Sifting out entry music videos (improvs) especially for competitions usually means separating meaningful expressions of musical ideas from the flashy technical stabs. The best ones often manage to complement the tracks, each elevating the other. Occasionally, this might mean that a lick with it's leg up makes it easy to be wowed by the phrasing paired with a track that gives you the feels. But it works the other way, too. With the wrong voicing, a track that may have clicked at the first few listens can suddenly come alive to the wrong audio pairing - dissonance.
2020 was an interestingly slow year for us (& possibly for everyone) but luckily we were able to debut our online guitar competition. We kick-start the same this year (2022) by sampling some entries that managed to impress our panel of judges. The number of contestants that subscribed to the monthly competition was encouraging & at times overwhelming. As such, it was paramount for the judges to whittle down to the top ten entries per edition (monthly). Some of these entries will be easier to watch than others, but each of them take a distinct stylistic approach to the tracks they complement. Whether plain, embellished, or in that area in between, these are all reminders that — at least when it comes to the guitar - 2020 still had plenty to offer.
To start us out - checkout Mwangi Macharias' take on the opening GG2020 edition in the month of July ,2020. The backing track was courtesy of Andromeda Music & it provided the perfect window to scrutinize phrasing transitions by contestants. Mwangi starts off in the sweet spot with a very mild overdrive tone and alternates to a clean tone as the song progresses. If you are keen enough- you'll catch the micro-sweep thrown in at the 9secs mark from the start just as the song begins to build up. Watching him go through the rhythm motions & sneaking in a sly grin whilst seated - is a wonderful little touch which easily complements his phrasing. His approach utilizes thirds, sliding, staccatos & natural harmonics all tell tales of an adept guitarist. However, as the songs winds down it becomes hard not to miss the imperfectly tuned guitar which seems to be the only undoing. Overall & even though he did not win that edition - the judges were impressed with his tone quality, intonation and technique in improvising the track.
