The harp guitar (or "harp-guitar") is a stringed instrument with a history of well over two centuries. While there are several unrelated historical stringed instruments that have appropriated the name “harp-guitar” over the centuries, the term today is understood as the accepted vernacular to refer to a particular family of instruments defined as "A guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking." Additionally, in reference to these instruments, the word "harp" is now a specific reference to the unstopped open strings, and is not specifically a reference to the tone, pitch range, volume, silhouette similarity, construction, floor-standing ability, nor any other alleged "harp-like" properties. To qualify in this category, an instrument must have at least one unfretted string lying off the main fretboard. Further, the unfretted strings can be, and typically are, played as an open string.

This family consists of an almost limitless variety of different instrument configurations. Most readily identified are American harp guitars with either hollow arms, double necks or harp-like frames for supporting extra bass strings, and European bass guitars (or contraguitars). Other harp guitars feature treble or mid-range floating strings, or various combinations of multiple floating string banks along with a standard guitar neck.

Andy McKee (born April 4, 1979, in Topeka, Kansas) is an American fingerstyle guitar player, currently signed to the American record label Razor & Tie.

His style of playing and his compositions have earned him a considerable international fanbase. In late 2006, a live performance of his signature song "Drifting" became a Featured Video on YouTube and MySpace, achieving over 48 million views on the former to date and remaining one of its highest-rated music clips. A handful of McKee's other songs have experienced notable success on YouTube, such as "Rylynn" with over 22 million views. Similarly, McKee's cover of "Africa" reached over 9 million views before suddenly being removed by Candyrat Records.

McKee played his first guitar, an Aria nylon string bought by his father, at age 13. Initially underwhelmed by his guitar lessons, McKee's electric guitar-playing cousin inspired him to continue learning, taking him out for his 16th birthday to see a guitarist named Preston Reed perform live at a clinic. McKee later bought an instructional videotape from Reed and began to learn more complex guitar techniques from it, also earning his GED that year in order to quit attending high school. He began to draw influence from guitarists such as Michael Hedges, Billy McLaughlin, Pat Kirtley, and from Passion Session by Don Ross, as he continued studying the instrument on his own.

Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.

Hedges attended Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, studying classical guitar.^{[citation needed]} It was here that he studied under his compositional mentor, E. J. Ulrich. Subsequently, from 1979 til 1982, Hedges was a composition major at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland who applied his classically-trained musical background in combination with various unusual techniques to the steel-string acoustic guitar. He covered a wide range of musical styles and was considered an extremely dynamic performer in concert. Michael made ends meet playing and singing in pubs and restaurants in the Baltimore Metro area during his tenure at Peabody. In 1980, he made plans to move to California to study music at Stanford University. He was discovered in February 1981 by William Ackerman who heard him performing at The Varsity Theater in Palo Alto and immediately signed him to a recording contract on the Windham Hill label. He was married to flautist Mindy Rosenfeld but the couple divorced in the late 1980s.

Muriel Anderson is a composer and award-winning guitarist and harp-guitarist.

Muriel Anderson was born in Downers Grove, Illinois. Her grandfather was a saxophone player in John Phillip Sousa’s band, and her mother was a piano teacher. Her musical heritage showed early when an inspired six year old Anderson began composing her own songs. Muriel Anderson studied classical music in college at DePaul University with Leon Borkowski. She later took master courses with classical virtuoso Christopher Parkening. In 1989 she became the first woman to win the National Fingerpicking Guitar Championship.

Anderson is founder & director of the Music For Life Alliance, which is a 501c(3) tax exempt, not for profit charity that facilitates the efforts of individuals and organizations making music learning accessible to young people who may not otherwise be able to experience the educational, psychological, and social benefits of making music. She is also the founder and host of the Muriel Anderson's All Star Guitar Night, which donates its proceeds to the Music for Life Alliance. Her music can be heard in Woody Allen's film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and her “Heartstrings” recording accompanied the astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery.^{[citation needed]}

Kaki King (b. Katherine Elizabeth King, August 24, 1979 in Atlanta, Georgia) 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 her diverse range in different genres.

In February 2006, Rolling Stone released a list of "The New Guitar Gods," on which King was the sole woman and youngest artist (beating Derek Trucks in age by two months as the youngest on the list). In addition to a 10-year career that includes five LP and two EP albums, King has also scored music for television and film. She worked alongside Eddie Vedder and Michael Brook contributing music for the soundtrack to Sean Penn's Into the Wild, for which the trio received nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

King was born the first of two daughters. While still a small child, her father noticed her natural musical ability, and encouraged her interest in music. She was introduced to the guitar at the age of four and played for several years, but after taking up the drums a few years later, they became her primary instruments as an adolescent.