And there are tons of new guys working hard at the craft! Andy McKee has taken the tapping – percussive approach and evolved it. I find this evolution fascinating…of course there are many many more players who have pushed the guitar into new territories, too numerous to list here. He has inspired me and thousands of young guitar players. Chops and energy meet invention, harmonics and beauty. Every time he plays, it’s beyond a slam dunk. Today, Tommy Emmanuel has brought the “ultimate Michael Jordan” experience to the guitar. Not to mention, Chet played on countless old rock & roll albums. Chet Atkins put songs on the guitar with his signature “boom chick” sound and practically defined fingerstyle guitar as we know it. In the 60’s Wes Montgomery came along and put mainstream jazz onto a guitar with a level of touch, taste and groove that he influenced a whole generation of guitarists and still does. In the 80’s classical guitar became accepted in the major music conservatories. Yet, Andres Segovia stepped up to the plate when everyone thought guitar wasn’t a real instrument and said “here’s some Bach…now deal with this!”

In case you didn’t know this – back in the 1950’s classical guitar wasn’t an option in conservatories, in fact guitar was not even considered a “real” instrument.

We’re all going through this very cool time together – and it is time for you to get involved… This is a really exciting time in the fingerstyle guitar scene, and I feel blessed to be playing guitar at this time in history. (At the end of this post, I’d very much like YOU to tell me and the readers where you think fingerstyle guitar could possibly be heading next….)

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