“I wasn’t gifted with enormous speed on the guitar. There were years when I thought I could get that if I practiced enough. It wasn’t ever really going to happen”: David Gilmour explains the origins of his lauded ‘feel’ playing technique

David Gilmour Rome 2024.

David Gilmour’s electric guitar and acoustic guitar playing has captured the hearts and minds of generations of guitarists. So what exactly is the secret to his emotive, quasi-storytelling-like style?

According to Rick Beato, it’s the “David Gilmour effect”, which, as he elaborates in his interview with the Pink Floyd guitarist himself, “is not a guitar thing. It’s not a pedal”. Rather, it’s something entirely intangible, unique only to Gilmour himself.