Transcriber: Kaori Nozaki
Reviewer: Denise RQ Thank you. Hello. Hello there, thank you very much. I'm going to start by telling you
that I'm a musician, and I travel the world playing concerts, I play about 300 concerts a year
that's how I make a living. It's also my calling in life, I'm one
of the luckiest people on the planet. I get to make a living doing what I love, and people say,
"Are you in the music business?" I call it "the happiness business." I play music and you get happy.
That's what matters to me. So I was on a long flight
in business class, I was hobnobbing at up in business class. A gentleman beside me
starts talking to me, and he says, "So what do you do for a living?" And I said, "I'm a guitar player." And he looked at me
like I was in the wrong place, I should have been downstairs. And he said, "You make a living
playing the guitar? Wow! What band do you play with?" And I said, "I don't. I don't play
with a band, I play solo." And he said, "Oh, then you're a singer." I said, "No. No, I'm a guitar player." But then I started thinking about it; I do have a band, and the band is me. And I think like a band, and that's
what's different about what I do. I think like a band when I play,
and when I write, and when I perform. And that's how I hear music. I hear it is if it is a band,
and I write as if I'm writing for a band. So I'd like you to meet my band,
just to get started, and that is my bass player (Bass guitar music) drummer (Drum-like music) I've got a rhythm guy as well. Think at the money I'm saving up here. (Laughter) (Guitar music) And then finally the melody guy (Music) (humming a song) I'll play the bridge, I think. (Guitar music) Good. (Applause) Thank you! That's my one-man band. (Applause) Thank you. And I wouldn't be standing up
here tonight and playing this way if it wasn't for a great man
by the name of Chet Atkins. I was about seven years old
when I heard him, I was on the road with my family. I'm one of six children,
and four of us played music, but we were driving along in the car, I tuned in the radio,
and I heard this song by this American guitar player
by the name of Chet Atkins. And what he was doing is something
I'm just going to quickly explain to you. With his thumb,
he was playing the left hand, on the piano would play,
the accompaniment, and then with his fingers he was
playing the melody and the harmonies. So this is what it sounds like,
here is the accompaniment. (Music) And then here is the melodies. (Music) Tommy Emmanuel: Is that enough?
(Audience) No! TE: I'll play with you. (Music) (Humming a song) So that moment was
a galvanizing moment in my life. I heard that sound, and I knew
he was playing everything at once. Everybody told me,
"Oh don't take any notice to that. It's a recording trick,
you can't really do that." But I somehow I could hear it,
and I wanted to work it out. I just kept at it, and at it, and at it,
listening to Chet Atkins. I eventually got it. Of course, many years later, I wrote him a fan letter,
and we became pen pals. Then, by the time
when I was in my early 20s, I had learned so much of his material and taught myself to play in a way
that was different from everybody else. And I knew it,
and I was enjoying it so much it; it was so much of a challenge,
and so creative in its own way. When I eventually got to meet him
I played for him, and he confirmed
that I was doing everything right, even though I had no training,
and I still haven't had any training. I still don't read or write music, but I can write you a song,
I just can't write it out on paper. So anyway, this style
I developed has helped me to keep my one-man show interesting
and to try to come up with new ideas. So in my late teens, I started listening to a lot of pop music and trying to come up with arrangements
using these techniques; the technique of playing
everything at once. So some tunes by the Beatles
make really interesting pieces, and they have become
a big part of my repertoire. People love it where you get that. (Playing "Day Tripper") Something like this! (playing and humming "Lady Madonna") So you get the idea, right? (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) Another thing I started doing
when I was young was banging on my guitar like a drummer because I am a drummer. I've always played the drums and loved it. So when we were fortunate enough
to have electronics where there's a microphone
inside the guitar, I started experimenting by playing
the guitar like a drum. So I found these patterns, and I found a way
of making it sound really interesting. (Drum-like sounds) (Applause) Whoa, look at it! Then I started trying to use
my imagination and try new things so I got myself a brush,
and I started doing this. (Music) And then I started doing this with my brush so I could get Whoa! (Applause) Thank you. Thank you very much. This stuff is
all in the name of entertainment and making my one-man band
interesting for my audience. There's another sound and another
technique that I use on the guitar, that I first heard Chet Atkins doing. And then a little bit later on,
a great guitar player who died young; his name is Lenny Breau. This technique is called
cascading harmonics. It's not easy to do,
but it is a beautiful sound. And the reason it's called "cascading" is because people describe it
like a waterfall. So like this. (Cascading harmonics) I use this technique to make
my arrangements interesting and create parts of my show
that become very intimate with the crowd. Some songs
like "Somewhere over the rainbow," or the Beatles' "Michelle," where I used this technique. (Playing "Michelle") (Applause) Thank you. I use those techniques to make a sound
that I never heard anybody else doing, especially here in Australia. But when I started traveling overseas, I noticed that most people over there
hadn't heard it before, and it was a new sound for them. These are all things
that I got from from Chet Atkins. One of the things that I think
I learned the most from him would be the quality of songs
that you choose to play. And the other thing was I quickly learned that if I wanted
to stand out as a musician, I should play my own songs. So I started writing songs
at a very young age, and I spent a lot of time
learning the craft of songwriting. Well, it's one of the parts
of my life that I really love the most. I want to play you
a little bit of a song that I wrote. I read a book called,
"The journals of Lewis and Clark." Lewis and Clark were these explorers
who discovered the American West, and they were led by a young native girl. After I read this book,
it challenged me to write a song to describe the American West, the great unknown, and constant travel. Let me play you a little bit of this song. If you want to close your eyes and imagine
you’re out in the American West that's what you can do,
that's what songs do, they transport us and take us. (Music) (Humming) Yeah. (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) Every now and again
I come up with an arrangement that involves
quite a lot of my techniques all involved in one song. One of those songs
is this song, "Classical gas." (Playing "Classical Gas") All right! Yeah! (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) Alright. I'm going to read a little bit because my wife helped me
put all this together, and she writes in such a wonderful way that I decided
that I wanted to read a little. This is what she wrote for me,
this I say to you. "A lot of these things that I do
could be seen as show pony tricks, but for me the real critics
are my fans and my audience. When they laugh at my bad jokes,
or when they cry at my ballads, and when they share stories
that involve my music, it touches my heart so deeply. And I know that I'm doing the right thing. My music has been played
at weddings, at funerals, others have learned my songs
and make their living playing like I do. My music has brought life
to Alzheimer's patients, will power to cancer survivors,
and escape for grieving families, joy to people's daily drive to work. I hear these stories, and I know that music goes
beyond what we see, hear, and feel. There's some innate sense
that gets triggered by it, no matter how turned off
if you think you are. That's why we tap our foot
when we hear a groove like this." (Playing) Yeah! There's another point
that I wanted to make here, it was one of the things
that has enabled me to live the dream life
- in other words, do what I really love - and achieve my goals. "Chet Atkins once told me that I am
the most fearless player he'd ever met. And I think that being fearless is a huge part of breaking molds
and raising self-belief. I have had many times in my life
where people told me that my plans were rubbish,
that were crazy, that I would fail. But I ignore the critics,
and I keep working to make my show and my life
better and better. Music brings people together, and I love being a catalyst for it. So I play my shows, I meet
my fans as often as I can, I answer their questions on my forum,
I read their Facebook comments, I upload videos to YouTube
for them to enjoy. I continue to tour around the world
and take my one-man band with me." And just remember folks
that life is not a rehearsal. So you better get on with it. (Cheers) (Applause) Thank you. (Applause) Thank you. (Applause)
Tommy is awesome! My uncle and dad have played with him a lot over the years. Here's some stuff they've done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCMWXhodsE4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDJhvNCogZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoClTaf84KQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udvrDYPDwLs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uim2K4UqMo
I saw Tommy live last year and it was incredible. He asked the audience who was playing the guitar and about 3/4 lifted a bit ashamed their arms :) he just laughed and told us to practice as hard as we can. His tone,technique and feeling are really unique.Here he is playing "Angelina": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhR04kmcSXU edit: and here is my favorite song "The Mystery": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1tZ5hqcgmA sorry, had to post it too ;)
Got a chance to see this guy live, was pretty great. He's a bit full of himself here, though. He was a lot funnier when I saw him, making jokes and accompanying the jokes with funny sounds from the guitar.
He kinda lost me at the percussion part but man cascading harmonics are cool.
Tommy is the man.
My favourite song is Train to Düsseldorf.
Damn Tommy is awesome. Been listening to him for what seems like forever.
Saw him about 7 years ago live. Amazing beyond belief on the guitar, but the song that really sticks out is he had the entire crowd whisper "mr. Bojangles" with him. It was the most haunting and beautiful song I may ever hear.
What is the name of the first song he plays?