Kaki King, the first female on Rolling Stone's "guitar god" list, rocks out to a full live set at TED2008, including her breakout single, "Playing with Pink Noise." Jaw-dropping virtuosity meets a guitar technique that truly stands out.

Guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela combine furiously fast riffs and dazzling rhythms to create a style that draws on both flamenco guitar and heavy metal in this live performance of their song, "The Soundmaker."

By day, Johnny Staats is a UPS package car driver. The rest of the time, he is a world-class bluegrass mandolin, guitar, and violin player. In this performance Staats, accompanied by Dave Vaugn on guitar, sings of the hardships faced by generations of coal miners working in West Virginia.

Usman Riaz is a 21-year-old whiz at the percussive guitar, a style he learned to play by watching his heroes on YouTube. The TED Fellow plays onstage at TEDGlobal 2012 -- followed by a jawdropping solo from the master of percussive guitar, Preston Reed. And watch these two guitarists take on a very spur-of-the-moment improv.

After Vusi Mahlasela's 3-song set at TEDGlobal, the audience wouldn't let him go. His encore, "Woza," showcases his brilliant guitar playing and multilingual lyrics.

Rodrigo y Gabriela fuse metal, jazz and world music into an exhilarating cocktail of complex arrangements and virtuoso musicianship.

A genre unto herself, Kaki King fuses the ancient tradition of working with one's hands with digital technology, projection-mapping imagery onto her guitar in her groundbreaking multimedia work "The Neck Is a Bridge to the Body." Using her guitar's neck like a keyboard, she plays an intricate melody as she takes the audience on a musical journey...

Musical artist and songwriter Rufus Wainwright performs two enchanting original songs: a gorgeous love song written for his husband and performed on acoustic guitar and a haunting performance on piano.

Nora York gives a stunning performance of her song "What I Want," with Jamie Lawrence (keyboards), Steve Tarshis (guitar) and Arthur Kell (bass).

With her voice and a guitar, singer-songwriter Bedouine creates subtle, sumptuous melodies on the songs "Nice and Quiet" and "One Of These Days."

Folk singer-songwriter Bob Schneider plucks his acoustic guitar as he softly sings three original songs with lyrics that honestly capture optimism in the face of uncertainty.

As a young girl, photojournalist and TED Fellow Kitra Cahana dreamed about running away from home to live freely on the road. Now as an adult and self-proclaimed vagabond, she follows modern nomads into their homes -- boxcars, bus stops, parking lots, rest stop bathrooms -- giving a glimpse into a culture on the margins.

Whether they’re sung in in English or his native Faroese, Teitur laces his deceptively innocent songs with often stinging hooks.

Preston Reed’s hands have an otherworldly coordination. The fingers, nails, thumbs, and palms of both left and right dance, pluck, strum, and slap his guitar, which bursts with a full sound.

Kaki King combines jaw-dropping guitar work with dreamy, searching songwriting.

Iqbal Quadir tells how his experiences as a kid in poor Bangladesh, and later as a banker in New York, led him to start a mobile phone operator connecting 80 million rural Bangladeshi -- and to become a champion of bottom-up development.

College can feel like a lonely place, especially if you're a student of color, a low-income individual, a first-generation youth -- or all three. Educator Chitra Aiyar outlines how she encourages her students to cultivate spaces for other marginalized students to connect and help each other grow.

From his home in London, Jacob Collier showcases his virtuosic vocal, piano and guitar skills in an enrapturing five-song set. Stick around to hear him premiere a new original track, "The Sun Is in Your Eyes," and sing a gorgeous rendition of "Danny Boy."

Singer, songwriter and actress Sara Ramirez is a woman of many talents. Joined by Michael Pemberton on guitar, Ramirez sings of opportunity, wisdom and the highs and lows of life in this live performance of her song, "Rollercoaster."

Sō Percussion creates adventurous compositions with new, unconventional instruments. Performing "Music for Wood and Strings" by Bryce Dessner of The National, the quartet plays custom-made dulcimer-like instruments that combine the sound of an electric guitar with the percussionist's toolkit to create a hypnotic effect.

"Music is everywhere, and it is in everything," says musician, student and TED-Ed Clubs star Anika Paulson. Guitar in hand, she plays through the beats of her life in an exploration of how music connects us and makes us what we are.

In this exclusive preview of unreleased technology, former Apple designer and Humane cofounder Imran Chaudhri envisions a future where AI enables our devices to "disappear." He gives a sneak peek of his company's new product -- shown for the first time ever on the TED stage -- and explains how it could change the way we interact with tech and th...

World champion whistler Geert Chatrou performs the whimsical "Eleonora" by A. Honhoff, and his own "Fête de la Belle." In a fascinating interlude, he talks about what brought him to the craft.

In 2011 Ronnie Cahana suffered a severe stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome: completely paralyzed except for his eyes. While this might shatter a normal person’s mental state, Cahana found peace in “dimming down the external chatter,” and “fell in love with life and body anew.” In a somber, emotional talk, his daughter Kitra shares how ...

Restaurateur Will Guidara's life changed when he decided to serve a two-dollar hot dog in his fancy four-star restaurant, creating a personalized experience for some out-of-town customers craving authentic New York City street food. The move earned such a positive reaction that Guidara began pursuing this kind of "unreasonable hospitality" full-...

"Bask in the majesty of the kinks on the crown of my head," begins poet and activist Apiorkor Seyiram Ashong-Abbey. Rich with lyricism, rhythm and strength, she delivers a powerful hymn to self, womanhood and fearlessness. Accompanied on guitar by Emmanuel Nii Quaye Aryee.

Games are invading the real world -- and the runaway popularity of Farmville and Guitar Hero is just the beginning, says Jesse Schell. At the DICE Summit, he makes a startling prediction: a future where 1-ups and experience points break "out of the box" and into every part of our daily lives.

Rowan and his band, Heart of Mind, have developed a unique brand of "colour rock," crafted from a wide range of rock influences. Rowan jams with tasty guitar licks and solos, and is also trained in smooth jazz. He often busts out his saxophone in times of need and on the TED@Westpac stage delivers a sweet performance.

TED Senior Fellow Usman Riaz is an artist and composer.

If you were in the marching band, jazz ensemble or choir, music is a part of you — whether you still play or not. Let these talks tap into that.