Gabor Lesko: Sounds Like “Little Waterfalls”

Here’s a song by Italian guitarist Gabor Lesko appropriately entitled “Little Waterfall” which features some floating guitar technique (this is the sound when the notes ring together which is similar to the sound of a harp or hammered dulcimer).

This floating technique is not a new one and dates back to baroque times. Guitarists such as Chet Atkins have used this along with many classical musicians. For the steel stringed acoustic, this technique is not so popular but, more prevalent amongst fingerstyle guitarists. The use of open notes for scales and melodies is used frequently with bluegrass banjo players and was first conceived by banjoist Bobby Thompson.

The concept is, always use the open note in a scale or progression instead of a closed note. Most of the noting can be achieved in the middle of the guitar neck past the 5th fret. So as an example with G scale (standard guitar tuning),

the first note would be the low G 3rd fret on the sixth low string
second note is the open A (5th string)
third note would be the B on the 6th string  7th fret
fourth note would be a C on the 6th  string 8th fret
fifth would be an open D 4th string
sixth would be a E on the 5th string 7th fret
seventh would be an F# on the 5th string 9th fret
eighth would be the open G 3rd string

Would you know or be able to figure out how to continue this scale past the G?

In this video, Gabor is capoed 3 and playing out of the G position. Much of what he’s doing is not so much scales but, the scale I just showed you really helps explain the concept.

Here’s some bio information on Gabor:

“Gabor Lesko, born in 1978, had been growing with music since he was a little boy. Coming from a musician family, he decided to continue in the music tradition and started to study playing classic guitar, piano and orchestra composition with Vilmos Lesko at the Conservatory of Bergamo in Italy. Later, he gained the professional music experiences during his studies of harmony and composition in Budapest and with Franco Cerri at the Civic Jazz School of Milan. He also lived one year in Los Angeles (1998), where he studied psychoacoustics at the Musician’s Institute (G.I:T:) and met well-known professors such as Joe Diorio, Robben Ford, Jennifer Batten, Frank Gambale. After his studies, he begun to play concerts and cooperated with Bill Detko, the producer of Schott Henderson and others.

In his career He Had collaborations with great artists such as Gianna Nannini, Marco Masini, Dannis Dragon (Beach Boys), Vice Tempera, Tony Levin, and others… Some of his most important projects include motion pictures (RAI Trade, the Italian television), relaxing music (Yoga Journal) , music with poetry ( “Parole Note”- Universal). Moreover, he is an author of four guitar soloist album and didactical publications: “Improvising on 3 Chords”- Carish 2009, “Fingerstyle Poems” and “Turn To speed”(Out now) Gabor Lesko´s unique mix of folk acoustic guitar with percussive Tapping and contemporary jazz improvisations, has made him a household name in Italy. Regarding his widely known music production, “EMY”, Gabor Lesko’s solo debut, was released by Sony in 1997.” more here