Rick Beato has weighed in on the online controversy surrounding Giacomo Turra, revealing that the social media guitar star was slated to appear on his channel – but the video was pulled due to the quality of Turra’s playing.
Last month, Turra’s name was put under the spotlight when YouTuber Danny Sapko published a video that accused the Italian guitarist of plagiarizing other players’ songs, selling tabs to solos he did not compose, and failing to accurately credit smaller artists in his clips.
The accusations came on the back of a whirlwind few years for Turra, whose stock as a funk and R&B player – and his online popularity – had been skyrocketing as a result of his snappy Instagram reels and YouTube shorts that demonstrated his playing.
After Sapko’s video, Turra published an apology video to his YouTube channel, though the entire account has seemingly since been taken down. Turra’s official website has also seemingly been taken down, and his artist page on D’Angelico is no longer active. Andertons also deleted a video they had recorded with Turra, and Turra hasn’t posted online in over a month.
Now, in his own video, Beato has addressed the Turra scandal, revealing the pair had collaborated on a video that never saw the light of day because – in Beato’s own words – “he couldn’t play well enough to put the video out”.
“Giacomo Turra I had in my studio a few months ago. I had him on because in his Instagram videos, he presents himself as a great player. This is before I figured out from Danny Sapko that he had stolen other people's, some friends of mine, music,” Beato recalls.
“When Giacomo came in here, he was coming through town, and when he came in here and played, I realized that he couldn't play well enough to put the video out.”
Elaborating on the clip, Beato adds, “I didn't post the video because Giacomo couldn't play well enough to be on my channel. I have standards. Some of you may not like some of the people that I've had on here, but I respect the musicians that I've had on, even if it's not of your taste.
“And when somebody comes in here and they can't play their own songs, or they can't even play stuff that they've stolen from other people... although I think the thing that he played here was, maybe, his own tune.”
However, Beato is keen to stress that Turra’s abilities as a guitar player – and his style of content, which relies heavily on hyper produced “playalongs” – is less of an issue when compared to the accusations that have been leveled against Turra.
“Giacomo made an apology video that I wouldn't say really addressed the issues of stealing people's music,” Beato continues. “That was the really egregious thing here. The faking, okay, that's one thing, but the stealing other people's music is completely not cool.
“And the apology appeared on YouTube, which isn't really the platform that he's known for. It's really Instagram, and the apology video should have come on Instagram.”
Beato also notes that performative guitar playing – or “mimed” performances – is not a new phenomenon, and that Turra is by no means the online guitarist who utilizes that practice.
Indeed, it’s a hugely common practice that has historically been used by big-name artists (Beato references Wes Montgomery, for example), and continues to be overly present throughout the Instagram guitar scene.
“Do I like when people fake on Instagram? Of course not,” Beato reflects. “But there is a real social pressure, at least from these particular musicians that do it. They feel that pressure that they need to have everything perfect on it when to me having everything perfect actually sounds incredibly boring.”
As for where Turra can go next, Beato concludes, “Now, some people have asked me, you think he can ever come back from this Giacomo? Well, yeah, why not?
“If I were him, I'd [have] gone to Instagram say, 'Listen, [I] totally screwed up. I've learned my lesson. I won't do it again,' and come out with some great music and great playing. Everybody likes a great redemption story.”
Guitar World recently spoke to Jack Gardiner and Alex Hutchings – two players who’d had their music appropriated by Turra – about their experiences.
