got the Blues that came up while I was composing this post.
14 farking years old!!!
When I was 14 I was making stupid Rat Fink hot rod drawings (this style) and spelling ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’ in my letters of the time. I simply cannot fathom this kind of musicianship at this kid’s age!
As a guitar teacher, guitar hero is the bane of my existence. Teaches kids all the wrong technique. It’s just pressing buttons. As for the Romanian kids they are very good. The Fleetwood Mac cover was terrific.
