This month we look at the classical based technique of fusion guitarist Matteo Mancuso, whose virtuosity on the electric guitar has taken the guitar world by storm.

Matteo Mancuso playing his Yamaha Revstar, fingerstyle

ROCKRPIX / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

This month we are exploring another new avenue for our classical column; this time in the form of a technical exposé of Sicilian fusion guitar prodigy Matteo Mancuso, a name that is relatively new not only to me but to the guitar world in general.

Mancuso is an extremely gifted musician with a vast musical vocabulary when it comes to melodic improvisation over a multitude of styles including jazz, rock, and blues. But this isn’t what has set him apart from his peers. Mancuso has blazed a trail throughout many global guitar communities with his unique approach to achieving breakneck virtuosity on the electric guitar. And what is this unique approach? Mancuso puts down the plectrum and instead adopts for a classical plucking technique. Matteo is by no means the first electric guitarist to do so Mark Knopfler’s famous solo on Sultans Of Swing showed what levels of expression can be achieved on electric guitar without a plectrum. And what about American blues guitarist Derek Trucks who combines a bottleneck-fingerstyle combo approach? And we haven’t even mentioned Jeff Beck!