I recently discovered an amazing fingerstylist that I never heard of by the name of Andy Mckee. There are fingerstylists with tremendous skill and technique, but some of them use their abilities more for the presentation than for the music (for example, Justin King). Andy Mckee also possesses impressive skills and talent, but he strikes a better balance. His music has more depth, and his techniques serves more for the music. It is precious individuals like Mckee that give proof and strength to my preference for fingerstyle guitar, or more accurately, instrumentals over music with lyrics. From a psychological point of view, music with words needs to be processed by both the auditory center and the complex function of speech comprehension. While instrumentals only need to go through the auditory process. Where the emotions and ideas exudes through the instrument itself, without relying on words. In this sense, I feel that instrumentals communicate at a more fundamental level. Also, it is generally harder to give meaning to musical notes than to words. So to achieve the same level of expression, greater capabilities are required, which is why in addition to my experience, I can confidently say in fingerstyle guitar the skills of artists far surpass other popular genres on average. Of course this is all just self-justification. Andy Mckee’s performance gives a stronger argument than what my reasoning can achieve:
Watch Andy Mckee play
Art of Motion
Quite simply put, orgasms for my eyes and ears, and soul enriching. I hope through Andy Mckee and other great fingerstylists like him that people will divert some attention to the sadly underappreciated genre of fingerstyle guitar.
