early Tommy Emmanuel video

[tbeltrans]

Most likely, many here have already seen this video, but for those who have not and/or are interested in learning to play this style, here is a link to a Youtube video (full length) of a much younger Tommy Emmanuel teaching "beginning fingerstyle guitar":




The video opens for the first two minutes with a flatpick tune, but then goes into teaching fingerstyle for the remainder of the video (another 56 minutes or so). The video is complete.

What I think is really important about this video is that, in it, he really gives you what you need to know to play this style (what he calls "boom chick") and then shows what can be done with it. He starts by showing you step by step how to develop the thumb and then add in the fingers. A couple of beginning tunes he plays at speed and then slowly so you can learn them.

He says that you can play most any tune in this style, as he well demonstrates. He stresses that it takes real dedicated effort to learn. At the end of the video, he says that it is really important to learn to figure out tunes by ear and come up with your own arrangements, and explains that this is why he plays through some of the tunes without explaining them and also why there is no written music for the video. In other tunes, he explains and shows how he worked out the melody and then a bass line, and then put them together.

He says that once he has the tune well in hand, he really thinks of the melody while he is performing it, making sure that the melody sings and does not sound mechanical. There is a lot of information in this video and I think it is well presented, especially his strong emphasis on the ear and working out your own arrangements of tunes you want to play.

If a person really, really wants to play in this style, this video is enough to get you going. I agree with Tommy Emmanuel that it really is much better to come up with our own arrangements, than to simply learn and and play exactly what somebody else arranged and tabbed out.

Tony

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

I agree with Tommy Emmanuel that it really is much better to come up with our own arrangements, than to simply learn and and play exactly what somebody else arranged and tabbed out.
Tony

Thanks for the link. I'll check out the video later.

The last statement I don't agree with. Tommy spent years carefully listening to and closely copying others, plus he is obviously dedicated and an unusual talent.

The average person will benefit from carefully learning the details of available arrangements before jumping into arranging melodies on their own. Get some ear skills, technique skills, and a handle on stylistic varieties first (or at least concurrently).

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Thanks for the link. I'll check out the video later.

The last statement I don't agree with. Tommy spent years carefully listening to and closely copying others, plus he is obviously dedicated and an unusual talent.

The average person will benefit from carefully learning the details of available arrangements before jumping into arranging melodies on their own. Get some ear skills, technique skills, and a handle on stylistic varieties first (or at least concurrently).

Yes, he did. He says he learned Chet Atkins tunes, but he figured them out by ear and later went on to work out his own arrangements. Early in the video, he teaches Freight Train, and cites Elizabeth Cotton as the author and where he learned it. He plays Windy and Warm, which he learned off a Chet Atkins record and then played his own way.

We are here running into trouble I have seemed to have with other of my posts on occasion. If I post a novel length post, I can cover all possible interpretations of my post. If I try to keep it concise, somebody will see that something is missing, and that missing piece adversely affects the overall context, making it seem as if I said something I did not intend to say in that way.

Yes, we learn the vocabulary of the style by learning other folks' arrangements, as evidenced in the video by Tommy playing a couple of the tunes slow so we can learn them, as well as his comments about studying the work of others such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Elizabeth Cotton, etc. However, ultimately, being able to arrange our own interpretations is what Tommy Emmanuel is talking about. Hopefully, this clarifies it. I should have made my original post longer and spent the time and words to cover various eventualities that others who respond in this thread might come up with.

Tony

[rick-slo]

No problem. A frequent situation on forums. I must admit that really long posts I usually skip around through or don't read at all. My own posts are usually pretty short - probably shorter and shorter with each year I have been a forum member. Coming from a number of years playing classical music I am fond of written material, but I also practice my ears and compose and arrange.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

No problem. A frequent situation on forums. I must admit that really long posts I usually skip around through or don't read at all. My own posts are usually pretty short - probably shorter and shorter with each year I have been a forum member. Coming from a number of years playing classical music I am fond of written material, but I also practice my ears and compose and arrange.

I have some of your MP3 albums and think you are quite accomplished. Therefore, I tend to give your posts a bit more weight than some others.

When I was in college (CompSci), we had to give presentations in some of our classes that involved doing a lab project. The most common feedback I got was that I needed to do a better job of understanding my audience. I apparently got too technical, too detailed in my presentations. I have noticed over time that my posts here tend to be a bit long more often than not. I have been experimenting with trying to shorten my posts, but I seem to leave out essential information, and in so doing, change the context of the post to a certain degree. I will continue to experiment and will certainly get closer to my ideal.

Tony

[Acoustic_Stevo]

That video is from the 'Up Close' DVD. It's not complete. He plays and explains a lot more on the DVD. He released a book that kinda goes with the DVD called Solo Guitar Style. It has the tab in it for Toms Thumb, Freight Train, Trambone, Windy and Warm, Limehouse Blues, Countrywide, Dixie McGuire, Amy, Since We Met, cascading harmonics, Up From Down Under, A Taste Of Honey, Blue Moon and Day Tripper/Lady Madonna plus loads of info.
I think the DVD and book were released in 2000.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Acoustic_Stevo

That video is from the 'Up Close' DVD. It's not complete. He plays and explains a lot more on the DVD. He released a book that kinda goes with the DVD called Solo Guitar Style. It has the tab in it for Toms Thumb, Freight Train, Trambone, Windy and Warm, Limehouse Blues, Countrywide, Dixie McGuire, Amy, Since We Met, cascading harmonics, Up From Down Under, A Taste Of Honey, Blue Moon and Day Tripper/Lady Madonna plus loads of info.
I think the DVD and book were released in 2000.

Thanks for the info. The video seemed complete because each section is complete and the end has what sounds to me to be the ending, based on what he says. In any case, I think the video gives a motivated person what s/he would need to learn this style the "old school" way, using one's ears.

Edit: I found the DVD brand new, sealed on Ebay and purchased it. I think the Youtube video is compelling enough that the DVD will be worth the $29.95 price. It is apparently 2 hours of teaching. The book is out of print (as is apparently the DVD), but since he seems to emphasize the ear on the DVD (if the Youtube video is from it), I don't feel I need the book since I am comfortable using my ears to learn music as well as printed material. I still think that the content of the Youtube video is well worth watching.

Tony

[Alex6strings]

I bought this when it first came out. I thought it was earlier than 2000. I learned Windy and Warm and Stevies Blues. I guess I could say it changed my life. I fell in love with playing fiingerstyle guitar soon as I'd learned my first song from this dvd. Prior to that I played for years but thought what Tommy did was impossible for anyone else. Turns out it's all about hard work.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Alex6strings

I bought this when it first came out. I thought it was earlier than 2000. I learned Windy and Warm and Stevies Blues. I guess I could say it changed my life. I fell in love with playing fiingerstyle guitar soon as I'd learned my first song from this dvd. Prior to that I played for years but thought what Tommy did was impossible for anyone else. Turns out it's all about hard work.

Thanks Alex. I should clarify that what you are talking about is something that TE seems to emphasize on the video from the DVD that I watched. I am interested in learning at least parts of his arrangements to get a feel for what he does, but my primary interest is in what he has to say about his approach and his teaching about what underlies what he is doing and how he puts his arrangements together. I can certainly see his teaching on this DVD as being life changing for those new to fingerstyle and for all of us as he speaks quite bluntly about what it takes to learn it well. A 2 hour DVD, if done well, will be so packed with information as to probably take quite some time to work through and really learn.

Tony

[Acoustic_Stevo]

The book is good. It's more than just the tab. It has short chapters on Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Lenny Breau, TE Unplugged and a very comprehensive reference section. And it comes with a CD. Well worth the money if you can find a copy.
The DVD is about 2hrs long and has other tunes such as The Hunt, Stevies Blues etc.
Some people complain about the DVD because he doesn't take you through each tune/no on-screen tab/no split screen etc, but the whole point of the DVD is 'get yer guitar out and learn' (some people just want to be spoon fed everything). I think it's one of the best DVDs I own.

[Arthur Blake]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

I still think that the content of the Youtube video is well worth watching.

I agree. Hadn't seen that before. Thanks for posting.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

Early in the video, he teaches Freight Train, and cites Elizabeth Cotton as the author and where he learned it.

Indeed. And then - as you're saying with the other tunes - he played it his own way, which is way more complicated than her version.

The interesting thing now is that TE's version seems to have become a kind of standard in its own right - mainly because his lessons on it are so widely available - and a lot of people seem to want to learn that, rather than go back to Cotten's more basic version.

Nothing wrong with that, but I haven't seen anywhere where TE explains how his differs from hers. That would be really interesting, to show how he developed and expanded on the original. (Maybe he does that somewhere, I just haven't seen it .)

I mean, I know the differences, and can work through them myself - but it would make an interesting lesson for anyone new to it, to show how to build variations into a tune, while retaining its essence.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Indeed. And then - as you're saying with the other tunes - he played it his own way, which is way more complicated than her version.

The interesting thing now is that TE's version seems to have become a kind of standard in its own right - mainly because his lessons on it are so widely available - and a lot of people seem to want to learn that, rather than go back to Cotten's more basic version.

Nothing wrong with that, but I haven't seen anywhere where TE explains how his differs from hers. That would be really interesting, to show how he developed and expanded on the original. (Maybe he does that somewhere, I just haven't seen it .)

I mean, I know the differences, and can work through them myself - but it would make an interesting lesson for anyone new to it, to show how to build variations into a tune, while retaining its essence.

Well, as Acoustic_Steveo pointed out, there is much more on the DVD that the video was taken from, where I thought it was complete. If there was ever a time I would be happy to admit to being wrong wrong about something, and then corrected, this is it. I am really looking forward to watching the whole DVD. It will be interesting to see if he provides further information regarding this particular tune.

I got notice today from Mandolin Brothers that my copy of the DVD shipped today. Apparently, it is now out of print, but you can find it easily on Ebay. I think Mandolin Brothers has one brand new copy remaining.

Tony

[TBman]

Anyone in the states looking for the book/cd set, it's called "Note-For-Note."

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by TBman

Anyone in the states looking for the book/cd set, it's called "Note-For-Note."

The Christopher Parkening Guitar Method - Volume 1
The Art and Technique of the Classical Guitar Book/CD Pack

and a bunch of others.