jason becker ---musician cut down in his prime--

what do you guys all think of jason becker?
if you dont know about him he is a musician/guitarist that has ALS (lou gherigs disease)

he was a technician. played a lot of shred. he was just a young guy when he was diagnosed and had to stop playing. most of his stuff seems dated now. vids of him in the earl 80's playing with marty friedman dressed in spandex with the big hair. he and marty have a song called speed metal symphony thats pretty cool.
he used to play trills with his left hand and play the yo yo with his right.
like him or not its a sad story. he was only given like 5 years to live but has been fighting it for 20 years.

before he lost his speech his father cam up with a way for him to communicate with his eyes. his dad broke the alphabet down into blocks. each letter being one of the corners of his eye so now he looks up, down, right, left, etc and his dad can spell out what he is saying.

he still composes music too. he has a cd called rasberry jams that he composed this way. his buddy made some sort of computer system that he can call out notes the same way. his dad arranges it in pro tools or something based on what jason is saying. it is actually pretty amazing.

here is a vid of him playing paganini's 5th on the guitar

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by CardiffGiant


lol well i heard about this guy about 10 or 15 years ago, im 28 now. i know he was an awesome musician who came to some unfor seen sercomstances. now i am going to have to look up some of his music and give it a listen today (Y)

Jason's story is a very sad one indeed but one of perseverance and willpower. He is a natural musician and on a level well above most and has influenced many a great players. Being a guitar player I can't imagine enduring what he's gone thru.

The one thing I do have issue with, is that he's taken credit for the song "Blue" as his own composition and I think that's very wrong. But, he's still an incredible player.