I have always been a big fan of John Martyn. His style of guitar playing adds harmonic and rhythmical backing to his very melodic and unusually sinning style. "May you never" has always been a favourite of mine. The style of playing is very percussive with his right hand acting as a constant throughout the song.  He uses an altered running and a capo on this song allowing for a completely different tone from his guitar.

Tommy Emmanuel- Half Way Home

Tommy Emmanuel is a guitar hero of mine. I have for many years looked at his playing in disbelief. The way he has taken techniques from other great guitar players such as Merle Travis and Travis picking, and goes on to develop it further to the point where its almost a brand new style of play. This cements in my mind the level of player he is. I look for inspiration in his playing a lot of the time, but this song Half Way Home has always been a favourite of mine. The way that the bass line constantly accompanies a busy melody is something that I aspire to one day be able to play at this level. I really enjoy the different chord changes throughout the song, always leading to something that you expect and then changing by shifting to a minor key then resolving back to the major.  This is something that inspires me to develop in my own playing.

Stanley Jorden- Elenore Rigby

Stanley Jordon is one of the worlds most talented guitar players. Having completely revolutionised playing the guitar it is clear to see he is an unparalleled talent. I have always loved his cover of Elenor Rigby as it shows all of his techniques off. The style of tapping is very percussive, with one hand acting like the left hand of a player and the other playing a more traditional style of guitar tapping.

John butler- Spring to come

John Butler is a phenomenal guitar player. I have chosen this song because of the way John Butler simplifies the playing with the tuning. The song is in Open G tuning but the low E string is tuned down to a C. This tuning allows him to play a melody without having to fret the chord. This allows his style of playing to be very full but with a very clear melody. I personally really like this style and have been a fan of John Butler for a number of years. I am a big fan of how he isolates his thumb whilst playing, using it in a similar fashion to Travis picking. This roots the chord down and allows him to play freely with the rest of his fingers. This style is also common amongst some Banjo players. This would make sense as he also plays banjo. This style of playing to me opens the guitar and gives it a larger range in sound depth, especially with the low C being dropped in suddenly throughout the song with a reassuring stability.  John Butler has numerous albums out, some of my personal favourites are Grand National (2007) and Sunrise Over Sea (2005) with such songs as Funky Tonight and Zebra.  John still tours to date.

Billy Strings- Don't think twice its alright

This cover by Billy Strings is one of my favourite versions of the song. The use of metal finger picks puts a lot more volume into the playing and shows the accuracy of the playing to have each note ring out well and not feel crowded by the busy bass notes on the thumb. I decided to use this song as part of my inspiration because of the accuracy and continuous flow of the song. In my eyes this is a perfect example of taking a relatively speaking straight forward song for the left hand and totally reworking it with the right hand to make it sound huge, especially seeing how Billy Strings is only using three fingers whilst playing this. I love the little lines of unison between the melody and the bass coming back up to the tonic, and the fast hammer ons and pull offs that add to the melody and fill in the gaps between the singing and the guitar. Again with a Travis style approach to a simple chord sequence the song becomes a duet between the bass with the thumb, the chords with the fingers and the melody on top of that. Billy has released many of his own albums and still tours to date.