Reddit reviews Michael Hedges; Rhythm, Sonority, Silence

Firstly, thanks for including the Chet Atkins clip. That's a great piece that I hadn't seen before. You are correct in understanding my comment to be specifically about the tapping technique that Hedges, and others began to use. Certainly (and thankfully) fingerstyle has been around for much longer. I'd say that the invention of electric guitars (more specifically, pickups and microphones) made this particular "Hedge" style possible. The clarity with which we can hear the hammer-ons and body taps just would not be possible without those technologies. I believe that Hedges primarily used a Martin guitar that was rigged with unique arrangements of microphones (in the body of the guitar) and pickups under the saddle). He also played a harp guitar, which was just wild in and of itself.

For those interested, I once bought a book of Hedges' transcriptions/tablature called Michael Hedges; Rhythm, Sonority, Silence which was fascinating, and near impossible for me to play. I marveled at some of the symbols he needed to create to represent the techniques he innovated. One unique thing, I recall, is that in the notated tablature, he would follow the indicated note (number) to be played with a long red line that was to signify how long the note should sound before you should stop that strings sound by touching it with a free finger. Said another way, not only did he notate when to pluck a string to make it sound, he also indicated exactly when to dampen that string to stop its sound. The analogy used was that you would not want to treat a guitar like a piano that had its sustain pedal pushed down all the time....letting the notes just ring out continuously. I had never thought about that, in regards to guitar. Made it a lot more complicated to play, but a lot cleaner sound emerging from the instrument as well.

Hope that above paragraph made sense!