Meet Big & Lil Sis | Fingerstyle Guitarists
We had the good fortune of connecting with Big & Lil Sis and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Big & Lil, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
We are two sisters that are born and raised in Denton, TX. Our mom and dad both love all styles of music and our dad plays guitar. In our home, we were always exposed to a lot of different styles of music (metal, jazz, prog, classic rock, blues. grunge). We both started playing classical guitar at around 6 years old. We take lessons from a local guitar program called Childbloom. Our teacher Libby Quigg taught us classical techniques and how to read music. She was very patient with us and we’re thankful to have her as our teacher. We performed at a couple of recitals each year playing a few songs from the program curriculum. We feel these recitals were very helpful in preparing us to play live at venues in the future.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We don’t see too many other folks doing nylon instrumental covers. We were inspired to play classical fingerstyle guitar covers by the flamenco guitarist Ben Woods. Our dad helped us work out our first duet fingerstyle cover arrangement, Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, during the summer of 2019 (Big Sis was 10 and Lil Sis was 8). We didn’t really do any more duets until the Covid pandemic started. We were home together A LOT and guitar class became virtual! Suddenly, we had a lot more time to play guitar together and we only had each other so we grew closer. We arranged more and more songs and eventually, when the pandemic eased up, we started busking on the Denton Square. We met so many nice people while busking. Eventually, we signed up to play one Saturday at Denton Community Market through our local Childbloom program that was hosting an event there. We ended up playing a couple of our personal arrangements and a musician named Bone Doggie asked if we were interested in playing a local open mic at Herfs Taphouse that he hosts weekly on Thursdays. We took a risk going to the open since we weren’t sure if folks would view as just a couple of kids. However, wehad a great experience at the open mic and we’ve been going back there and various other open mics around Denton ever since for almost a couple of years now. Our parents have been very supporting of our music and they taxi us around and also make great roadies LoL! Denton has a great music community and we we’re lucky to live there.
We’ve had a lot of challenges and we’ve learned from them. We’ve learned to work together on stage and off stage better. Lil Sis had a string break at our first Killer’s Tacos performance 1o mins before going on. We were getting a pic in front of Diamond Darrell and Vinnie Paul’s picture that was on the wall and we noticed her broken string. We had just enough time to run to the local music shop and get “the last” set of normal tension pro arte strings and get it changed. We were a few minutes late getting on stage but we pulled it off. We credit that Dime & Vinnie art piece for saving our performance!! The lesson is to always carry spares! This can also help others if they forget something 🙂 Also, create an inventory list of items. There has been numerous times we went to go busk or an open mic and forgot a critical item (capo, cord, battery, pedal etc.) Last, but certainly least, trust and be respectul of your sound engineer!
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Denton has such an amazing variety of activities and culture! We often like to hang out on the Denton Square, where we busk, meet new people and check out local businesses. When we go to Downtown Denton, one of our first stops is Atomic Candy. We’ve been going to this candy store since we were very little, and we always like to get orange soda pops, ginger beer and plenty of candy. Next door to Atomic Candy, you’ll find Free Play Arcade, where you can spend your day playing retro arcade games! Some of our favorite games include the four-player Pac-man, Guitar Hero and the AC/DC Pinball Machine. Recycled Books Center. They have hundreds of used books to choose from, and a very relaxed atmosphere. Although we only named a few spots, there’s so much to do on the Denton Square alone!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We would like to give a Strung Up Shoutout to the following folks: * Ben Woods, rest in peace! We miss you and would like to thank you for inspiring us to play nylon string guitars and arrange our favorite songs. We wish we could have met you!
* Bone Doggie: Thank you for your support and mentorship! We appreciate everything you’ve done for us!
* Libby Quigg: We appreciate your patience and giving us a strong musical guitar foundation to build on.
* Our parents: We couldn’t do any of this without your support and understanding. Ya’ll are the coolest!
Instagram: @strungupsisters
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEz69Y7DUMVta37_o9pJDbQ?sub_confirmation=1
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