1 2 3 Fingerstyle Guitar

Some people believe that Eric Clapton introduced the acoustic guitar to pop and rock music with his 'Unplugged' album in 1992. Others think it was MTV who started their legendary concert series of the same name in 1989. The truth is the acoustic guitar, beyond baroque and classical music, has always been there. But in the 1960s the instrument gained an enormous boost in popularity as the instrument of choice favoured by folk legends such as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan to accompany their songs. The decade would see more and more pure instrumentalists placing the acoustic guitar completely at the centre of their music. When the makers of the WDR Rockpalast decided to give this a forum in 1979, they could rely on four great musicians from their own country Germany who had made fingerstyle guitar enormously popular.

The six string acoustic guitar is a very versatile and beautiful instrument. Up until recent years the fingerstyle repertoire has focused on folk, blues and ragtime compositions. Only in the last years has the wealth of Irish music with its beautiful melodies and driving dance rhytmes begun to be explored.