Tommy Emmanuel

Blog #3

Tommy Emmanuel

Since he was 4 years old, Tommy Emmanuel has been awing the world with his beautiful guitar playing. He has had an over 40 year career or professional guitar playing. With his unique “finger-style” picking he can play melodies no one though possible and create the most beautiful guitar songs around. This “finger-style” picking is said to be like playing a piano where you use all 10 fingers within a piece.

Now I can’t play guitar but if I was to be able to learn one song on a guitar it would be a song of Tommy’s called “Angelina.” This song is one of the most peaceful, uplifting, calming, utopian, songs ever written. Obviously there are many opinions of what an amazing song is, but “Angelina” is my opinion of an amazing song. Here is the link “Angelina.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhR04kmcSXU

I love Tommy for his beautiful, serenading ballads, but he can also write a very upbeat and technical guitar song. Here is a link to a song off the album Classical Gas called “The Hunt.” This is what I call the metal song for acoustic guitars players.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOp6j1_sn-g

Tommy’s influence to play the guitar was Chet Atkins. Chet played in a style called “Travis-picking” where he plays a bass part with his thumb and the melodies with the first two or three fingers. Tommy’s style is similar and is based off from this technique.
Tommy has never taken or been taught formal music lessons but his ability to play the guitar has made him a famous guitar player with fans all around the world.Tommy has created some 20 albums over his career and is continuing to tour even as his age increases.
Like I said earlier this year, it is hard for me to write calm, soothing songs. I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar so Tommy definitely gives me inspiration to write those types of songs as well as learn how to play the guitar. I used to not be a fan of the acoustic guitar, but after hearing Tommy play, I sometimes prefer it.