Heeyeon Kim Knows: XS & XT by D'Addario

Heeyeon Kim is a guitarist who doesn't fit neatly into one box – and she's never tried to. Trained in classical guitar all the way through a master's degree, she built a following on YouTube as Ddungchi, covering fingerstyle and acoustic playing before taking on something entirely new: lead guitarist of Korean girl band Latency. Each chapter demanded something different from her hands, her ears, and her instincts. That range shows up in her strings too. For classical, she relies on D'Addario XT Normal Tension. For acoustic, XS Phosphor Bronze 11 gauge. For electric, XS 0942 – coated strings that don't colour the sound or fight the genre. Lighter gauges across the board, a choice she's made since injuring her hands young and never looked back from. In this episode of Artist Knows, Heeyeon talks about the leap from solo playing to band life, what it means to express emotion inside a strict tempo, and why she thinks of the guitar as a translator for everything she can't put into words. Source credit: Music Bank, Koreanet, Mnet-K-POP, KBS Kpop, The Artist Canvas, ALL THE K-POP