Antoine Dufour (born 1979, in L'Épiphanie,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

) is a French-Canadian acoustic guitarist currently signed to

CandyRat Records CandyRat Records (also stylized as CANdYRAT) is an independent American record label and online music store located in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. They primarily represent instrumental guitar artists, with a focus on a ...

. Dufour started playing guitar at the age of fifteen. He went on to study at the

CEGEP A CEGEP ( or ; ), also written cégep, CÉGEP and cegep, is a publicly funded college providing technical, academic, vocational or a mix of programs; they are exclusive to the province of Quebec's education system. A loanword from French, i ...

Joliette Joliette is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of Greate ...

, where he listened to the music of

Leo Kottke Leo Kottke (born September 11, 1945) is an acoustic guitarist. He is known for a fingerpicking style that draws on blues, jazz, and folk music, and for syncopated, polyphonic melodies. He overcame a series of personal obstacles, including parti ...

, Don Ross, and

Michael Hedges Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter. Early years The son of Thayne Alden Hedges and Ruth Evelyn Hedges Ipsen, Michael Hedges was born in Sacramento, California. His l ...

at the behest of his teacher. Since then, he has gone on to place second at the 2005 Canadian Guitar Festival's Fingerstyle Guitar Championship and first place in the 2006 competition. He also placed third at the 2006 International Finger Style Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas (Doug Smith was the first-place winner while Don Alder took 2nd place). Dufour has released five solo albums to date: ''Naissance'', ''Development'', ''Existence'', ''Convergences'', and ''Sound Pictures''. He has garnered a sizeable fanbase through

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

with live performances of his songs cut in the same studio as fellow guitarist

Andy McKee Andy McKee (born April 4, 1979, in Topeka, Kansas) is an American fingerstyle guitar player who has released six studio albums, two extended plays, and one live album to date. A number of YouTube videos featuring McKee's highly-technical guitar ...

, amongst other CandyRat performers. His most popular video i
a cover of "Jerry's Breakdown"
performed with Tommy Gauthier, who is himself an expert fiddler, using a single guitar between the two. Dufour has also released a sixth album (''Still Strings'') with

Tommy Gauthier Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

. Dufour works on the side as a guitar instructor, offering lessons through

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

as well.

Guitar style

Dufour's pieces are characterized by a highly percussive playing style, using slap and natural harmonics frequently. Dufour shares many compositional traits with other fingerstyle guitarists such as

Phil Keaggy Philip Tyler Keaggy (born March 23, 1951) is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 55 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. H ...

Kaki King Kaki King (born Katherine Elizabeth King, August 24, 1979) is an American guitarist and composer. King is known for her percussive and jazz-tinged melodies, energetic live shows, use of multiple tunings on acoustic and lap steel guitar, and he ...

, Don Alder,

Craig D'Andrea __NOTOC__ Craig may refer to: Geology *Craig (landform), a rocky hill or mountain often having large casims or sharp intentations. People (and fictional characters) *Craig (surname) *Craig (given name) Places Scotland *Craig, Angus, aka Barony of ...

, and Don Ross, especially in terms of his music's technical complexity. Many pay special attention to the red bandana/scarf tied around the end of his guitar's neck above the nut, seen in most of Dufour's

videos – he has stated in interviews that this is used to mute the strings ringing above the nut as they would resonate after a hard strum followed by a mute of the strings. Currently, his primary instrument is a Mario Beauregard flat top "Orchestral model" cutaway. He uses medium Ernie Ball Aluminum Bronze strings, Dimarzio Pickups (Black Angel and Black Angel Piezo), Phil Jones amps, Radial Tonebone Pz-pre preamps, Eventide Space Reverb, Spider capos (previously Third Hand Capos) and an Ergoplay guitar support. On several of his pieces, he plays a Duane Noble Harp guitar. Dufour was previously endorsed by Stonebridge guitars; using his own signature Stonebridge model, in addition to a Stonebridge GS-23-CR. During the period of his first two albums, Dufour used an acoustic Jumbo Larivee in addition to his Stonebridge GS-23-CR. Dufour wears

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

artificial fingernails on each finger of his right hand, aside from his thumb. The nails help to create a crisp, clean sound. Regarding these nails, he buys commonly available acrylic nails from a store, and then cuts them down to size. After gluing the nails on, he cuts and files the nails to his preferred length. These fake nails are not worn/glued over the entire fingernail, rather, they are worn on approximately half of the front tip of the nail. Commonly, he uses a Dunlop thumbpick which he files down so that the tip of the pick is shorter and at a more comfortable angle for his playing style. As is commonly seen, Dufour has two rings on his right index and ring finger. These are his wedding and engagement rings. The reason he wears them on his right hand is so that they do not hit the neck of the guitar while he plays. The rings serve no purpose in his playing.

References

Discography

Studio albums

*''Naissance'' (2005) *''Development'' (2006) *''Existence'' (2008) *''Still Strings'' (2009) (with

) *''Convergences'' (2010) *''Sound Pictures'' (2011) *''Back & Forth'' (2017) *''Reflect'' (2020)

DVDs

*''Antoine Dufour / Andy McKee'' Split DVD (2007) *''Antoine Dufour / Craig D'Andrea / Peter Ciluzzi'' (2008)

External links

Antoine Dufour Official Website

Antoine Dufour
at Candyrat Records
Interview with Antoine Dufour
at www.instrumentalcase.com
Antoine Dufour: The Transcription Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dufour, Antoine Date of birth missing (living people) 1979 births Living people People from Lanaudière Fingerstyle guitarists Acoustic guitarists Musicians from Quebec 21st-century Canadian guitarists