Watch Guitarist John Waldefeldt Progress from Ages Nine to Thirteen, Shred Yngwie to Pieces

Gear Gods posted this amazing video of John Waldefeldt, then just eleven-years-old…

…and once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I followed the link through to John’s YouTube page. And I know this gonna sound cheesier than the lyrics to any given Axel Rudi Pell song, but it’s inspirational. I mean that sincerely.

As I said, the above video was made when John was eleven. It was posted two years ago. John is thirteen now… and has been posting since he was just nine.

See where I’m going with this?

You can magically watch this little dude actually get better before your eyes. It’s really kind of beautiful to watch, and is a good reminder that “practice makes perfect” is one of those clichés that is a cliché for a reason.

Here’s John at age nine playing the intro to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” You’ll quickly see that while he’s very impressive for a nine-year-old, he’s not quite a guitar god just yet:

And below is a video of John now, playing Yngwie’s “Rising Force.” As you progress along his timeline of clips, you can see that his focused moved away from hard rock and metal at some point, and in the description for this video, John writes, “Finally some rock?! Started play electric guitar more seriuosly again.” I vote for him to stick with it.

Watch more of John’s videos here.