http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1491516901670441597&q=japanese+canon+guitar&pl=true

Some serious shreddin from the Japanese entry here (click on the link above) - but is it real or was he faking it ? Watch closely and enjoy !

Entries on a postcard to: Johann Pachelbel, the Great Easter Egg Quizz, Planet Shred.

I know how to play that song on piano... he is pretty much just playing it the same as the original only obvious a metal mix and just that one scale change towards the end.

I believe it's real, visually i didn't see a single fault where video didn't meet sound. And you can't really say it's "impossible" to play like that so yeah, pretty interesting video

Ok, let's start from the basis of the track:

 - You can easily build up a metal remix of that canon, just making some drums and bass lines and pasting them over the main classical track.
 - If you need to increase the speed many soft-wares allow you to do that without changing the song scale.
 - He uses some music "cuts" where the basis is quite and he make some arpeggios; well, you can just cut the track and make a quite space between to parts: almost every software let you do that.

Now, analyze the guitar playing:

 - First of all play that is "easy": what I mean, is that almost all the virtuosos guitarist we commonly know ( Petrucci, Malmsteen, Satraini, Vai, etc) can play that.
 - This japanese isn't a popular guitarist, but, why couldn't he play with those skills? If you start playing electric guitar when you are 10, you can easily play what he show us in the video when you are 20 ( the age I guess he is in this clip).
 - The song is almost completely in the same scale , as Chill said, and that's easy to follow in a whole song. He uses some great legatos, arpeggios, fast-pickings and tappings which are easy to develop with a lot of practice and dedication. If you practice the same scale and some nice technical tricks there's no doubt any dedicated guitarist (not popular ) could play something pretty similar to this.
 - The image sequence matches perfectly to the sound, so there's no way to say he played over an existing track; he didn't cheat.

In conclusion, I think this is perfectly possible, and I really believe this guy did this video. He just practiced a lot to make it perfectly and put a lot of skills on it. I don't think this is fake.
So, great job, japanese mate! You have a lot of skills. I guess many speed metal bands must be looking for you.

Hope you all people understand my reason.

         > Iszil

I watched this video several times. And I never saw a movement of his fingers were out of sync with the music. Even the tiny vibratos are exactly in sync. OK, its a half playback but I believe that this guy is doing an awesome guitar work. I guess it's real.

real, and very good

Yeah, there's no reason for me to say it's fake, it's possible and looks pretty good from here.
Hey check it out, he's a lefty!
Me too.

Forget the guitar playing...imagine what he could do if he took up knitting!

5 votes Real (+ me 6) vs 1 knitting (1 pearl, 1 plain).

The Japanese dude is actually Taiwanese and now has his own web site for his efforts. Check him out on http://jerryc.tw/

Glad you all liked the vid. Cheers to the missus for spotting the link in her travels. Didn't Mud mention BandAMP doing streaming vids in the not too distant future ?

Definitely real. Nobody should go to that much trouble just to look like they're playing guitar.

he's a jammer.......but can he play classical gas....properly?
maybe im an old timer eric clapton gets no hats off?
iszill once said its not how fast u can play but what u play(or something like that)
my favorite guitarist are ..david gilmour eric clapton .stevie ray vaughn
and hail...the late great michael hedges...who who did things with a harp guitar i thought
not possable till 1991 at the unversal ampitheatre hollywood with leo kotke(no slouch himself) its real
buzzzzz

Yes, I once said that, and I keep saying it.
This taiwanese is pretty good, but the thing is the speed doesn't makes a guitarist good, but the way you play and the feeling you express playing.
I'm from the school of Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson or Steve Howe, and my favorite "virtuoso" guitarist is John Petrucci, the best composer into the virtuosos group.

         > Iszil "Sir Shredalot"

it's well done, but certainly not so jaw dropping that I would even consider the possibility that it's fake.

Indeed, there are a number of flaws which make this impressive at best. Ofcourse the taiwanese has skills. But for a studio production he'd have to re-record many parts... I always learned to first get the timing absolutely right before you work on increasing speed. I can tell that this taiwanese works the other way round - much much harder, and when he misses a note it immediately sounds amateuristic.

So, it's very well done, I mean excellent job, but definately not professional... No reason to fake this at all. I'd give him 85%...

To be honest, I haven't heard anything groundbreaking in guitar since Malmsteen hit the scene with Alcatrazz. Before him it was EVH.

I have seen a lot of excellent players, and some with astounding technique, but nothing to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I remember when I was a young wannabe rock star, and Eruption came out. All of my guitarist friends (and I) were completely blown away. By today's standards, it is relatively tame and easy, but back then it was earth shattering. Same with Malmsteen a few years later. The guy was doing stuff that we could not even comprehend.

Still, in all, while shredding sounds cool, I prefer old school rock where the solos  could rip your heart out instead of making you need to comb your hair. Can anyone say Time?

"Time" - there, I said it!
Actually, I discovered (back in the days when I had to study to pass exams at work) that my best way to revise was read, read, read, and then pick up the guitar and try to remember what I'd just read while strumming/playing a solo etc.  I learned the solo from Floyd's Time while doing just that.............. but I digress!

The playing's real, I'm sure - he's got loads of other equally impressive (actually more impressive) bits on his web site.

Although I do agree that what he does isn't so stunning when you think of the quality of some guitarists out there, it is pretty damn good - I'd love to have the time (oh look, I said it again!) to practice enough to build up that sort of speed.  Yes, he makes mistakes; but so do I when I play at my snail's pace!!!

Sir Riffsaplenty