Hi, No idea whether he has graced the forum yet, but has anyone seen clips of Max Ostro?
Hi is an uber-geeky looking chap (who appears to have stolen Sigourney Weaver’s 80s hair). Amazingly relaxed shredding and hilarious trolling deadpan facial expressions - love this guy! He has a numbet of clups on YT, but here is one that I watched just now.
I also discovered him recently, I think something happened that made the YT algorithm pick him up a few days ago, he is now gaining subscribers like there’s no tomorrow. He also provides free backing tracks for his covers. And the attitude!
I love this guy!
Haha yeah, he’s killing it lately.
Blackmore parody in his attitude 
Yep, very slick!
Most impressive is his age.
Can be really intimidating to see.
Yeah he ended up in my recommended too, his covers of Paul’s old Racer X stuff are top-notch.
This kid is crazy good.
Came across his stuff on this sleepless night. I’m thinking about putting down the guitar.
Lol sigouney weaver. He’s amazing. He also is pretty dang close to Pat Metheny’s amazing hair style as well.
I am a HUGE fan of Max, his awesomeness is off the charts. Also, I read that he started at age 12, so he did all of this in what, a few years?
Now for those of you with eagle eyes, is Max using two different techniques, one for acoustic (he looks gypsy jazz?), and one for electric (he looks wrist and hybrid)? 
Is anyone else kind of annoyed by this wunderkind mentality nowadays? So many videos of little kids being amazing. This kid ain’t gonna be the next Beatles or whoever because the internet already proclaimed him as a genius. Most likely he’ll be another internet sensation with no real music to dig your teeth into. The crawl to success is what makes great artists. YouTube negated that crawl.
I have no idea where great artists come from, but being an incredible guitarist like Max at age 12 is no guarantee of long-term success in the music industry. Indeed, Billie + Finneas Eilish (sp?) obviously can’t play guitar remotely close to Max’s level, and yet I read an article where one of the writers for ABBA explicitly cited them as great contemporary writers; is there a higher compliment than that? I’m just hoping that Max gets to spend some time with the other Max [Martin].
Yeah. Billie Eilish(also sp lol) I think is pretty awesome. But that’s songwriting. There’s absolutely zero correlation between being amazing at your instrument and being a great songwriter or a even a successful musician.
I would not underestimate Max’s writing abilities. Just look at some of the solos he has written ad performed for various music competitions.
He is a great musician and performer, I’d rather use him for inspiration than try to find faults with him or his playing.
So if Max was 70 years old, would that have been okay? What criteria would have met the standard required for you to have enjoyed it more? Whilst I don’t like the term genius being thrown around willy nilly, if somebody has a high level of any of the following, I’m amazed (applies to pretty much anything really):
I have only heard one Billie Eilish song and it didn’t prompt me to follow up - any particular tracks worth seeking out?
I don’t really understand their (Billie + Finneas) music, and I actually dislike the following song, but note that it has 1.2 BILLION views. Just think about that for a second… 
I didn’t find anything bad about the track, but nothing memorable either. I have often wondered whether songs like these would fare as well without a video. According to the gospel of wikipedia, this song (only 
) got to 64 in the us billboard 100 and managed to get into top 40 in other countries and had 6 platinum certifications - quite the stretch to the 1.2 billion mark!
This guy is ridiculously good! I only came across him recently and checked out many of his videos since. Would be great to maybe see an interview with him here some day 
@PickingApprentice I wasn’t referring to his music. I really enjoyed his playing and will follow him from now on. The only criteria I have for music is that I enjoy listening to it and this kid met it.
Honestly I was just ruminating on how we as musicians appreciate music and how I wish it wasn’t largely luck based. Most of the great musicians in the world are naturally gifted. Hell, probably 99.9% is more accurate. And I would definitely consider him to be a genius or prodigy. You just simple cannot be that good at that age without a huge level of inherent ability.
Maybe it’s just me stomping my feet like a cry baby because no matter how much the rest of us scramble to get better there’s always going to be people like this that are working just as hard or even harder but with an innate ability that just makes them more effective at progression than the rest of us.
It can sometimes be disheartening instead of inspirational in some cases. Or a little bit of both. Not that it’s a competition either. But this kid hasn’t done anything. He doesn’t have a hit record. He may one day and I hope he does. But for now he’s just a really awesome guitar player who lucked into being intrinsically gifted. Is that enough for our admiration? I don’t know.
It’s a nebulous point of view I know.
As far as the Billie Eilish stuff I just meant she’s the real deal. She writes and performs. I don’t listen to her. I feel the same way about Ed Sheeran. I know he’s great performer and songwriter but I don’t necessarily subscribe to his type of music.
Well she isn’t writing all of it - I believe most of her songs are co-written by this Finneas chap. I suppose we will never know the ratio of talent between them.
I agree, but I think I’m starting to get an idea of where you are coming from.
Well he now seems to be playing Ibanez (endorsed?) and has some tracks on JamTrackCentral, so he is getting recognition I guess. As for the hit record, it depends on how you define a ‘hit’. I hope he doesn’t have Billie Eilish sized hit, because that would likely mean that he has hung his guitar up for a pop career! And as much as I hate to say it, i’m sure that a lot of pop industry would say Max has a face for radio!
