At just 23 years old, Calum Graham is a extraordinarily talented Canadian fingerstyle guitarist based out of Toronto. Originally inspired by a Don Ross cassette tape, Calum got to work honing his skills, eventually collaborating with Don on the acoustic duet album titled 12:34.

Calum has been named one of Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s 30 Best Guitarists Under 30 and has won a number of music and talent competitions including the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Competition at the Canadian Guitar Festival in 2010. He was the first teenager to ever win the competition with his songs The Channel and Indivisible.

This is interview is packed with a ton of great playing tips and stories from Calum’s playing experience, I think you will really enjoy it. Because it ran long, I’ve split it into two parts (coming soon). His songs featured in this podcast are Tabula Rasa and Phoenix Rising.

Scroll below to see show notes and links.

More to come in Part 2…. stay tuned!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What 1-2 questions do you wish I could have asked in this podcast and others? Please let me know in the comments below. 

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Covered in part 1 of this podcast: 

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• How Calum got started playing fingerstyle
  
• Practice routines early in his career and now
  
• Winning the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Competition
  
• Finding and forcing inspiration for composing
  
• Composing by ear vs. theoretically
  
• Working with Don Ross and composing for duet fingerstyle guitar
  

People Mentioned: 

Don Ross

Leo Kottke

Antoine Dufour

Andy McKee

Joseph Alessio designed my logo, reach out to him for your design needs (he’s a cool dude). 

The post Ep 6: Calum Graham (pt.1) – Modern Fingerstyle Podcast appeared first on Modern Fingerstyle Guitar.