Tommy Emmanuel Live in Rome

Here’s a very cool 40 minute video of Tommy Emmanuel playing a concert live in Rome. I only discovered Tommy a couple years ago, but he’s quickly secured a spot right at the top of my list of favorite guitar players. Because of that, I’ve no doubt you’ll see more videos of him on this site in the future.

I believe that as a guitar player, it is always beneficial to watch other players and try to learn from how they do things. I’ve had players much better than me watch my lessons and tell me they’ve learned something, and I think that humility is what has made them such great players. Being willing to learn from anyone is truly the mark of a great player. We all have something to share, even if we don’t think so.

I watched through this whole concert, and Tommy is in top form, though unfortunately the audio quality isn’t the greatest at times. Watch what Tommy is doing, and how he plays. If you can pickup even one cool trick from this video, it will be worthwhile! Checkout how he uses harmonics, at 21:18 for instance. Watch his picking styles too; he’s a master both of the pick and of the thumbpick/fingers technique. He also uses a capo on several songs.

Whatever song he’s playing around minute 15 is really cool. As you can see watching this video, Tommy uses his fingers a lot, but when he really wants to go for extreme speed, its all about the good old pick. In my opinion, it is worth developing more than one style of strumming / picking the strings; sometimes one style is appropriate for a particular type of playing, and sometimes you just need something else to fit the bill.

About halfway through, he introduces his fiance, and they do a bunch of songs together. The guitar playing gets toned down a bit; however I think there’s probably something to be learned anytime Tommy strums that thing.

Alright, settle in, and enjoy.


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