She will melt your face and warm your heart

March 26, 2014 10:53 AM

Li-sa-X is an adorable 8 year old Japanese girl who plays rock guitar covers (youtube channel)
posted by roaring beast (42 comments total)

That Suzuki method works for everything, doesn't it?
posted by Kokopuff at 10:58 AM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

My six-year-old daughter has a lot of catching up to do.
posted by dellsolace at 11:32 AM on March 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

That she is.
posted by kafziel at 11:40 AM on March 26, 2014

First of all, holy shit. Secondly, I was prepared to gripe about her lack of emotion until she flashed that "pretty fucking cool, huh?" grin.
posted by Skot at 11:59 AM on March 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Kisses to Asian parents who allow musical instruments that aren't the piano or the violin.
posted by peripathetic at 12:08 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ummm . . . no. She is adorable, yes. Keeping up with Paul Gilbert and Guthrie Govan? no.

Those little hands are not big and strong enough to pull off those hammer-ons and . . . pull . offs . . or the string bends. At least the video's not matching the music.

Particularly on the "Fives" video there's a bend she finishes a good beat before the sound does.
Is this the new "[Guitarist X] Shreds"? Teaching a child to mimic shreddery?

Yeah that's right. I'm decrying the face-melting skills of an eight year old. More specifically, I'm decrying whoever is into shredding enough to have purchased a couple of $1,200US guitars and teaching a child to pretend they're ripping it up on them. That's wrong, mmkay.
posted by petebest at 12:12 PM on March 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

You've changed, Pete. It used to be about the music.
posted by Skot at 12:20 PM on March 26, 2014 [15 favorites]

I didn't see any evidence of fakery, myself. On the other hand, I did see her actually bending strings.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:23 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Still bitter about Ringo, eh, pete?
posted by barrett caulk at 12:41 PM on March 26, 2014 [7 favorites]

Yes she's very good at mimickng it, and bending the strings but it's not real. Guitar strings, when they're in tune, are holding a lot of tension. To bend them and make buttery runs requires giant paws a la Messrs Hendrix, Vaughan, or Gowan. Check out here where Dr. Gowan shows a bit of Hendrixian rhtyhm/lead. Firstly, see how giant his hands are relative to the guitar neck? Secondly, the bendy notes go really . . y'know bendy. Not to get too technical.

here's the "Fives" example where the bend ends well before the note does. Her hands are mostly barely touching the strings, which makes sense because to actually play that would be not really particularly possible.

So yes, someone spent a lot of time getting her mimic exactly the right place on the fretboard for each note of the solo. Which, is impressive by itself and still kinda wrong. I think the player is probably dad.

and Skot, Slag off!
posted by petebest at 12:47 PM on March 26, 2014

Kisses to everyone. Sounds like you need it.
posted by pipeski at 1:05 PM on March 26, 2014 [6 favorites]

*attempts to slag off*
*fails*
*stares emptily into middle distance*
posted by Skot at 1:08 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Does anyone know what petebest is talking about? Electric guitar strings are very easy to bend without much effort. That is kind of the point compared to, say, acoustic guitar strings. And you can clearly see her pushing and bending the string. Are you saying that is cgi'd or something? As for the timing/sync, it just sounds like she's using a delay or echo effect, which is why it keeps sounding after she stops bending it.
posted by roaring beast at 1:27 PM on March 26, 2014 [6 favorites]

Yeah, I'm guessing she's using super-light strings, so not hard to bend. SRV got his massive tone with acoustic guitar-gauge strings, which do require lots of strength.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:30 PM on March 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Very good ! I guess that says a lot about guitar heroes, though.
posted by nicolin at 1:46 PM on March 26, 2014

\m/
posted by jammy at 1:52 PM on March 26, 2014

I promise you Pete, getting a kid to practice faking a guitar solo until they could do it flawlessly visually but without "being able to actually make the sounds" (what sounds are they making then? how did this monster parent who loves shredding deal with the hours of cacophony the fake practicing entailed) would be massively less likely than just spawning one that loved guitars enough to spend hours learning how to play one.
posted by lastobelus at 1:53 PM on March 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

Also, she does have to use three fingers for her bends, which slows her down. Pete, is your theory that she and the mysterious "real" guitar player who is shadowing her meticulously rehearsed all those careful pauses? Good Lord.
posted by lastobelus at 1:55 PM on March 26, 2014 [3 favorites]

I've been playing guitar for 25 years - it looks real to me. It would be harder for her to "fake" placing her hands in those positions without playing the right notes than it would be just to play it.
posted by Daily Alice at 2:09 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think Metafilter might be fake. How can anything be so blue?
posted by mcstayinskool at 2:20 PM on March 26, 2014 [9 favorites]

Love the little bits when the girl looks up from her playing a couple times and flashes a big smile. Totally eliminates my omg-i-bet-her-parents-make-her-practice-endlessly feelings. It sure looks like she's having a ball. Further evidence is when she helped out her brother (?) who is a Fashion Monster
posted by mcstayinskool at 2:21 PM on March 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Kisses to white people who don't spread stereotypes.


I'm Asian.
posted by peripathetic at 2:30 PM on March 26, 2014 [11 favorites]

The guitar playing looks legit to me, but the Fashion Monster has got to be fake!
posted by valkane at 2:34 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

here's yt the "Fives" example where the bend ends well before the note does. Her hands are mostly barely touching the strings, which makes sense because to actually play that would be not really particularly possible.

I think this is the heavy digital delay she's playing through.
posted by ignignokt at 3:18 PM on March 26, 2014

Whoops.

Listening on a different system it's clear she's playing to the actual song and not a backing track. I'm hearing the recorded solo behind hers. So, I type corrected, she does totally rock! (Although to be fair she's easily ten, or so, milliseconds behind Gowan in . . . in a few spots. Or maybe just the one. So. Uh. There's that?)

Bonus points for the grimy maple fretboard. Super double bonus points for the grins!

Li-sa-X rul3z!!!

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to practice my sweep picking and quiet sobbing.
posted by petebest at 3:44 PM on March 26, 2014 [8 favorites]

Christ.. I gave up my sweep picking ambitions when I realized my hands were too small compared to those of my shredding friends and reverred guitar heroes to ever do anything satisfactorily.

So fuck you, Li-sa-X, for putting me back on that Sisyphusean loop of practice and despair.
posted by mediocre at 3:50 PM on March 26, 2014

Actually, upon closer inspection it looks like she never actually does any sweep picking. Everything is done with incredibly meticulous alternate picking and tapped arpeggios. I think she would find it near impossible to do actual sweep picking. So I will take my tiny hands back from the edge of obsessive practice mode I found myself in from ages 11-16.
posted by mediocre at 3:57 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

mediocre: Every time I start to despair about how horrible I am at the guitar (and I am quite bad. How the fuck is anyone with regular sized hands supposed to make those chord shapes) I go back and pick up my uke and marvel at how much easier it got. Perspective!
posted by tmt at 4:08 PM on March 26, 2014

(Although to be fair she's easily ten, or so, milliseconds behind Gowan in . . . in a few spots. Or maybe just the one. So. Uh. There's that?)

She's not even 10 years old though, so I'd forgive her not being a perfect amalgam of Becker/Gilbert/Govan... yet.

God love her dorky parents.
posted by ersatz at 4:31 PM on March 26, 2014

I HAVE WASTED MY CHILD'S LIFE.
posted by BlueJae at 6:29 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Man, even an adorable and talented child cannot make Racer X sound less douchey.
posted by batfish at 6:29 PM on March 26, 2014

This is why rock is dead.
posted by monospace at 6:42 PM on March 26, 2014

Yea, she's playing behind the actual CD so you're hearing her over the original track. But it's obvious she's really playing and kudos to her for being so awesome.

That being said, watching the Fashion Monster video, I think their parent's enthusiasm borders on the unhealthy.

Give Li-sa-x another 4 years and she could turn out as soulless as this 14 year old girl covering Eruption.
posted by daHIFI at 7:35 PM on March 26, 2014

I wonder if people overplay the "soulless" thing sometimes. It's just a youtube recording and not necessarily a live concert performance. Also, these are usually pretty technical pieces that require a lot of concentration that give the appearance of boredom. And some people are just not that expressive, but just love to play.
posted by roaring beast at 8:01 PM on March 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

So easy, even an 8 year old could do it!
posted by elmer benson at 8:14 PM on March 26, 2014

I'm sorry, but you GOTTA give props to that, come on!
posted by xammerboy at 10:06 PM on March 26, 2014

As someone slowly, slowly, slowly learning to play guitar, I can say that the only time I have the mental leeway to smile is when I'm playing something super easy. When I'm playing something hard, I'm so focused on getting the fingers in the right places and hitting the right strings I don't have the latitude to grin. The smiling happens at the end of the song, when I pull it off.

Also, my kid (8 years old) is addicted to kendama, which is...well...ok, it's not a yo-yo, but for simplicity's sake, let's say he's addicted to yo-yo. He's got tons of soul, and I certainly am not pushing him to play with a kendama, but when he's focused, he has a face of focused concentration, not laughing and smiling. The laughing and smiling comes at the end, when he says "Dad! I did it 37 times in a row!"
posted by Bugbread at 10:38 PM on March 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Fantastico! Rock on, Lisa!
posted by Wolof at 10:43 PM on March 26, 2014

Peripathetic, I don't care if you're "Asian" ( what does that word even mean in 2014?), perpetuating stereotypes is unhelpful and comes across as racist. I object to your comment and I don't give you a pass card for any reason.

Signed:

a wife and mother to "Asians".
posted by taff at 3:31 AM on March 27, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sigh ... I didn't start till 19 (parents didn't want to push me at things) and missed having early technical training like this. Sadly, I now have a room full of guitars and amps and I can't get my 7 or 9 year old to show the remotest interest in learning.

Good on Lisa - she seems to be really into it!
posted by freecellwizard at 6:40 AM on March 27, 2014

I can not get enough of little kids mastering instruments and rocking hard. It's awesome. Here's some more:

* Alexey Poblete (8yo), drums, cover of YYZ (er, 'Y Y Zed')
* Ameri (10yo), Electone piano, cover of Kansas's Carry on my Wayward Son
posted by kurumi at 8:26 AM on March 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

Fashion Monster

That is the greatest David Byrne/St. Vincent video of all time.
posted by alikins at 5:44 PM on March 27, 2014 [1 favorite]