Previously on January 18, a video titled “SM Guitar Trainer Tells Idol Stories | Guitarist Lee Seung-yeop Interview Part 1” was published on YouTube.
The video, which featured a guitarist that instructed various K-pop idols, shed light on previous accusations that aespa’s Winter faked her guitar playing at a concert.
In particular, the guitar instructor recalled, “Recently, I think it was last year (2023 – considering the video was filmed in 2024), when aespa’s Winter was preparing for a concert, there was a stage where she performed a guitar piece.”
According to him, Winter was practicing so diligently for this segment that her hands actually ended up bleeding, so he was frustrated to hear people accusing the female idol of only pretending to play.
“What seriously upset me was that most of the public only sees the artist standing on stage-they don’t see the practice and the struggles that go into it”, the guitar instructor lamented, adding, “However, these days, with the development of technology, people would zoom in on performances on YouTube, analyzing hands, pointing out mistakes, claiming that something’s fake, or calling it hand-sync.”
He continued by defending Winter against the accusations, stating, “When I saw such reactions, I felt very hurt. As her teacher, of course, performing the guitar piece accurately is important. But when you think about it, preparing for that concert wasn’t just about the guitar performance. She also had to prepare for the dancing, the singing, and everything else. Even professional guitarists would find it challenging to pull off a live performance under those circumstances. However, people only saw fragments of her efforts and made exaggerated criticisms. Watching that was really disheartening for me.”
Finally, the instructor expressed his regrets, saying, “This made me regret not spotting those reactions sooner and addressing them more effectively. That’s something I’ve reflected on recently.”
