Tommy Emmanuel - 4 steps for Fingerstyle Guitar

[srick]

This just popped up on my feed the other day. For a 7:35 clip I must say, it's darn good! If you've been struggling with your independent thumb, give it a watch.
https://reverb.com/news/learn-to-pla...achels-lullaby

BTW - the palm muting and finger muting in the video is superb and clean (after all, it is Tommy Emmanuel). But this is a great demo of how a big part of Travis picking and contemporary fingerstyle sound is created by the muting.

Rick

PS - the real secret is listening to what he is playing and mimicking it. It's ALL about the ears and the brain - they tell your fingers and hands what to do.

[HOF dad]

I got that e-mail too. I haven't watched it yet but you've motivated me to do so.
The "lessons" from Tommy that I've watched before didn't had a lot of substance. Sounds like this one might.

Thanks

[srick]

Originally Posted by HOF dad

I got that e-mail too. I haven't watched it yet but you've motivated me to do so.
The "lessons" from Tommy that I've watched before didn't had a lot of substance. Sounds like this one might.

Thanks

Dan - I've noticed that too (about Tommy's previous lessons). This one is different - concise and focused.

[DukeX]

Yes, that is an excellent instructional video IMO.

[dtpolk]

I don't know. There are some who disagree that teaching the thumb first develops good independence. Tommy may indeed be the best finger style player presently out there, but his past "How to" videos don't really say much. Most of them assume you already know all the small stuff. I'll have to watch this and see.

[JonPR]

Tommy is a lovely guy, obviously, but his insistence on independent thumb is (IMHO) mistaken.

In my teaching, I've found it quite easy to get students playing the beat steadily with the thumb. But then when they bring a finger in, the thumb beat falls apart. They can't maintain the "independence" of the thumb.

It wasn't until I cast my mind back to how I taught myself this style (listening to records in the 1960s) - which I did quite quickly and painlessly - that I realised that's not how it works.

Think about it: your thumb is attached to your fingers . It's not "independent". The hand operates as a collection of interconnected digits. The sense of the independent thumb - when you are adept at the style as Tommy is - is an illusion. It feels like it is, because it just ticks away on the bass while the fingers do the interesting stuff. But that's habit.

It may well be that some can learn efficiently the way Tommy teaches - different people have different learning instincts and strategies - but here's how I did it FWIW:

I picked a pattern I wanted to learn, and slowed it right down (I had a 2-speed tape deck back then). I learned it beat by beat, thumb and fingers together. Of course, I was careful to make sure the thumb was on the beat, but the fingers interacted with it right from the start.

Essentially there are three possibilities for any beat in this style (including the "and" of the beat, i.e., a pair of 8th notes per beat):

1. Thumb only (on the beat)
2. Thumb and finger together (on the beat) = "pinch stroke"
3. Finger on the "and" (8th note between the beats)

1 & 3 are often combined of course, as (less often) 2 & 3 can be.
Pretty much every pattern can be broken down in this way. (There are fancy exceptions where the beats might be in triplets, or you get 3 fingers playing a whole chord at once.)
All you need to do is learn the thumb/finger combination on each beat in turn - as slow as necessary to start with - and steadily string them all together; and then gradually get up to speed.

Of course, when I taught myself, it was intuitive this way. But I've also noticed that kids learn in this same linear fashion, not in a "layer" fashion.
IOW, the independent thumb method is a layer method - start by getting the thumb right, and then add a finger pattern on top. The linear method is to build a pattern up in slices of time. Beat 1, then beat 2, and so on. The complete pattern (all layers) is there the whole way. IOW, instead of stacking 2 (or maybe 3) layers horizontally, you're stacking vertical slices one after the other. As each slice is added you go back to the start and play again. I.e., the process is: Beat 1; beats 1+2; beats 1+2+3; and so on.

Like I say, I've seen kids instinctively learn pieces this way (insisting on going back to the start all the time and playing through, adding each new beat or bar on in turn), and my "vertical slice" method was similarly instinctive. The "independent thumb" method only seems logical when you've already achieved mastery and are looking back, trying to reverse engineer what you know. (I felt the same way until I recalled my own learning process.)

[nickv6]

Have to say I agree with you. The learning gets easier with each new tune but then so does fighting the habitual patterns that came before.
Tommy seems to be able to outwit habit!
Nick

[srick]

It’s interesting to note that Tommy started out as a drummer.

I’ve only been playing for 11 years and am still developing my fingerstyle. For me, the watershed moment occurred about two years ago, when I was taught to involve my body in the beat, and in particular, to tap my foot. For most people, I suppose it’s easy, but for me, with minimal playing experience, it was an essential skill that needed to be nurtured.

Another facet of my learning was placing the thumbpick past the knuckle (toward my wrist) which decreased extra motion and mobility that I have in my thumb.

The toughest part of the last two years of learning, has simply been breathing; playing slowly and regularly. It took a very gifted teacher to realize that the heart of my rhythm issue was the failure to breathe. Videos can’t teach this (well) and videos don’t observe your technique. But I think that this short video does have a lot to offer as it cuts back to the basics.

Best,

Rick

PS - the gifted teacher was very skilled in meditation technique - nice tie in there

[dkstott]

My opinion is in line with JonPR's comments about Tommy's video.

"Here, play this steady bass for hours & then add fingers & syncopate" are a recipe for failure.

There's a lot of players who can pattern pick like crazy, but fail miserably when they try to syncopate their fingers to that steady bass after watching these types of video's. Which might be why a lot of people give up on fingerstyle.

While it is considered absolute blasphemy, I'm not a fan of Tommy & really don't like his shtick. 5-10 minutes of hearing his playing on a CD and I'm bored. My preferences lean towards Pete Huttlinger, Gene Bertoncini, Charlie Byrd & Ralph Towner.

[lpa53]

I got the email on this video, too, and though Tommy is fantastic, I had a few disagreements with it. Although anchoring the picking hand can be useful, it can also be inhibiting, and in the long term, painful. After decades of anchoring I found new horizons open when I quit. I was worried about losing power but that turned out not to be an issue. I also don't think palm muting is something to be included in an introduction to Travis picking. It's not a defining characteristic of picking, but rather merely an option.

But ... Sure would be nice to be that good!

[jasperguitar]

I'm with DKSTOTT and Jon P rrrrrrrrr ...

The Tommy shtick is not for me . After one half a song I'm moving on ... his thumb, thumb, thumb, thumb and his bingo bingo bingo bingo ... add up to boring, boring, boring, boring ...

Now, this does not mean I don't admire his playing ,,, because he is a super great guitar player ... just not for me.

And I practice the Jon P rrrrrrrr .. method ... thumb and fingers ... I like to pic a pattern ... keeping the thumb going is hard ...

Now back to playing wicked good pentatonic minors on my electric .. ha ha ha ha