Yifei Zhang

Musical journey & creative background

Zhang Yifei’s work includes performance, fingerstyle teaching and MIDI music education. With Zhang Li he co-authored 指弹吉他基础教程, and he has participated in teacher training and masterclasses.

Repertoire & listening guide

Explore both the playing and the teaching background: performance shows a piece realised on one guitar, while educational work provides context for learning multiple voices, rhythm and arranging. The selected video features Zhang himself; its equipment-demonstration context is retained in the title.

Official music and content resources

Zhang Yifei’s AcousticFF website organises his work into music, video sharing, photography, tutorials and equipment reviews, and links to his own platform accounts. It provides direct routes to his catalogue and educational content alongside the biography and performances on this page.

• AcousticFF ↗
• NetEase Cloud Music · catalogue ↗
• Bilibili · personal channel ↗
• Xiaohongshu · profile ↗

Sources：AcousticFF · 张艺斐 ↗

Formerly a fingerstyle guitar and MIDI music instructor at Guangdong College of Arts and Literature. Since 2007, he has performed promotional showcases for numerous instrument brands at major trade shows, including the Shanghai International Musical Instrument Exhibition and the Beijing International Musical Instrument Exhibition. He has served as an endorsee for Ayers Guitars and Eredar Guitars. He was the lead instructor for the fingerstyle guitar courses at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music (2nd and 3rd sessions) and the inaugural fingerstyle guitar teacher-training program at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. In 2013, he collaborated with fingerstyle virtuoso Preston Reed on a national tour and a series of masterclasses. He has shared the stage with world-class performers such as Don Ross, Tommy Emmanuel, Martin Taylor, and Masaaki Kishibe.

In 2013, he co-authored Basic Fingerstyle Guitar Tutorial with Zhang Li—a pioneer of modern fingerstyle guitar in China—marking the country’s first instructional book to offer a systematic, progressive approach to the genre. He also recorded Boundless Fingerstyle (Yong Wu Zhi Jing), China’s first fingerstyle guitar compilation album. As a key leader of the Shanxi Guitar Association, Zhang Yifei and his team have successfully organized seven Shanxi Guitar Competitions, as well as numerous guitar concerts and festivals, providing a platform for guitar enthusiasts to connect and appreciate the art form.

Member of the Expert Committee on Guitar Performance, Cultural Industry Professional Competence Evaluation System

Secretary-General of the Guitar Professional Committee, Shanxi Musicians Association

Head of Guitar Studies, School of Music and Dance, Shanxi University Business School

Champion, National Guitar Competition at the 4th China Guitar Art Festival

WAGF Best Acoustic Guitar Educator Award

Guest Judge, Guitar China Guitar Competitions (multiple editions)

Judge, Kama Cup Acoustic Guitar Competition (multiple editions)

Endorsing Artist, Kama Guitars

Endorsing Artist, Music Station (Yinyue Yizhan) Cases & Bags

Journey

Zhang Yifei was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi. He began his musical training with his father Zhang Li — hailed as the “pioneer of modern fingerstyle guitar in China” — and by the age of four could already sing and play nearly ten songs on the guitar. He studied MIDI music production at the Communication University of China and audio engineering at the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy, also training with the renowned recording engineer Wang Lei.

In 2007 he performed at the fingerstyle guitar concert hosted by the Shanxi University Conservatory of Music, becoming the first fingerstyle guitarist in China to perform in a formal concert hall. He won the fingerstyle open division of the 4th China Guitar Culture Festival National Guitar Competition in 2009, and in 2010 helped establish the first fingerstyle guitar major at a Chinese college and was appointed to teach there.

In 2012 he shared the stage with Canadian fingerstyle master Don Ross — the first Chinese guitarist ever to do so. Don Ross praised the exquisite way he blends technique with music and inscribed a CD for him: “Hi FeiFei, I’m your fan!”. In 2013 he toured China with Preston Reed, who lauded his ability to teach fingerstyle techniques “faster and more precisely than anyone I’ve ever seen”.

Zhang Yifei currently teaches guitar at Taiyuan Normal University and the Shanxi University of Engineering Science and Technology. He remains one of the most active fingerstyle guitarists in China’s concert halls and one of the most versatile — moving from traditional to modern fingerstyle, from lyrical Chinese-style pieces to swinging Western grooves.