Meet Laura Lace, a very talented guitarist from Riga, Latvia. Since 2008, Laura has been uploading videos of her amazing performances onto her YouTube channel. She is so skilled that she has built up 205,000 subscribers as well as 165,000 views on TikTok.
Her electric guitar cover of J. S. Bach’s Toccata in D Minor has sent shivers down the spines of millions of guitarists across the world. Her note-taking accuracy and technique are second to none.
Unfortunately for us, very little is known about Laura, as her social media feeds focus exclusively on her music and, to a lesser extent, on Latvian culture. That’s not to say it’s a chore to listen to her, as her playing is exquisite, but it would be nice to know a little more about her.
Whoever she is offline or online, she is taking the internet by storm. In 2016, she uploaded a video where she performed a cover of Jerry C’s Canon Rock. Jerry C. is a Taiwanese guitarist and composer. He likes to arrange rock versions of classical music, and his top-rated YouTube channel has 1.52 million subscribers.
One of his most popular videos is a rocked-up version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D. As this music is often used as a wedding march, it is quite an experience to listen to his take on it. However, there may well be many people looking for a less traditional wedding who would love to walk down the aisle to it.
As popular as Jerry C’s version is, though, Laura has managed to go one better. His Canon Rock has received a very respectable 2 million views on his channel. Laura has blown this out of the water, as her video has been viewed 127.7 million times! That is a staggering amount of views and is probably more than the total views for entire channels.
The video was recorded at a concert that a Latvian music teacher named Victor Evdokimov organises every year for his students. As Laura is playing in the concert, we can assume that he is the man who fostered her exceptional talent. When the video begins, Laura is onstage with two other guitarists and another student on the drums.
The song begins normally enough with the classic notes of the Canon. Soon, they kick it up a notch, and that’s when the magic happens. It’s amazing to hear such a familiar tune blasting from an electric guitar. Yet, strangely, it soon seems completely natural, like that is how the tune should sound.
One really impressive part of the song is how fast it is. It seems impossible for anyone’s fingers to move fast enough to keep up, let alone play with such precision. It’s no surprise that the video has received 886,000 likes from fans. As one guitar lover put it, “God, Lord, that’s an amazing performance!!! I like how it shifted into the minor keys or modes and all the tempo shifts were so tight with the rest of the band… Awesome stuff!”