Fingerstyle Guitarists Offer A Unique Style And Unforgettable Performances

Fingerstyle guitarists are separated by their technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings with the fingertips as opposed to using a pick. According to acousticfingerstyle.com, it is commonly played on steel string acoustic guitars with 6 or 12 strings and includes chords, arpeggios and other elements such as artificial harmonics, hammering on and pulling off with the fretting hand, using the body of the guitar percussively, and many other techniques. Here are a few fingerstyle guitarists I’ve recently discovered.

Andy McKee
Andy McKee is regarded as one of the most up and coming fingerstyle guitarists. Andy hails from Topeka, Kansas and according to the bio on his website, Andy hopes that “listening to my music is an emotional experience”. Well, it’s certainly beautiful. His unorthodox fingerstyle reminds me of early Monte Montgomery (when he was a one-man show), about whom I posed the question Is Monte Montgomery The Best Guitar Player Ever? Anyway, see Andy’s skills for yourself.

Official Website: andymckee.com

Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel is another fingerstyle guitarist from Austrailia. Although he’s had a long and successful career there, he’s relatively unknown in the United States. He exhibits alot of classical style with a hint of bluegrass at times, especially when he turns on the showmanship. This virtuoso’s main influence is Chet Atkins, as you can tell in this video, with whom he recorded in 1996 on the CD, “The Day the Finger Pickers Took Over the World”, which was nominated for a Grammy award. You can see Tommy in Ft. Worth on June 19, 2007 at Bass Performance Hall and September 13-15, 2007 at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.

Video: Since We Met

Official site: tommyemmanuel.com

Andres Segovia
Andres Segovia is regarded by many as the “father of the modern classical guitar movement” according to classicalguitar.net. Whether or not that’s the case, I have always been amazed by the skill and accuracy of classical guitarists. I don’t think Segovia was regarded as a flamenco guitar player, but I’ve always thought of him as that (you guitar purists feel free to correct me). I just find it even more amazing how flamenco guitarists play while simultaneously incorporating finger tapping. Anyway, Segovia discovered early on that piano exercises were beneficial in strengthening the fingers for the guitar. You can see Senior Segovia in action.

Helpful site: Andres Segovia: Wikipedia

Paco de Lucia
Paco de Lucia is considered by most to be a major figure in the New Flamenco Movement with his avant-garde assimilation of other musical styles such as jazz and blues. In a word…well, two…he’s awesome!

Official site: pacodelucia.org

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