Aguitarist (or aguitar player) is a person who plays theguitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar familyinstruments such asclassical guitars,acoustic guitars,electric guitars, andbass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar bysinging or playing theharmonica, or both.
The guitarist may employ any of several methods for sounding the guitar, includingfinger-picking, depending on the type of strings used (eithernylon orsteel), and includingstrumming with the fingers, or aguitar pick made of bone, horn, plastic, metal, felt, leather, or paper, and melodicflatpicking and finger-picking.
The guitarist may also employ various methods for selectingnotes andchords, including fingering, thumbing, the barre (a finger lying across many or all strings at a particular fret), andguitar slides, usually made of glass or metal. These left- and right-hand techniques may be intermixed in performance.
Severalmagazines andwebsites have compiled what they intend as lists of the greatest guitarists—for exampleThe 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time byRolling Stone magazine, or100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time byGuitar World magazine.
The first in this list is the American guitaristJimi Hendrix, introduced byPete Townshend, guitarist forthe Who, who was, in his turn, ranked at #10 in the list.
In describing the list to readers, Paul MacInnes from British newspaperThe Guardian wrote, "Surprisingly enough for an American magazine, the top 10 is fair jam-packed with Yanks", though he also noted three exceptions in the top 10.[1] The online magazineBlogcritics criticized the list for introducing some allegedly undeserving guitarists while forgetting some artists the writer considered perhaps more worthy, such asJohnny Marr,Al Di Meola,Phil Keaggy orJohn Petrucci.[2]
In 2011,Rolling Stone updated the list, which this time was chosen by a panel of guitarists and other experts with the top 100 consisting ofEric Clapton,Eddie Van Halen,Keith Richards andTony Iommi.[3] Artists who had not been included in the previous list were added.Rory Gallagher, for example, was ranked in 57th place.[4]
The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time is mentioned in many biographies about artists who appear in the list.[5]
Guitar World, a monthly music magazine devoted to the guitar, also published their list of 100 greatest guitarists in the bookGuitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time from the Pages of Guitar World Magazine.[6] Different from theRolling Stone list, which listed guitarists in descending order,Guitar World divided guitarists bymusic genre—such as "Lords of Hard Rock" forhard rock artists or "Jazzmen" forjazz players. Despite the appearance in other magazines likeBillboard,[7] this publication byGuitar World was criticized for including no female musicians within its selection.[8] However,Guitar World recently published a list of "Eight Amazing Female Acoustic Players", includingKaki King,Muriel Anderson andSharon Isbin.[9]
Following the death ofLes Paul,Time website presented their list of 10 greatest artists inelectric guitar. As inRolling Stone magazine's list, Jimi Hendrix was chosen as the greatest guitarist followed bySlash fromGuns N' Roses,B.B. King,Keith Richards,Jimmy Page, andEric Clapton.[10]Gigwise.com, an online music magazine, also ranks Jimi Hendrix as the greatest guitarist ever, followed by Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Keith Richards andKirk Hammett.[11]
The classical guitar is traditionally strung with gut or nylon strings for the treble notes, and wound strings for the bass. Often adorned with mother-of-pearl inlays, the instrument was once primarily played using the fingertips alone. Over time, however, guitarists began to use a combination of fingernail and flesh to achieve a clearer, more expressive sound, and allowing for many different changes in sound quality (or timbre). This guitar tradition dates back at least to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when a four course instrument was popular among aristocrats. In the early nineteenth century there the guitar enjoyed a surge of popularity when composer/performers such asFernando Sor,Napoléon Coste,Mauro Giuliani, and many others published thousands of pieces for the concert hall and home gatherings. The classical guitar enjoyed another period of popularity in the twentieth century when recordings amplified the relatively quiet instrument. There are manyclassical guitarists listed as "notable" in their respective epochs.
One of the most renownedflamenco guitarists in recent decades wasPaco de Lucía. Flamenco music is a popular traditional music associated with the Andalucia region of southern Spain. It is characterized by intricate syncopated rhythms intimately informed by a gypsy dance style. Flamenco guitarists also often accompany flamenco singers performing "cante jondo" (deep song). De Lucía was also one of the first to have successfully crossed over into other genres of music such as classical and jazz.[12]
Thecuatro guitar is a family of Latin American stringinstruments played inPuerto Rico,Venezuela and otherLatin American countries. It is derived from theSpanish guitar. Although some haveviola-like shapes, most cuatros resemble a small to mid-sizedclassical guitar. In Puerto Rico and Venezuela, the cuatro is an ensemble instrument for secular and religious music, and is played at parties and traditional gatherings.[13]Christian Nieves is a Puerto Rican cuatro player and is recognized by the Institute of Puerto Rican culture as the most talented young of their national instrument, thePuerto Rican cuatro.
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