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L'artiste jouant de la guitare est célèbre.

L'artiste jouant de la guitare est célèbre.
The artist playing the guitar is famous.
From Lesson 160:Present participles replacing relative clauses (-ant)·French

Questions & Answers about L'artiste jouant de la guitare est célèbre.

How does jouant replace a relative clause in this sentence?
Instead of using qui (who) and a conjugated verb, French can use the present participle -ant to shorten the phrase. So, instead of saying L'artiste qui joue de la guitare (The artist who plays the guitar), we say L'artiste jouant de la guitare (The artist playing the guitar).
Would jouant get an -s if we were talking about multiple artists?
No, it stays exactly the same. When the present participle is used as an action (replacing a relative clause), it is invariable. Even if the subject were plural, like Les artistes jouant de la guitare, the word jouant would not change.
Why is it jouant de la guitare instead of just jouant la guitare?
When you talk about playing a musical instrument in French, you always use the verb jouer followed by the preposition de. Because guitare is feminine, it becomes jouer de la guitare.
How can we tell if L'artiste is male or female in this sentence?
We actually can't tell from this sentence alone! The word artiste is the same for both masculine and feminine. The adjective célèbre (famous) also ends in an -e in its base form, so it doesn't change regardless of the artist's gender.

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