The fact she does it all while singing – and that her songwriting is so effective – is frankly unfair.
FINGERSTYLE GUITAR PLAYERS FULL
She delivers her melodies with dynamics and great rhythmic feel, and even playing blazing single-note lines she creates a full sound all by herself. Molly’s pick dances over the strings like a gazelle. Where most of us would strike an unwanted open string, Fortunately, there’s no shortage of footage of her doing this – although even when you see how it’s done, replicating it is another matter. Molly’s gift is making subtle rotations of her forearm to change the trajectory of her pick. Yes, she’s phenomenal, but she always retains that campfire feeling that you’re being welcomed to join in. But where high-gain shred can scream look at me in an off-putting way, Molly’s Americana and bluegrass stylings always sound inviting and musical. If she’d chosen a different direction she could’ve been a Steve Morse or an Yngwie Malmsteen. Dizzying lines that would have anyone else stumbling for pace or catching unwanted strings escape Molly’s fingers easily and with great tone. She’s mastered clawhammer technique, but it’s her flatpicking that leaves us most breathless. Molly Tuttle’s picking hand is terrifying. Greats like John Renbourn and Clive Carroll have done the same. TG TIP: Kaki has used acrylic overlays on her fingernails for greater picking clarity. While the visual component informs my creativity, I still have a very traditional view of composition.”
Yet, speaking to Guitar Player, King says she still sees herself as a traditionalist: “I’m actually not reinventing the wheel in terms of my guitar playing right now. When armed only with her signature Ovation 1581‑KK acoustic and her imagination, she epitomises the contemporary acoustic player, using a cornucopia of alternate tunings, percussive rhythms and a keen ear for dynamics. She is also an entrepreneur/inventor, creating the Passerelle, a metallic, moveable second bridge that can be used to wholly rethink what’s possible from the guitar. King’s groundbreaking theatre production The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body took her technically gifted playing style to the stage, using visual arts to elevate the acoustic’s possibilities. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her soundtrack to Sean Penn’s Into The Wild. 1.To think of Kaki King as just an acoustic guitar player is to sell her art short. Check out for the following 5 fingerstyle guitarists for some inspiration and to repair your faith in humanity. However, many fingerstyle guitarists never get the recognition they deserve. Though some fingerstyle guitarists have large YouTube followings, their presence doesn’t reach much further than that.įingerstyle guitarists reach YouTube fame for different reasons: Sungha Jung for being a child virtuoso who’s been in the spotlight since he can remember Luca Stricagnoli for his amazing percussive techniques and the ability to play recognizable hits on three guitars simultaneously Ewan Dobson for making his guitar sound like a techno dance song Andy McKee for (largely) bringing percussive guitar playing to the masses in his song Drifting Igor Presnyakov for playing all the hits you want to hear on the acoustic guitar via his fingertips. They are making this type of music more accessible and increasingly popular – the way it should be.
Instrumental fingerstyle guitar has crawled its way into the mainstream more and moreover the last few years, but it’s still swamped by almost every other genre.įortunately, there are labels like CandyRat Records that are paving the way for incredibly talented fingerstyle guitarists. A list of the best fingerstyle guitarists is a tough one to make.