Fingerstyle refers to any style of guitar involving the use of fingers and thumb, and is now associated with a wide variety of styles and genres of music. These include Classical music, Travis picking, Folk music to even pop and fingerstyle jazz.
The term “Fingerstyle Guitar” is now common for song arrangements involving chords, melodies, artificial harmonics and even percussive elements on a single guitar (usually acoustic).

However, there is a new wave of musicians rapidly gaining massive popularity on online platforms like YouTube. Yes, I’m talking about modern artists like Antoine Dufour, Andy McKee, Luca Stricagnoli and many more.
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I’m going to talk about some amazing artists that have mastered this art and are extremely adept at both the technical and creative side of their music.
I’ll include both contemporary and modern musicians in this list, but there’s no way I can include all of them (there are so many!).
There is a reason why Tommy Emmanuel is regarded as the fan-favorite Fingerstyle Legend. It’s not just about the complex technique and his mastery over the acoustic guitar (which is beyond comparison by the way), but he is one of the greatest performers in my opinion.
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I’ve seen just a handful of guitarists with as much energy and communication with the audience as the Australian guitarist. Besides his amazing fingerstyle and “boom-chick” technique, he is adept at adding percussive elements to his arrangements as well.
Well, a lot of you might not know that he is a great drummer too, which explains the percussion part. He has given a lot of credit of his playing style to Chet Atkins, which is the next name on this list.
Chet Atkins was one of the most technical and talented musicians of his time. Initially inspired by Merle Travis, his playing style has inspired a number of artists, including Tommy Emmanuel and Mark Knopfler among others.
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He took the Travis picking technique and developed it into a whole new subgenre of country music by the name of Nashville sound.
Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his unforgettable works and contribution to the American country music scene. He is also an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Musicians Hall of Fame.
Michael Hedges is the creator and pioneer behind the modern percussive acoustic guitar. His approach to playing the guitar using percussive effects, harmonics, tapping and fingerpicking led to rise of a new wave of percussive fingerstyle guitarists.
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Hedges has inspired artists like Andy McKee, Don Ross, Calum Graham, Mike Dawes, Preston Reed, Jon Gomm and many more. He also toured briefly with legendary guitarist Leo Kottke.
Apart from the acoustic guitar, he also played the Harp guitar, TransTrem guitar, piano, harmonica and flute. Not only that, he was a great vocalist as well.
Michael Hedges died young in an unfortunate car accident. Some of Hedges’ popular songs include Aerial Boundaries, Bensusan (tribute to Pierre Bensusan) and Ragamuffin.
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Mark Knopfler is best known as the lead guitarist and singer-songwriter of rock band Dire Straits. But he now plays as an independent solo artist.
Unlike many other players here, Mark Knopfler tends to mostly play with his thumb, index and middle finger. Of course, that’s enough to make him one of the most talented and melodic fingerstyle players.
Knopfler is extremely adept at both acoustic and electric guitar, and manages to keep his tone extremely clear even in his distortion solos. Here is one of his most popular and beautiful electric guitar solos of all time. It’s a live performance of the Dire Strait song Sultans of Swings.
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Leo Kottke is a legendary American guitarist known for his jazz, blues and folk fingerstyle playing. He often uses open tunings, and sometimes likes to tune his guitars a couple steps lower than the standard tuning.
Influenced by folk and delta blues music, he picked up the trombone and violin first before trying out the guitar, and the rest is history.

Kottke suffered partial loss of hearing due to a firecracker accident and developed tendinitis (tendon damage) due to his aggressive picking style. The right hand injury made him change his picking style to a more classical and jazz oriented one, involving more flesh and less nail and fingerpicks.
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He is one of the “Great ones” after all, and his live performances and recordings show no signs of any injury whatsoever.
With your picking hand to play bass notes. At the same time, you play chords and melodies with your fingers, creating the classic syncopated style that’s now widely-prevalent in folk, blues, ragtime, and country music.
He became one of the most influential American guitarists of his time, inspiring players like Chet Atkins, with whom he developed a close friendship.
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A singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer and a well-loved actor – Jerry Reed is one of the greatest country music artists of all time. Apart from country, he has a notable contribution in even bluegrass and jazz music.
Reed has a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance to his name, and was also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum.
Some of Reed’s most popular songs include “Guitar Man, ” “East Bound and Down, ” “Georgia On My Mind” and “City Of New Orleans”.
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12 Grammys, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, an Oscar nomination, as well as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee – Paul Simon is an American singer, guitarist and actor, perhaps most known for his success with Art Garfunkel in the duo Simon and Garfunkel.
Simon wrote some of their most iconic songs like “The Sound of Silence”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and “Mrs. Robinson”. The duo split up later and has been performing as a solo artist since then.

A lot of people know for his songwriting and musician skills, but he is often underrated when it comes to his fingerpicking skills. His songs like “The Sound of Silence” and “The Boxer” among others are some of the most beautiful fingerpicking guitar songs ever written.
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The French-Canadian artist is a rising sensation among modern percussive guitarists on YouTube. His arrangements are technical, emotional, captivating and extremely well produced.
Antoine was inspired by guys like Michael Hedges, Don Ross and Leo Kottke during the start of his fingerstyle journey. His uses a lot of alternate tunings and percussive elements in his music, along with slap harmonics, tapping and natural harmonics
Mike Dawes is probably one of the best fingerstyle guitarists when it comes to adding heavy syncopated percussive elements along with complex melodies and harmonies.
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DADGAD is his favorite tuning (at least the most used one), but it’s his rhythm and percussive style that steals the show, every time. Imitating his percussion is so hard!
Honestly, most of Mike’s arrangements are pinnacles of percussive acoustic guitar – ‘Somebody That I Used to Know, ’ Boogie Slam, ’ and the aptly-named ‘The Impossible.’ But my favorite is this song called “Overload” which is one of the most percussion heavy acoustic guitar songs you’ll ever hear.
Probably most well-known for his song ‘Drifting, ’ Andy McKee is a revolutionary fingerstyle guitarist and a whizz when it comes to alternate tunings and creative ways to play the acoustic guitar. A marvelous example is the use of a beautiful open tuning and a banjo capo in his song ‘Rylynn.’
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He began his journey learning electric-guitar inspired by guys like Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson. However, this got changed the moment he was introduced to acoustic guitarists like Michael Hedges, Don Ross, and Preston Reed, and we all know how well did that go.
In fact, the top two as well as six out of the top ten overall most-videos on Candyrat Records’ YouTube channel are Andy’s songs. Most of you are already pretty familiar with his music, but if you aren’t, it should be the first thing to do right now.

Luca Stricagnoli is a YouTube phenomenon, and if you like binge-watching acoustic covers of some of the most popular songs of all time, you know who to watch.
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What makes him so special is his signature triple-neck guitar (See below) that has two guitar necks and a acoustic bass neck. But that’s not the only thing that makes him special.
He’s known for his freestyle approach to acoustic guitar combining open tunings, left-hand tapping and even use of multiple guitars at the same time. Not too long ago, he started using various other instruments and self-developed unconventional guitars which is just icing on the cake.
It’s no surprise that his playing takes a lot of inspiration from those guys. Not only that, he is classically trained as well, which definitely can be seen in his picking and left-hand technique.
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His song “The Nomad” is actually the first percussive acoustic song that I learnt, and I can highly recommend it to you guys as well (for learning or just pleasing your ears).
Also from Canada, Don Ross particularly impresses us with his exceptional rhythmic knowledge and technical skills. Complex percussive patterns, artificial harmonics, polyrhythms – He is a master at everything.
Not sure how many of you know, but Don
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