A young guitarist meets his hero

Usman Riaz is a 21-year-old whiz at the percussive guitar, a style he learned to play by watching his heroes on YouTube. The TED Fellow plays onstage at TEDGlobal 2012 -- followed by a jawdropping solo from the master of percussive guitar, Preston Reed. And watch these two guitarists take on a very spur-of-the-moment improv.

(Music)

(Applause)

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Chris Anderson: You guys were amazing.

That's amazing.

(Applause)

You just don't hear that every day.

(Laughter)

Usman, the official story is that

you learned to play the guitar

by watching Jimmy Page on YouTube.

Usman Riaz: Yes, that was the first one. And then I --

That was the first thing I learned,

and then I started progressing to other things.

And I started watching Kaki King a lot,

and she would always cite Preston Reed as a big influence,

so then I started watching his videos,

and it's very surreal right now to be --

(Laughter)

(Applause)

CA: Was that piece just now,

that was one of his songs that you learned, or how did that happen?

UR: I'd never learned it before,

but he told me that we would be playing that on stage,

so I was familiar with it, so that's why I had so much more fun learning it.

And it finally happened, so ...

(Laughter)

CA: Preston, from your point of view,

I mean, you invented this like 20 years ago, right?

How does it feel to see someone like this

come along taking your art and doing so much with it?

Preston Reed: It's mind-blowing,

and I feel really proud, really honored.

And he's a wonderful musician, so it's cool.

(Laughter)

CA: I guess, I don't think there is like a one-minute other piece you guys can do?

Can you? Do you jam? Do you have anything else?

PR: We haven't prepared anything.

CA: There isn't. I'll tell you what.

If you have another 30 or 40 seconds,

and you have another 30 or 40 seconds,

and we just see that, I just think --

I can feel it. We want to hear a little more.

And if it goes horribly wrong, no worries.

(Applause)

(Laughter)

(Music)

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