Meeting Sungha Jung
Last Saturday, Sungha Jung was in Kuala Lumpur for a concert, organized by the wonderful people at The Guitar Store. Most of you already know who Sungha Jung is, but if you don't know, go to Youtube and check out his videos! He's only 16 years old and he's already famous for his fingerstyle guitar playing. He started when he was really young, almost ten years ago, so you can imagine what a prodigy he is!
I started getting involved with fingerstyle guitar playing when I stumbled across a video of Tommy Emmanuel. He's *the* best fingerstyle guitar player, in my humble opinion, and Sungha Jung lists Tommy Emmanuel as one of his idols as well. I wanted to learn all I could about fingerstyle playing, and watched many videos of Tommy Emmanuel for tips and inspiration. During the course of my Youtube research, I happened upon Sungha Jung's videos as well.
The first time I watched Sungha's videos, he must've been only eight or nine years old. Obviously, he has improved so much since then, but even at that young age, you couldn't deny his talent.
I finally got an opportunity to meet Sungha Jung last Saturday. I've been supplying Alaska Piks to The Guitar Store, and the people at The Guitar Store are so warm and friendly that I've since become good friends with them. They generously invited me to be a part of the exciting event on Saturday, and of course, I went!
Sungha was busy for most of the day, with a press conference in the morning and preparing for the concert in the evening, but he gave me some of his time before the concert and we got to talk a little bit.
One of the things I was most impressed about him is how polite and humble he is. He's hugely popular around the world at such a young age, and yet he remains humble and down-to-earth. At the age when most teenagers are playing video games and hanging out with their friends, he's practicing the guitar, touring, giving press conferences, and performing for huge audiences.
He mentioned that he wants to emulate Tommy Emmanuel and one day tour and perform as much as Tommy Emmanuel does. I'm a huge fan of Tommy Emmanuel, and he's got years of experience ahead of Sungha, but seeing Sungha's hard work and dedication towards achieving his goals, and meeting his amazing management team backing him up, I've no doubt that Sungha will be able to achieve his goals.
I'm really happy and grateful to Sungha for taking the time to meet with me, and to his manager, and my friends at The Guitar Store for making it a possibility! I'm inspired by all of you!