I don’t know if you are familiar with Guitar-Idol.co.uk website. I wasn’t until I recently found it and I can tell you I was surprised. To say in a few words what it is about this site (even if I think the name it is self describing)

Online competition to find the hottest new guitarist – have YOU got what it takes to be Guitar Idol 2008?

Play in front of thousands of guitar fans AND open up on the main stage for a LEGENDARY guitar virtuoso at the London International Music Show – and win tons of fantastic prizes! …

So, curious, I have started to listen the guys there trying to bet on the next guitar idol. Of course, most of them were Malmsteen, Satriani, Vai fans. Nothing to surprise me here. By the way,at a first glance, I think Malmsteen has more followers than Satriani and Vai. Just an observation…

And then, while listening around, I’ve seen this guy,Rick Renstrom!

He has entered the competition with a video posted on YouTube.

I thought I don’t see well! I looked on his website and on his MySpace page and finally understood it:

This guy, Rick Renstrom, has problems with his hands, birth disabilities I guess!

I don’t want to offend him in anyway by speaking too much about this on my post, because I didn’t find anywhere anything related to his situation on his website or MySpace page so I presume he doesn’t want to speak about it, but I just find his guitar playing freaking UNBELIEVABLE.

I know I have heard guys playing the way he does, advanced Malmsteen fans are familiar to this style, but this guy is just unbelievable considering his situation! And he is also the lead singer in his band!

To date, Rick has recorded on 9 total albums and has collectively played to over 100, 000 fans worldwide.

Man, I had the belief that because of an old surgery I had on my little finger on my left hand, (I had an accident at one of my tendons while in university), my playing will never be the same. It is bullshit! Total bullshit! It is all in my head! This guy proves it!

So, to Rick Renstrom, all my respect! Man, you rule us all!

I invite you to see more on his website and MySpace page.

Later edit: considering the number of diggs received by this article, I am that close to make it on the first page of Digg, and YOU can be a part of it! Digg me NOW and help me to make it on the first page of Digg FOR THE FIRST TIME!

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This morning I found myself visiting again the page of Sungha Jung, because I just felt the need of listening him again…

The truth is that I was charmed by how he plays the guitar. It is the admiration of somebody knowing that what he sees is out of his reach, and so it is. He plays at 11 better than me, I am not embarrassed to say this in any way. I don’t play fingerstyle guitar and for me what he does there is so fresh that I just can’t stop watching over and over again.

The fact that he is very young and playing with such dexterity makes people consider him a guitar wonder. And if I think about it, why not? I think that Sungha Jung may be considered this way cause I don’t know any other kid of his age to play the way he does fingerstyle guitar.

Keep in mind that he developed this dexterity in only 2 years of playing the guitar!! This is amazing, I don’t want to remember where I was after 2 years playing the guitar cause I wasn’t too far from the starting point…

I was going to embed here a video of Sungha Jung playing More than words of Extreme, first because I love that song and second because Sungha plays it lovely. However, after listening him covering Rylynn of Andy McKee, I had no other choice but to put this one here.

I promise myself to watch this kid in a a few years when probably he will join Andy McKee on stage playing at the same level. Sungha Jung, the professional fingerstyle guitar player, his dream…

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I stumbled upon this kid a few minutes ago! Man, is this guy great or what?!!??! What are they feeding these kids?! He owned me for good!

“Hi, I’m Sungha Jung from South Korea. My dream is to become a professional acoustic fingerstyle guitarist.

I had been watching my dad play the guitar for awhile before I finally jumped on it myself two years ago. I just turned eleven in September, 2007.

Currently, I am taking weekly classical guitar lessons and teaching myself fingerstyle guitar.

I used to not have tabs for the music that I played in my videos. I just listen and pick them up directly from the sound source in videos available on the internet. However, recently, I have started playing with original tabs whenever they are available to me by courtesy of the authors.”

(Taken from his MySpace page)

Well?!!

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I didn’t know Benjamin Lechuga since the only Chile music I listen from time to time is that acoustic folk that some Latin America musicians play in the middle of the city square. Actually I think they are from Peru, not from Chile. Anyway, I didn’t know him or his music and I found about him or his band, Delta(playing progressive rock music), this morning by reading GuitarPlayerZen. Benjamin Lechuga is not the regular hero everybody posts about since he has not such a great visibility for the moment but he has the support of Ibanez after winning the Ibanez Project when 17, has his part of recognition, playing with Andy Timmons and a lot of talent, in my opinion.

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