Growing up in a family of musicians he started playing guitar in the age of 4 and he holds a Degree with honors in guitar, harmony and counterpoint. Papadopoulos also has a Bachelor in Accounting and Finance and one more Bachelor in Financial Economics.

Yiannis is the lead guitarist of the rock idol Scott Stapp (Creed) and they are touring successfully in the US and around the world. Over the years he has worked as a session musician with several famous Greek bands and artists and he has recorded in the albums of various international artists. In 2024 Scott Stapp released his fourth personal album Higher Power featuring Papadopoulos on three tracks “What I Deserve”, “Dancing in the Rain” and “Quicksand”,  and he co-composed the first two. Also, he recorded guitars for most of the tracks on the album. 

In 2024 Yiannis released an album with Royal Time Machine, a prog/rock fusion experimental trio, featuring Yiannis Papadopoulos on guitar, Michael Evdemon on the bass and George Kollias on the drums^.

In 2024 Scott Stapp released his fourth personal album Higher Power featuring Papadopoulos on three tracks “What I Deserve”, “Dancing in the Rain” and “Quicksand”,^[11] and he co-composed the first two.^[12] Also, he recorded guitars for most of the tracks on the album.

Yiannis has won numerous worldwide Guitar Contests including the Ibanez Guitar Solo Competition 2013, the Andy James Dream Rig Competition and he was one of the live finalists of Guitar Idol 4.

He has worked with LickLibrary for a series of videos, and he is an artist of the prestigious Jamtrackcentral -in 2015 he published his first package -“The 20 Prominent Metal Licks” and in 2017 he published one more -“Nightflower”. In 2014 he published his first book “The Electric Guitar Technique Workout”, which is all about the electric guitar technique and in 2019 he published his second book, “Fretboard Concepts”, which is a complete method for the guitar that includes Yiannis’s “Double Note System”.

Yiannis proudly endorses Jackson Guitars, Fractal Audio Systems, D’addario strings, Dunlop Guitar Picks, Gruv Gear, 64 Audio IEM, Taylor Guitars, Seymour Duncan pickups, Spectraflex cables, Peterson Strobe Tuners, Toontrack and Truth Soul Armor apparel.

At present, when he’s not touring, he divides his time between composing and recording songs for his personal instrumental album and other side projects and he takes part in music trade shows. Also, Yiannis teaches in clinics & masterclasses and gives lessons via Skype, having students from around the world.