Vicki Genfan
Encyclopedia
Vicki Genfan is an American multi-instrumentalist
, fingerstyle guitar
ist, composer
and singer.
at the age of five. Her father played 12-string guitar, mandolin
and fiddle
and had a good voice, her older brother played guitar too. She studied classical music
and jazz
at Ithaca College
in New York
. Besides guitar Genfan plays piano
, banjo
, hand percussion and trombone
.
1994 she produced her first album Native on cassette, but didn't sell it in commercially significant numbers. 2001 her equally self - produced CD Outside the Box was published. She won the Just Plain Folks Award
the same year for her the title song, "New Grass" on that album. 2003, Vicki Genfan Live was published by the German label Acoustic Music Records, a live-recording at Open Strings Festival in Osnabrück
, Germany
. 2004 Vicki Genfan placed second at Mountain Stage New Song Festival in West Virginia
with her song Eleanor.
In 2006 Genfan published the double CD Up Close & Personal. The first CD is titled Up Close and contains only instrumentals, the second CD Personal showcases her singing and songwriting abilities.
Vicki Genfan was on stage with several well-known fellow guitarists, for example Tommy Emmanuel
, Laurence Juber
, Kaki King
and Jennifer Batten
. Because of her technique and lyrical way of playing and singing she was compared to Michael Hedges
or Pat Metheny
. Vicki Genfan featured in several American and international magazines and was labeled "Queen of Open Tunings".
Genfan won Guitar Player
magazine's Guitar Superstar
'08 contest at San Francisco
's Great American Music Hall
in September 2008.
While not on tour abroad she gives concerts in the northeastern United States. She is an experienced teacher, lectures at workshops and guitar clinics and teaches private lessons. Recently she works on a guitar video featuring her music and technique and plans to publish a book with her music.
Vicki Genfan lives in Fairview
, New Jersey
.
and world music
in a contemporary folk
context. She uses various uncommon open tunings, complex harmonies and intricate rhythms, combining them with percussive grooves. Her playing is characterised by "two handed tapping
s", explosive "tapped" and "slapped
harmonic
s" with one or more fingers of the right hand and slapped bassline
s. She calls her technique "slap-tap".
Her first musical inspiration was her father. Other influences were James Taylor
, Michael Jackson
, Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell
, Meshell Ndegeocello, Marvin Gaye
, Jonatha Brooke
and Leo Kottke
.
Until May 2009 Genfan played a Gibson
L-140, a Gibson LG and an Alvarez
Silver Anniversary. The Alvarez- Guitar uses a TrueTone-pickup
-system, where two microphones and a L.R. Baggs LB6-pickup send their signal to two separate outlets.
Currently Genfan is playing a custom Luna Guitar (http://www.lunaguitars.com/vickiusaluna.php) built by master luthier Gray Burchette (www.burchetteguitars.com). It has a mini flex '2 Mic' internal microphone system (www.miniflexmic.com) and an RMC hex pickup under the saddle.
She owns a Guild
12 string Guitar, a Muse 12 string by Luna Guitars and plays a Vega 6 string Deering-Banjo
. She uses medium-gauge XP D'Addario
strings.
Her engineer Tay Hoyle takes a main part in producing Genfan's CDs and accompanies her on numerous tours.
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
, fingerstyle guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and singer.
Biography
Vicki Genfan took up the guitarGuitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
at the age of five. Her father played 12-string guitar, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
and fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and had a good voice, her older brother played guitar too. She studied classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
at Ithaca College
Ithaca College
Ithaca College is a private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York. The school was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music. The college has a strong liberal arts core, but also offers several pre-professional programs and some graduate programs. The college is...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Besides guitar Genfan plays piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, hand percussion and trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
.
1994 she produced her first album Native on cassette, but didn't sell it in commercially significant numbers. 2001 her equally self - produced CD Outside the Box was published. She won the Just Plain Folks Award
Just Plain Folks Music Organization
Just Plain Folks Music Organization is a website and community founded by Brian Austin Whitney with the intent of helping anyone involved in the music industry to network, share their experiences, build relationships, and grow...
the same year for her the title song, "New Grass" on that album. 2003, Vicki Genfan Live was published by the German label Acoustic Music Records, a live-recording at Open Strings Festival in Osnabrück
Osnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. 2004 Vicki Genfan placed second at Mountain Stage New Song Festival in West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
with her song Eleanor.
In 2006 Genfan published the double CD Up Close & Personal. The first CD is titled Up Close and contains only instrumentals, the second CD Personal showcases her singing and songwriting abilities.
Vicki Genfan was on stage with several well-known fellow guitarists, for example Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel
William Thomas "Tommy" Emmanuel AM is an Australian guitarist, best known for his complex fingerpicking style, energetic performances and the use of percussive effects on the guitar. In the May 2008 and 2010 issues of Guitar Player Magazine, he was named as "Best Acoustic Guitarist" in their...
, Laurence Juber
Laurence Juber
Laurence Juber is an English-born guitarist who currently lives in California. Born 12 November 1952 in Stepney, East London, he was raised and went to school in North London...
, Kaki King
Kaki King
Kaki King is an American guitarist and composer. King is known for her percussive and jazz-tinged melodies, energetic live shows, use of multiple tunings on acoustic and lap steel guitar, and her diverse range in different genres.In February 2006, Rolling Stone released a list of "The New Guitar...
and Jennifer Batten
Jennifer Batten
Jennifer Batten is an American guitarist, who has worked as both a session musician and solo artist. She has released three studio albums: her 1992 debut, Above Below and Beyond, was produced by former Stevie Wonder guitarist Michael Sembello. In 1997, she released the worldbeat-influenced Jennifer...
. Because of her technique and lyrical way of playing and singing she was compared to Michael Hedges
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.-Background:...
or Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
. Vicki Genfan featured in several American and international magazines and was labeled "Queen of Open Tunings".
Genfan won Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
magazine's Guitar Superstar
Guitar Superstar
Guitar Superstar is a yearly competition hosted by the Guitar Player magazine in which 10 finalists compete for the title of Guitar Superstar or Guitar Hero for the year...
'08 contest at San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
's Great American Music Hall
Great American Music Hall
The Great American Music Hall is a concert hall in San Francisco, California. It is located on O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood on the same block as the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater...
in September 2008.
While not on tour abroad she gives concerts in the northeastern United States. She is an experienced teacher, lectures at workshops and guitar clinics and teaches private lessons. Recently she works on a guitar video featuring her music and technique and plans to publish a book with her music.
Vicki Genfan lives in Fairview
Fairview, Bergen County, New Jersey
Fairview is a borough located in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough had a total population of 13,835....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
Technique, instruments and musical influences
Vicki Genfan labels her music "Folk meets Funk". It's a blend of jazz, funk, popPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
in a contemporary folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
context. She uses various uncommon open tunings, complex harmonies and intricate rhythms, combining them with percussive grooves. Her playing is characterised by "two handed tapping
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...
s", explosive "tapped" and "slapped
Slapping
In music, the term slapping is often used to refer to two different playing techniques used on the double bass and on the bass guitar.-Double bass:...
harmonic
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
s" with one or more fingers of the right hand and slapped bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
s. She calls her technique "slap-tap".
Her first musical inspiration was her father. Other influences were James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Meshell Ndegeocello, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke
Jonatha Brooke is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Illinois.Her music merges elements of folk, rock and pop, often with poignant lyrics and complex harmonies...
and Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
.
Until May 2009 Genfan played a Gibson
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
L-140, a Gibson LG and an Alvarez
Alvarez Guitars
Alvarez is a guitar manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri and founded in 1965. Along with manufacturing acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars, Alvarez also manufactures classical guitars. Alvarez replaced Westone in 1991. Today, the brand is owned by LOUD Technologies, which also owns Mackie,...
Silver Anniversary. The Alvarez- Guitar uses a TrueTone-pickup
Pickup (music technology)
A pickup device is a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations, usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar, Chapman Stick, or electric violin, and converts them to an electrical signal that is amplified, recorded, or broadcast.-...
-system, where two microphones and a L.R. Baggs LB6-pickup send their signal to two separate outlets.
Currently Genfan is playing a custom Luna Guitar (http://www.lunaguitars.com/vickiusaluna.php) built by master luthier Gray Burchette (www.burchetteguitars.com). It has a mini flex '2 Mic' internal microphone system (www.miniflexmic.com) and an RMC hex pickup under the saddle.
She owns a Guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
12 string Guitar, a Muse 12 string by Luna Guitars and plays a Vega 6 string Deering-Banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
. She uses medium-gauge XP D'Addario
D'Addario
D'Addario is a manufacturer of musical instrument strings, primarily guitar strings, currently headquartered in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York...
strings.
Her engineer Tay Hoyle takes a main part in producing Genfan's CDs and accompanies her on numerous tours.
Original work
- 1994 – Native (Vicki Genfan)
- 2000 – Outside The Box (Vicki Genfan)
- 2003 – Vicki Genfan LiveVicki Genfan LiveVicky Genfan live is Vicki Genfan's second available release. The album was recorded during the Open Strings Festival on September 21, 2002, in Osnabrück, Germany...
(Acoustic Music Records) - 2006 – Up Close & PersonalUp Close & Personal (Vicki Genfan album)Up Close & Personal is Vicki Genfan's third available release. The double CD features the first disk of original instrumentals, titled Up Close, and a second, vocal-based disk, called Personal. Each disc contains a QuickTime video, showing clips of recording sessions and snapshots of Genfan as well...
(Harmonic Touch Records)
Collaborations, guest musician
- 1991 – Mistaken Identity (Donna Summer, Atlantic Records)
- 2000 – Home Away From Home (Dee Carstensen, Exit NineRecords)
- 2000 – Fourth Floor (Sonya Heller)
Compilations
- 2005 – La Guitara: Gender Bending Strings (Vanguard Records)
- 2006 – Indie Music For Life Compilation (Indie Music For Life)
- 2007 – Indie Music For Life Pop/Jazz Compilation (Indie Music For Life)