User:AKasmy/Alief Gustakhiyat

Alif Gustakhiyat, born on August 31st 1988 in Ponorogo, East Java, Indonesia is an Indonesian guitarist famously known on social media as Alip_Ba_Ta for his unique fingerstyle technique. Alip gain popularity from his uploads on his Youtube channel Alip_Ba_Ta Fingerstyle. Million of viewers and subscribers praise his technique and unique fingerstyle, not only from amateurs even professional musicians such as Addie MS, Dewa Budjana, Brian May, to say a few. His uploads usually consists of guitar covers of popular songs, nevertheless he also composes his own songs and arrangements such as Munajatku, Bumiku Tak Lagi Ramah, Ironik, and Klise.

Background
Alif first time learned the guitar by himself as a hobby with no formal education and training as a profesional guitarist. His first performance was in a Qasidah band in 2010 where he played Islamic religious music.

In the beginning, Alif Gustakhiyat wasn't really active online on social media. His daily routine and work as a truck driver took most of his time being on the road. His first mobile phone wasn't even a smart phone, it was a simple qwerty mobile phone that he used to keep in contact with his employer. With time, he switched jobs to work as a forklift operator in a company located at East Jakarta. In 2018 with enough savings, he purchased his first android smart phone and with it he recorded his first guitar play video "just for fun" and a way to "kill time" after work in his room of his rented house. His friends urged him to try to upload his video recordings online and thus became his first time to interact online.

His first video uploaded was his "just for fun" fingerstyle play of Super Mario Bros theme on his Facebook account that he created in 2018. The overwhelming positive respond from that video went viral and surprised even him as he was not expecting that great of a response. Out of curiosity he then opened a Youtube account in the same year to upload new songs using more unique techniques and combinations such as a wide range of harmonics, fret tapping, guitar body tapping, unique tuning, etc. His first upload on Youtube was "Sepanjang Jalan Kenangan" an Indonesian 1960's song made famous by singer Tetty Kadi. From then, his Youtube channel continued to grow now exceeding more than 4 million subscribers. Even with his popularity, he stills maintain a humble way of life and still works as a forklift operator.

Recognition
Alif received recognition from both local Indonesian musicians and international musicians. In an interview, Baim Wong and Dewa Budjana admits that Alif mastered various techniques in playing guitar. Budjana realized that Alif techniques were unique and advanced with the combination of harmonic notes and fingerstyle play but he strongly urges Alif to compose his own songs and not to just cover other songs so he could continue to grow as a musician that could perform in front of an audience live on day.

A similar notion was tweeted by senior musician Addie MS on his Twitter account. He said that he was late to recognize this phenomenal Indonesian musician doo to his (Addie MS) background as a symphony musician, but he still expresses his admiration for Alif's music.

Queen's guitarist Brian May on his Facebook account uploaded Alif covering one of Queen's legendary song Bohemian Rhapsody in appreciation for Alif's play style. In the caption he noted that he was surprised that Alif was just a forklift operator a job that doesn't explain how good he was on playing the guitar. Queen's Facebook account was known been have to upload Alif's cover of Love of My Life.

Russian fingerstyle guitarist Igor Presnyakov aka Uncle Igor expressed his admiration for Alif's fingerstyle play. Avenged Sevenfold guitarist, Synyster Gates also uploaded Alif's play on his Instagram. Dragon Force guitarist, Herman Li made a reaction video of Alip_Ba-Ta on Dragon Force official Youtube channel.

Refference
Category:Indonesian musicians