When you think of ‘Take Me Back To London’ singer Ed Sheeran what’s the first thing that springs to mind? Is it his ginger hair? Or what about the instrument that never leaves his hands, his guitar? Ed Sheeran has quickly become known as one of the greatest guitar players of all time – but what’s so special about his technique?
Ed Sheeran alternates between using a pick and strumming the guitar with his bare fingers. This is an advanced yet painful technique that Ed has acquired through years of touring and performing.
Interested in Ed Sheeran’s journey from guitar novice to guitar maestro? Then keep reading.
Learning to Play
Since Ed Sheeran’s rise to stardom in 2011, guitar teachers across the world have reported an influx of students citing Ed as their inspiration for learning to play the guitar. But who was Ed’s inspiration?
As a child, Ed was very fond of music. His family wanted to encourage this, so one Christmas Ed’s uncle gifted him an acoustic guitar. But it wasn’t until the age of 11, when he attended a Damien Rice concert in Ireland, that Ed realized the extent of his passion.
Speaking to The Telegraph about meeting Damien in a bar after the gig, Sheeran said:
“I had a little bit of a chat and kind of had an epiphany like “wow this is exactly what I want to do””.
Luckily, Ed’s parents were supportive of his musical interests, so Ed and his father attended gigs as often as they could. Initially, Sheeran taught himself how to play the guitar, but eventually, he invested in proper music lessons. Practice wasn’t an issue for Ed, as he recalls having nothing better to do with his time. He told one interviewer:
“For years we didn’t have a terrestrial TV in our house. My mum didn’t want us to be sat in front of the TV all the time. We didn’t own a video games console […] so all the time that my friends were playing Grand Theft Auto I was sat there practicing guitar over and over again.”
Guitar Style
Through years of practicing and performing, Ed managed to build a career for himself with just a guitar, microphone, and loop pedal. But at some point, Ed needed to adapt his shows for bigger crowds and bigger venues. So what did he do? Ed pretty much became a one-man-band.
Instead of hiring a band to perform on stage with, Ed sought to add dynamic to his live performances with different guitar techniques. According to BeginnerGuitarHQ, Ed alternates between three guitar techniques: basic strumming, fingerpicking, and beat making on the body of the guitar.
The YouTube channel TotalGuitarpublished a series of videos outlining these methods. “A key part of Ed Sheeran’s guitar style is how he strums with his finger and thumbs separately” they declare “He uses the soft, fleshy part of the thumb to stroke downwards”.
The result of Ed using his fingers instead of a pick is a more textured, less homogenous sound. Guitar fanatics have praised Ed’s fingerpicking mastery, noting that it is extremely painful and takes years of getting used to.
Looping Pedals
On top of fingerpicking, Ed’s live performances are synonymous with looping pedals.
Looping pedals allow Ed to record a segment of guitar and then play it back on repeat. The effect is often used to create a backing beat or to add different percussive layers to a performance.
However, it seems that looping pedals are seldom understood outside of the music industry, as Ed has been criticized for relying on backing tracks. In the past, this has led to Ed defending himself against uneducated critics. In 2017, he Tweeted:
“Never thought i’d have to explain it, but everything I do in my live show is live, it’s a loop station, not a backing track. Please Google.”