Tommy Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist and songwriter. He has been nominated for a Grammy twice and is considered one of the world’s best representatives of so-called fingerstyle, a special playing technique particularly for acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n
His versatile repertoire thrives on very different musical influences, ranging from American country, folk, and blues music to jazz, African and Latin American styles, and even Spanish and classical elements.<\/p>\n
Playing Technique and Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n Tommy Emmanuel himself simply calls his playing technique fingerstyle, comparable to what is known as fingerpicking. The terms refer to the fact that several fingers of the picking hand are used to play the strings. He describes the complete independence of the thumb from the other four fingers as the foundation of his playing. To achieve this, he often uses thumbpicks to give the bass notes played with the thumb more punch and a more accented sound. He also plays with flatpicks, which he combines with the fingerpicking of the right hand. This technique is known as hybrid picking or chicken picking and is particularly common in country music. Especially during quiet pieces, Emmanuel often does without picks entirely and plays only with his fingers to make the tone sound softer and fuller.<\/p>\n Emmanuel’s playing is often very rhythmic and syncopated, which gives the tracks a distinct groove. His guitar playing benefits from his precise timing as a drummer, which he is able to maintain even during very fast and complicated measure sequences, supported by the constant tapping of his foot (usually the left). Emmanuel is capable of playing up to three different instrumental parts simultaneously within a single track. In doing so, he generally uses the thumb of his right picking hand for a bass line, the index and middle fingers for a rhythm guitar sequence, and the ring finger and occasionally the pinky for the melody part. At the same time, the fingers of the left hand fret the corresponding notes and chords. This playing technique, which is as amazing as it is complicated, often gives the listener the impression that the song is being played by several guitarists. Equally impressive is Emmanuel’s simultaneous playing of two different tracks.<\/p>\n Emmanuel’s guitars at a live performance in Budapest<\/strong><\/p>\n Emmanuel prefers to play steel-string acoustic guitars from the Australian manufacturer Maton. He also uses a reverb and echo unit for special sound effects during live performances. He uses .012 (light) and .013 (medium) strings, but constantly changes manufacturers to produce a more varied sound. You can often see that his instruments serve as “tools of the trade.” Using various aids such as picks or brushes, he frequently scratches, drums, and taps on the guitars or the vocal microphone to create tonal variety and atmosphere through percussive elements\u2014exemplified in the track Initiation. Emmanuel’s “drum solo” on the guitar has also become a fixed part of his performances.<\/p>\n His guitars are in standard tuning E-A-D-G-B-E or open G tuning D-G-D-G-B-D for almost all songs, though they are tuned slightly higher for live and studio sessions. For instructional DVDs, he uses 440 Hz for the concert pitch to save students from having to retune.<\/p>\n Emmanuel gives his favorite guitars names. For instance, he called his favorite guitar\u2014a battered and repeatedly patched-up small-bodied Custom Maton EBG 808\u2014”Mouse.” He referred to another as “Yellow Mouse,” and a Maton cutaway as “Bertha.” According to a personal conversation from October 2012, all three guitars have been in the Maton Museum since the summer of 2012.<\/p>\n Emmanuel’s passionate stage presence and energetic performance are widely known. He is also considered a humorous and charismatic, yet humble entertainer who maintains warm, direct, and open communication with his audience. He is known for his willingness to share his knowledge and skills and teach them to others. For this reason, he often incorporates small “guitar lessons” for his listeners into his concerts or visits music schools and similar institutions alongside his daily tour routine. He also frequently invites interested guests from the audience onto the stage to perform a song or two with him.<\/p>\n Text and photos from https:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tommy_Emmanuel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tommy Emmanuel is an Australian guitarist and songwriter. He has been nominated for a Grammy twice and is considered one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yousguitar.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}