Fernando Alonso Turkey 2010 lap on slide guitar

The most special feature of this circuit, the famous turn 8, was also a challenge for me but not for its risk, difficulty or G-force, but for how to make it sound real, what was not easy due to the need for the annoying alternate picking (that I use, as you may know, in long runs without gear changing or revolutions leaps in order not to lose strings vibration). Anyway I think it turned out good. I prefer alternate picking better than some gadgets like E-bow, because I want to keep the guitar playing with as less artifacts as possible. Note also, if you can sharpen your ears, the rather short 7th gear to gain acceleration in the medium straights of the first 2 sectors, with the penalty of reaching the revolutions limit in the long straight of the 3rd sector. Also, enjoy the kerb "produced" ragged sound, which I have been doing in former videos, but that I´ll try to improve further in future videos.

Robert Kubica Monaco 2010 lap on slide guitar

I am so proud to present the Monaco circuit video, the hardest to play of the whole season. It was so unlucky that the first time Fernando Alonso couldn´t be on a qualifying session in his whole career, it was in this circuit I was looking forward so badly. However, Robert Kubica´s precise and aggressive driving in Monaco was a challenging one to imitate on guitar.
This is a very nervous track, with quick gear changes up and down. It was impossible for me to change gears down as fast as Kubica in the first corner, so I´m sorry about that. At least I didn´t need to worry about hitting the barriers. Instead, I worried about hitting the end of my fretboard in the famous turn 6, the slowest of the championship, in 1st gear.
Special mention to the tunnel darkness and reverb effects achieved by my friends (and by my mom in the first rehersals, data not shown ;-)), to recreate the most famous landmark of this circuit. The ovation at the end is for you guys.
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Je suis fier de vous présenter la vidéo du circuit de Monaco, le plus difficile à interpréter de toute la saison. C'était une très mauvaise chance que la première fois dans toute la carrière de Fernando Alonso qu'il n'a pas réussi à être dans une séance de qualification, soit sur cette piste, que j'attendais tellement. Mais comme chaque nuage a une lueur d'espoir, d'imiter la conduite précis et agressive de Robert Kubica à Monaco à la guitare a été un beau défi.
Ce circuit est très nerveux, avec des augmentations et des diminutions de vitesse très rapides. Désolé, mais je trouve qu'il est impossible d'imiter le rétrogradage aussi vite que Kubica au virage 1. Au moins je n'avais pas la préocupation de frapper la barrière... En retour, j'étais inquiet pour ne pas arriver à la fin de la guitare dans le célèbre virage 6 du circuit, le plus lent du championnat, en 1ère vitesse.
Ils méritent une mention spéciale les effets de l'obscurité et de la réverbération dans le tunnel, prises par mes amis (et ma mère dans les premiers essais, les données ne figurent pas ;-)), pour recréer les caractéristiques les plus connues de ce circuit. L'ovation à la fin est pour vous.

Fernando Alonso China 2010 lap on slide guitar

This circuit has the two curliest turns and the longest straight in the whole championship. The first of those turns (turn 1) requires a characteristic slow changing down of gears, unique in the championship. The other curly turn, previous to the long straight, shows a sudden car direction deviation, quickly corrected by Alonso and by my left hand. The very long straight of the 3rd sector, with 11 seconds in 7th gear, allows me to see you all watching the video. I don´t know why, but the engine doesn´t get to the maximum revolutions in 7th gear in this straight, so I can´t hit my highest note here. This also happened with Button´s McLaren and its F-duct, so it looks like a general setting for engine care or something.

Fernando Alonso Malaysia 2010 lap on slide guitar

This video is a consequence of the bad reading of the sky by the Ferrari team. They expected it to rain less at the end of the Q1, so Alonso and Massa waited for it in their boxes, a risky decision especially being about Malaysian crazy clouds. However, this situation provided us with the unique ocassion of seeing and hearing Fernando Alonso driving in some challenging extremely wet conditions, in this challenging by itself Sepang circuit. The guitar playing reflects the very low revolutions in the slow corners (I almost reach the end of the fretboard), but also lower than usual in the quick corners. Reflects also the smooth and careful accelerations and brakings, and even the aquaplaning at the exit of the corners 2 and 14.
Other than the rain adaptions, the wide variety of corners makes this circuit a very funny one to play in guitar, with those long periods with no gear change that I enjoy very much. Now I can understand better why this is one of the favourite circuits of Formula 1 drivers.

Fernando Alonso Spain 2010 lap on slide guitar

Like the kangaroo, the koala and the wombats in the Australian GP video, for the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix I wanted a tipical spanish item to be in the scenery, and my first thought was a "jamón". Navidul kindly provided me with the jamón that is in the video. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we needed just a few takes to record it, so we didn´t need to deplete the jamón in one day.
Regarding the Formula 1 guitar playing, Catalunya Circuit is similar to Albert Park in the rapid accelerations and the lack of very slow corners. The third sector is a very funny to play. In general, I prefer this kind of curly sectors better than straight accelerations and heavy brakings.
Ferrari tested their F-duct in this race for the first time, and it is noticeable in the long 7th gear to give room for the F-duct powered acceleration to occur before reaching the engine revolutions limit. Therefore, my slide in the guitar playing hits the 7th gear in a slightly lower position than expected for a normal gearbox setting for this circuit.

Fernando Alonso Australia 2010 lap on slide guitar

Because of the many visits of the Bahrain video and their consequences, I couldn´t focus on the preparation and learning of this Australia video, so it took me like three weeks to finish even though the Australia circuit is much shorter than the Bahrain one. In addition, Alonso´s Australia lap was available on the Formula 1 web videos, so I used that precious document, without Fernando´s voice blocking the car sound, to better extract the music of the engine. And that took me some additional days.
The result is a more precise video than the Bahrain one. The guitar sound is synchronized with the actual sound of the engine with pinpoint accuracy, so I strongly recommend you to play my video simultaneously with the Formula 1 web video.
Also, the short straights, the few slow corners and the pot-holed track made the guitar version a restless one, specially in the challenging, very funny third sector.

Fernando Alonso Bahrain 2010 lap on slide guitar

This is my first video on Youtube, which is having a success that was difficult to imagine at a first thought. It has been published in many blogs and forums, including the New York Times blog "Wheels", and shown on three Spain TV channels (Antena 3, La Sexta and Cuatro). I don´t know if it has been also shown on TV in other countries, so I´d appreciate if you can give me the joy to tell me about this.
Thanks everyone for watching and commenting. And keep an eye on this blog and my Youtube channel because I will be adding new videos continuously.