Dave Toule

Cambridge Based Fingerstyle Guitarist

I'm 17 and have been playing guitar for about 2 and a half years (since february 2003), its literally my love and my life. All I do, and I'm happy to keep it that way. I've only been going down the fingerstyle route since I saw Michael Berk live, totally inadvertently. I'd gone to a "Songs In The Dark" to speak to the guys there about playing, and he took to the stage, I was absolutely inspired from that point on. After a few months, I'd saved up for an electro acoustic (Prior to that I'd been playing an Epiphone ET-270 made in the early seventies, its got more dents than the titanic, and really needs setting up), and bought my Dean Performer EBK, I was really lucky for a first guitar actually, she's got a beautiful tone for a guitar that is only like 50 to 100 quid from the budget range. But anyway, from then on I've been listening to numerous fingerstyle guitarists. The first I found out about was Doyle Dykes, who I still listen to all the time. Then followed other fingerstyle guitarists (see the 'influences' section).

I play live in Cambridge, although currently only at open mic nights to gain the experience of playing live in front of an audience. Do I like it?...I LOVE IT...Special moments? The feedback i get from people, it really boosts my confidence.

Doyle Dykes, Tommy Emmanuel, Michael Berk, Michael Hedges, Tristan Seume, Clive Carroll, Martin Taylor, Leo Kottke, Martin Simpson, Preston Reed, Billy Mclaughlin. Not all of the above are reflected in my style of playing.

I play my Dean Performer E CBK through my AER Compact 60, at the moment I am using D'addario EXP's, but I'm going to experiment with different varieties.

I hope you like my recordings, I'll upload compositions as soon as they're recorded. Currently the only composition I have completed is 'What You Will', as it takes me a while to write fingerstyle pieces.