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    Slapping and tapping

    Daron Letts
    Northern News Services
    Published Monday, August 4, 2008

    THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Innovative Fort Smith guitarist Bryce Young plays with a unique picking style that sees his fingers move up and down the neck of his guitar.

    "It's a little different," he said.

    NNSL Photo/Graphic

    Fort Smith guitarist Bryce Young demonstrates his unique guitar style. Young is one of the performers who will take part in the Slave River Frienship Festival on Aug. 17. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo

    "I like to call it slap tap because I'm doing a lot of tapping and then I'm slapping the bar chords at the same time and the harmonics to try to get this whole orchestrated feeling. Lots of open tuning. I don't play in standard much unless I'm playing classical."

    Young started playing guitar at age 14 after his parents bought him his first acoustic guitar, a black Fender, for Christmas. He began writing his own material about a year later.

    "I got right into it," he said.

    Today he has written almost two hours of original instrumentals.

    "I like to think of (instrumentals) as a story without words," he said. "It's the feeling you get. The story can mean one thing to one person but to another person it's a whole different thing. It's a new story to every different person. That's what I like about instrumentals."

    Young doesn't title many of his original songs.

    "Once you give it a title then it's not up to the public to interpret anymore," he said.

    Young plays in Fort Smith at the upcoming Friendship Festival on Aug. 17.