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Emmanuel turns single guitar into full rock '€™n'€™ roll band

Want to know how guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel handles his 300 concerts a year? He travels light!A sound engineer and a marketing person make up guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel’s entourage, along with his equipment of three acoustic guitars

Harry Bhaskara (The Jakarta Post)
Brisbane
Fri, September 18, 2015

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Emmanuel turns single guitar into full rock '€™n'€™ roll band

Want to know how guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel handles his 300 concerts a year? He travels light!

A sound engineer and a marketing person make up guitar wizard Tommy Emmanuel'€™s entourage, along with his equipment of three acoustic guitars.

Thanks to his dazzling finger-picking style, each one of those guitars was able to mesmerize a crowd of more than 1,500 people in a packed hall recently in Brisbane.

Emmanuel uses all his 10 fingers like a pianist playing piano. Coupled with his signature percussive effects on the guitar it sounded like a full rock '€™n'€™ roll band. He singlehandedly played chords, bass, melody, drums and single note runs at blinding speed.

His enthralled audience at the vast Queensland Performing Arts Centre gave him a standing ovation, forgetting the chilly winter weather outside.

'€œThis is the song that has always supported me in difficult times [...] when I had no job, no money, no anything,'€ he told his audience before belting out an encore at the end of his three-hour concert.

The crowd went wild, explaining why the humble one-man band has a dedicated following of admirers worldwide.

The Australian-born guitarist, who now lives in the US, does not read or write music and never had any musical training but has offered regular guitar camps in the US.

His Brisbane concert was a lavish gift as it was not a mere performance but a mini workshop and more.

'€œStrum up and down in a slow tempo,'€ Emmanuel said as he strummed his guitar with his right hand, '€œand gradually increase your speed.'€

He went on to show how to find the melody line. It was a boon to guitar enthusiasts.

Emmanuel unveiled how he developed his percussive technique by tapping various parts of his guitar to produce sounds like those of a drum set.

'€œA mini microphone is attached inside [...] and it is cheap,'€ he said as his audience burst into laughter.

He sent a subtle message through '€œI can'€™t say goodbye'€ about good parenting and familial love for '€œdaughters and sons who are here tonight'€.

Part of the lyrics were '€œ['€¦] he took good care of Mom an'€™ me'€.

Apart from playing solo, Emmanuel also sang a number of songs, including those he composed himself.

He invited Australian violinist virtuoso Ian Cooper on stage and presented a number of superb duets, including '€œGuitar Boogie'€.

'€œBlues in G, that'€™s all I said,'€ Emmanuel told his audience after he finished a sensational rendition with Cooper.

The charismatic guitarist, singer and composer is a complete entertainer.

Many of the tunes he played on the night came from his new album It'€™s never too late, like '€œOnly Elliot'€, '€œHellos and Goodbyes'€ and '€œOld Photographs'€.

He also drew from his 20 full-track albums like the classic '€œSomewhere over the Rainbow'€ whose intro and finish lines sounded like a harp. Emmanuel hit the top ceiling of the boundary of what a guitar can do. It was simply jaw-dropping.

Of the more than 30 tunes he played, crisscrossing musical styles from jazz to classic, he must have picked tens of thousands of notes and chords. But he made only one slight slip of the finger. It was a superhuman feat.

At one time he accidentally dropped his guitar pick. He remained composed and calmly produced another one from his pocket while the music kept going thanks to his left hand.

He seldom used individual picks, except a thumb pick in his right hand.

Unlike many performers, Emmanuel never writes a set list prior to a performance. He decides only on the first tune and takes it from there.

Throughout the show he seemed to enjoy every single tune he played while cracking jokes and telling stories to go with them.

The rapport with his audience was totally effortless, certainly the fruit of a professional performer of over five decades, including those decades when he played with various bands.

The 60-year-old artist got his first guitar at the age of 4. Two years later he hit the streets with his Emmanuel Quartet family band playing from one town to another in his home state of New South Wales.

The first time he heard American guitar legend Chet Atkins play on the radio was a defining moment. He eventually met his mentor in his 20s in the US and so enthralled was Atkins that he described Emmanuel as '€œone of the best guitar players on the planet'€.

Together they produced The Day Finger Pickers Took Over The World, which turned out to be Atkins'€™ last album.

One of a select few to receive '€œCertified Guitar Player'€ status from Atkins, Emmanuel is also a recipient of two Grammy Award nominations and two Golden Guitar awards. He was twice voted Best Acoustic Guitarist by US magazine Guitar Player and is a member of the Order of Australia for his services to music.

'€” Photos courtesy of tommyemmanuel.com

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