# Jason Becker: A Strong Spirit Transcends Every Other Physical Incompleteness

Jason Becker is a life warrior. Diagnosed with ALS -- Lou Gehrig's Disease -- a degenerative disease that causes a person to eventually lose control of his/her body, since around the age of 21 & has been crippled head to toe by it from then on. He can no longer move even though his condition has been stable since 1997. Yet he still writes & makes music till today.

i first came across the name "Jason Becker" in a comment of Rick Renstrom Youtube video. i'm always on the look out for any other great yet underrated guitar players and thought this name might well be a name that i haven't seen elsewhere. So i put "Jason Becker" on the Youtube search. It turned out that this simple search made my day; in fact a stunning day.

i have Rick Allen of Def Leppard as my very first respected hero musician for his resilliency to bounce back after the lost of 1 arm and keeps rocking against all odds, and even go far in life by empowering the rest of the living souls. Then i came across Rick Renstrom. And then from Rick Renstrom i saw Jason Becker, a great but very much underrated guitarist who used to play with SOUL.

Jason is still composing, and he said himself, that when he got diagnosed with ALS, his guitar skills got worse, but something in his music, something beyond words can say got better.

It stunned me that someone in a serious paralysed condition could keep fighting in life way far from any others who could freely move and talk like us. His spirit never die. He composes only by moving his head and by opening his mouth, and with the assistance of a special computer software which responds to a visor he wears in order to control the cursor on the screen.

How his mates help him to play out his songs ? Good friends of his like Marty Fredman, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani would baseon the song and in piano, or other stuff in the special computer program Jason uses to tell his father or his friends what key to play. Then save it in the computer memory. Then they put the speed that Jason wants the song to be in.

Jason Becker - ABC2008 Update




Jason Becker Documentary




Jason Becker - Altitudes (Tribute Video)




Jason Becker plays Black Star (Yngwie Malmsteen cover)




A strong spirit transcends every other physical incompleteness. ALS crippled Jason's body, but not his mind.


Biography : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Becker

Website
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Homepage : http://jasonbeckerguitar.com
Message Board : http://jasonbeckerguitar.com/board
Myspace : http://www.myspace.com/jasonelibecker

Influence : Yngwie Malsteen, Steve Vai
Guitar : the plain wood with the multi-colored frets ... used a Carvin, and is currently making a guitar with Paradise guitars to make a signature.

Jason-style Humor :
Hey you Wacky Cats! (when greeting the fans on message board)

Jason Becker signature guitar :
http://paradiseguitarsusa.com/jason_becker.html