Adrian Legg

Bio

Adrian Legg was born on May 16, 1948 in London. Adrian first studied oboe as a child and performed in the school and young people's orchestra before learning the guitar. In guitar, he toured with some early british country bands, before going solo. Hi solo efforts won him composition and performance titles in Guitar magazine's folk guitar competitions.

By 1978, Adrian left full-time playing in pursuit of a career in musical instrument R&D. He has been instrumental in developing several acoustic guitar innovations proprietary to Trace Elliot acoustic guitar amplifiers, and Ovation guitars, which he often demos for the company.

After a time away from recording, Adrian resurfaced and was voted "Guitarist of the Decade" by Guitarist magazine and has also received the nod for Best Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist four years running in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 by Guitar Player's Reader's Poll.

Adrian also has demonstrated some of his techniques in a Hot Licks series video: Beyond Acoustic Guitar. Adrian tours the UK at least once per year, and if you are lucky enough, you might catch a rare gig in the US or Japan.

One of the reasons that Adrian's music is so unique for guitar, is that he takes his inspiration from other stringed instruments like violin, banjo, pedal steel, and lute and oud, a Moroccan relative of the lute. In fact, the DADGAD alternate guitar tuning which Adrian frequently uses was born of Davey Graham learning to play Arabian scalar music in oud ensembles while visiting Morocco.

Adrian's techniques may seem foreign to the average guitar player, but are common to these other instruments. For example, how many guitar players do you know that change their tuning in the middle of the song? Unheard of in guitar, this is actually common in banjo. Other techniques are banjo rolling, open string incorporation into upper-neck arpeggios.

Adrian plays Ovation and other custom guitars with exotic woods and soundhole configurations to emphasize harmonics, which he also uses expertly in his playing.

Even if you can't appreciate Adrian's technical genius, his music is awe inspiring, and a great sound drop for any occasion where instrumental music is appropriate. Give him a listen.

Links

Adrian Legg's Official Web Site

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