Drop-D (Matteo Mancuso duet solo challenge)

[Rainmak3r]

Hi all,

this is a bit of an unusual posting, but since I did use Linux for this I thought I'd share it anyway

Matteo Mancuso is a fantastic fusion guitar player from Sicily, Italy. He's very young, and despite that, he already got hugely popular thanks to his skills (Al Di Meola and Steve Vai praised him, to name a few). His first album is coming soon, in July, but in the meanwhile he released a single, called "Drop-D", and as a fun duet challenge to his fans he asked them to contribute a solo on his backing track.

I'm nowhere near him skills-wise, but I thought I'd contribute my attempt, which you can find here:

https://fosstodon.org/@lminiero/110526042210253328

The original video is on Instagram, since that's where the channel was published, but I assumed Mastodon would be a more acceptable source for most of you here.

I recorded the audio in Ardour (using the same track template I use for solos in all of my songs) and the video in OBS at the same time. I did cheat a couple of times, though: if you pay attention, you'll probably notice a couple of points where I rerecorded 1-2 seconds of audio (fingers don't 100% match). That's because I had been, obviously, sloppy, and that was my attempt to mask some ghost/dead notes. I do feel ashamed about it, can't lie, but then again most guitar videos you find on YouTube are 100% people fake-playing in front of the camera what they pre-recorded before, so why should I care?

Hope you'll enjoy it!

[modusjonens]

Cool idea and great execution! I dig your playing and especially like the phrasing. The ascending run that starts around the :22 second mark is tight!

[Rainmak3r]

Cool idea and great execution! I dig your playing and especially like the phrasing. The ascending run that starts around the :22 second mark is tight!

Thanks! For the phrasing I tried to borrow something from the backing track too, like when I mirror the arpeggio that comes in towards the end.
The ascending run is a cheap trick I use often, and just takes advantage of the fact the fingers shape remains the same It's something lazy guitar players like me do often when they need smoke and mirrors to make it look like you're actually going fast!

[Tenaba]

Thanks! For the phrasing I tried to borrow something from the backing track too, like when I mirror the arpeggio that comes in towards the end.
The ascending run is a cheap trick I use often, and just takes advantage of the fact the fingers shape remains the same It's something lazy guitar players like me do often when they need smoke and mirrors to make it look like you're actually going fast!

I really liked the borrowing of the clean guitar for that part of the solo. The chromaticism right at the start is also a nice addition.

I also didn't know mastodon could be used for video, that's pretty cool.

[Rainmak3r]

Thanks! For the phrasing I tried to borrow something from the backing track too, like when I mirror the arpeggio that comes in towards the end.
The ascending run is a cheap trick I use often, and just takes advantage of the fact the fingers shape remains the same It's something lazy guitar players like me do often when they need smoke and mirrors to make it look like you're actually going fast!

I really liked the borrowing of the clean guitar for that part of the solo. The chromaticism right at the start is also a nice addition.

I also didn't know mastodon could be used for video, that's pretty cool.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
Most Mastodon instances do allow you to post video, even though I think they're not always happy about it since they take space But this one was short enough that I thought it wouldn't be a big deal. For longer videos I created an account on Peertube.tv which is also Fediverse based.

[psyocean]

It's very interesting!
Most Wanted... Full version!

[Basslint]

I've hard Matteo Mancuso but I did not know that he played that kind of style! Good job, I do not think you made a "brutta figura"

[Rainmak3r]

I've hard Matteo Mancuso but I did not know that he played that kind of style! Good job, I do not think you made a "brutta figura"

He's mostly a fusion player, I think, but the first single from his new album was a bit more on the heavy side indeed. Thanks for the nice words