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Stanley Jordan is a jazz/ jazz fusion guitarist, best known for his development of the touch technique for playing guitar. He was born in Chicago on July 31, 1959.
Normally, a guitarist must use two hands to play each note. One hand will press down a guitar string at a specific fret to prepare the note, and the other hand will either pluck or strum the string to play that note. Jordan's touch technique is an advanced form of tapping, which allows a guitarist to produce a note using only one finger. Instead of carefully pressing the string against a specific fret, the guitarist quickly taps (or "hammers") his finger down behind that fret. The force of impact causes the string to vibrate enough to immediately sound the note. The note's volume can be controlled by varying the force of impact: tapping with greater force produces a louder note.
(A helpful analogy to visualize this technique is the distinction between a harpsichord and a piano. A harpsichord produces sound by plucking its strings, and a piano produces sound by striking its strings with tiny hammers.)
Jordan's touch technique employs two-handed tapping. Both hands are positioned over the fretboard to tap notes on multiple strings. This method allows the guitarist to play melodyIn music, a melody is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord. However, this succession must contain change of some kind and be perceived as a single entity (possibly gestalt) to be called a melody. Most specifically th and chords simultaneously. It is also possible, as Jordan has demonstrated, to play simultaneously on two different guitars. The technique generally requires a guitar with lower action and lighter-gauge strings. It is very difficult to employ on a classical guitar, but possible on an acoustic. The technique is simliar to that employed by players of the Chapman stick.
Jimmy Webster is the earliest guitarist known to have used this technique seriously, but Jordan is widely regarded as the technique's only virtuoso. Other guitarists have employed similar methods of playing: rock guitarists (though the emphasis tends to be on very fast lead guitar playing rather than polyphony) such as Eddie Van HalenEdward Lodewijk Van Halen generally known as Eddie Van Halen (born January 26, 1955) is a classically-trained virtuoso pianist and founding member of the heavy metal band Van Halen, which would now be considered classic rock. He was born in Nijmegen, Neth and Joe SatrianiJoe "Satch" Satriani is an instrumental rock guitarist. His success is notable in a genre typically unfriendly to instrumental musicians. Satriani has received 13 Grammy nominations, and he has sold more than 7 million albums worldwide. Satriani is recogn, and many acoustic guitarists have followed the lead of Michael HedgesMichael Hedges was an American acoustic guitarist. Hedges' combined many innovative techniques on the acoustic guitar with wide musical tastes, maturity as a composer, and a strong experimental streak to create guitar music that was very different to any and employed two-handed tapping to play rich, percussive pieces (Clive Carroll, Preston Reed are examples). Jordan is the only guitarist known to use two-handed tapping techniques predominantly, and has developed it to a remarkable degree.Another feature of Jordan's playing is the tuning he uses: from bass to treble EADGCF (all in 4ths, compared with the standard EADGBE). So the patterns for chords are the same wherever they are played on the fretboard.
Jordan was the first artist to be signed by Bruce Lundvall when the latter became president of Blue Note RecordsBlue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff. It derives its name from the characteristic " blue notes" of jazz and the blues. During the 1950s and 1960s Blue Note issued a large number of influential jazz in 19851985 is a common year starting on Tuesday. Events January events January 1 Creation of the Internet's Domain Name System. January 17 British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes. January 23 A debate in the House of Lor and, consequently, Magic Touch was the first release (not reissue) of the rejuvenated labelA record label is a brand created by companies that specialize in manufacturing, distributing and promoting audio and video recordings, on various formats including compact discs, LPs, DVD-Audio, SACDs, and cassettes. The name derives from the paper label.