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| Lap-Tapping technique by Erik Mongrain.
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Erik Mongrain
(born April 12 1980 in Montreal, Québec, Canada) is a Canadian composer and guitarist. He uses a unique acoustic style including a two-handed lap tapping technique on the acoustic guitar.
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ERIK MONGRAIN TICKETS
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Biography
Erik Mongrain taught himself guitar at the age of 14. As a boy he was mostly interested in sports, but picked up an interest in the guitar and began to teach himself to play by ear. Erik started out playing the
electric guitar, but developed an interest in
classical and acoustic guitar after hearing the work of
Johann Sebastian Bach. Erik taught himself to read music, and began composing.
Erik Mongrain was inspired early on by the work of
Metallica,
Jimi Hendrix, and
Kurt Cobain.
[1] When he was 18, Erik heard the work of guitarist
Don Ross, and he said "This was a new revelation to me. I finally found my niche."
[2] After that, Erik was heavily influenced by the work of
Michael Hedges. Erik also began to experiment with a technique known as
lap tapping, in which the player lays the guitar across their lap, and taps the strings on the fret board with both hands.
[3]
Erik Mongrain plays live shows in the United States, Canada, and England.
He started out with street shows, before he was discovered in Spain;
he continues to play street and metro shows, as well as shows at concert venues and on television. Erik's music is going to be featured in a documentary produced by Lance Trumbull for the
Everest Peace Project. He was recently featured on the cover of
Guild Guitar Company Magazine.
[4] Erik was featured in
Le Journal de Montréal [5] and was written about in the Granada Spanish journal. They wrote :
"the visitor (to Grenada) ... discovers rather good musicians, sometimes brilliant, who makes a pure delight of the city... Erik Mongrain, 21 years old, is one of them... The young interpreter does not play in a habitual manner but rather lays the guitar on his knees like a keyboard ... before discovering this new method, known under the name of "tapping", he studied classical guitar on his own" [6]
Erik released his first full-length album,
Fates
, in December 2006 on his website as a series of individually buyable/downloadable songs. The physical CD will be released in June 2007 (May for Japan).
In 2007, Mongrain went on a tour around the world, particuliary in
Europe,
Asia and
America. He performed also at the famous
Montreal International Jazz Festival and at the "Studio-théâtre" of the
Place des Arts of
Montréal where the live performance was recorded.
[7]
Mongrain was invited for the premiere of the « World Music Heritage », a drive by
Gontiti on the national Japanese network (
NHK). The broadcast started last May 2007 and the footage used for the broadcast is filmed in Montreal's streets and in
Saint Joseph's Oratory, reputed for its acoustics.
The iVideoSongs company have filmed four clips including
Equilibrium
, a recent composition. The clips are tutorials of Mongrain's
lap tapping style, downloadable on the company's Web site.
[8]
His "Air Tap" video has been viewed over 4 million times on
YouTube.
Recent work
On
October 21st
2008, Erik Mongrain launched his second album "
Equilibrium" which has 9 new compositions. The title track from the album is an ode to the balance between humans and the planet. The album was recorded on
July 2008 in "
The Dragon Crossing studios
", the personal recording place of
Paul Reed Smith (
PRS Guitars), located in
Annapolis, Maryland,
United States. On this new album, Mongrain plays with musicians such as
Michael Manring on
fretless bass and
Bill Plummer on
synthesizers.
The album was launched live on Mongrain's official website (
streamed broadcast) on 21 October 2008. The event called "
Equilibrium Experience
" will broadcast an exclusive live concert from Montreal and interviews with the artist directly from his living room.
[9]
Discography
- Equilibrium
(2008)
- Fates
(2007)
- Un paradis quelque part
(2005)
- Les pourris de talent
(2005)
See also
- Tapping
- Michael Hedges
- Preston Reed
- Don Ross
Notes