“People say, ‘You’re playing the guitar on your lap, you learned from Guitar Hero.’ But it’s taken years to figure out how to write complex compositions”: Yasmin Williams brings lap-tapping and double-neck guitar to late-night TV with Colbert

Tapping maestro Yasmin Williams treated The Late Show with Stephen Colbert audience to a mesmerizing performance of Nectar – fresh from her new album, Acadia – on an Alpine White Gibson EDS-1275.

The track sees Williams lay the double-neck guitar on her lap and deliver a masterclass in tapping, crafting an ethereal and dreamy composition rich in texture and layers – and certainly not lacking in technical intricacy.

While her earlier outings and debut album, Unwind, placed her alongside percussive fingerstyle guitarists like Andy McKee and Kaki King, her sophomore record, Urban Driftwood, thrust her into the folk/bluegrass realm.

Fast-forward to Acadia, and Williams continues to showcase her versatility, producing the album and collaborating with 19 guest musicians – including King.

Speaking to Guitar World in 2021 about her journey to lap-tapping, Williams credited the acoustic guitar for developing the technique that is now inextricably linked to her playing style.

Yasmin Williams: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert – YouTube

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“I think pretty early on, maybe a year or a year and a half after starting. I took lessons for a few months, mainly just blues and rock stuff. Then my teacher showed me Blackbird by The Beatles. I just loved using my fingers and stopped using a pick after that,” she explained.

“My teacher was like, ‘What happened?! I can’t really teach you any more fingerstyle because I’m not that kind of player!’ So I quit that. I didn’t like lessons anyway – I didn’t like being told what to do. I was a stubborn kid, I guess.

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“After that, I played acoustic exclusively, which led to lap-tapping. I find writing songs a lot easier that way, because on acoustic I’m not trying to emulate anyone or anything. I wasn’t playing covers or in anyone else’s style – I was just playing what I wanted to play.”

As for her ever-expanding and ever-abstract pieces, as showcased in Acadia, Williams insists that, beyond stretching her range of technique, it ultimately all boils down to good composition.

“For me, composition is the thing that gets lost,” she told Bandcamp. “People will say, ‘Oh, you’re playing the guitar on your lap, you learned from Guitar Hero,’ whatever. But it’s taken a bunch of years to figure out how to write complex compositions confidently. And to be a confident player and to be more aware of the nuances of the compositions.

“To be okay with silence, for example, to not try to show off. Just trying to be in service of the music. I hope it’s apparent that I can do that now. Talking about techniques is great, but for me, they’re just a means to an end.”