**The Tommy Emmanuel Interview | World’s Greatest Acoustic Guitarist — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/the-tommy-emmanuel-interview-world-s-greatest-acousti-transcript/

Tommy Emmanuel shares insights on guitar mastery, arrangement techniques, and blending styles in this in-depth interview with Rick Beato.

## Key Takeaways

- Master the melody as originally composed before personalizing arrangements.
- Incorporate surprise elements and complex harmonies to enhance musical interest.
- Draw inspiration from various genres and instruments to develop a unique guitar style.
- Audience engagement is a key measure of a performance's effectiveness.
- Continuous evolution and reinterpretation of pieces reflect artistic freedom and growth.

## What the video covers

- Tommy Emmanuel discusses his guitar influences, including Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, and jazz musicians.
- He explains his approach to arranging songs, focusing on interpreting melodies as the composer intended.
- Emmanuel highlights the importance of surprise and sophisticated harmony in keeping music engaging.
- He shares techniques for incorporating piano-like phrasing and vocal harmonies into guitar playing.
- Tommy emphasizes learning melodies thoroughly before adding personal stylistic elements.
- He describes adapting classical pieces like 'Classical Gas' for solo guitar performance.
- Audience response is crucial for evaluating the success of his arrangements and performances.
- Emmanuel talks about the evolution of his playing style over time, using 'Lady Madonna' as an example.
- He stresses the difference between skill development and musical expression when learning complex pieces.
- The interview reveals Tommy’s dedication to blending genres and creating unique guitar interpretations.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

So I have Tommy Emmanuel here, who's one of my absolute favorite guitarists in the world.

00:11

Speaker B

I want to keep moving my chair forward so I can see everything that Tommy plays.

00:16

Speaker A

Yeah, no, actually, he wants to keep moving his chair forward because he wants to be bigger in the picture, he wants me to look small.

00:29

Speaker B

That's what he's really doing.

00:31

Speaker A

Tommy, how do you get so great on the guitar?

00:35

Speaker B

There's so many different things that you do well.

00:36

Speaker A

Oh, so many different types of guitar playing, you're a great electric guitar player, you're incredibly well well versed in so many different genres and your arrangements utilize so many different types of guitar things.

00:49

Speaker B

Whether it's like I've seen you do your, you know, the cascading harmonics and things like that.

00:54

Speaker A

Well, well, I, I mean, I got it directly from Chet Atkins.

01:00

Speaker B

Yes.

01:01

Speaker A

As all of us did, he was the first person to make that sound on a record.

01:08

Speaker B

Yeah.

01:09

Speaker A

And it was, you know, it was a long time ago.

01:12

Speaker A

It was in probably the late 40s or early 50s.

01:16

Speaker A

Um, Lenny Bro came along and took it to another level.

01:20

Speaker A

I just found ways of doing it myself that, um, I tried to come up with arrangements of songs that the public would know.

01:29

Speaker B

Yes.

01:30

Speaker A

Like Michelle, somewhere over the rainbow.

01:33

Speaker A

I also have an arrangement of, um, Secret Love.

01:37

Speaker A

Which incorporates some other harmonics too.

01:40

Speaker B

Ooh.

01:41

Speaker A

Right.

01:42

Speaker A

So it has a bit of, has a bit of everything.

01:45

Speaker A

You can't, this guitar's not super loud.

01:47

Speaker A

Um, and Mr. and Mrs. Gibson loaned me this today.

01:50

Speaker A

Um, and it's got very light strings on it.

01:53

Speaker A

I use heavier strings, just wanted you to know that.

01:55

Speaker A

But it.

01:56

Speaker B

There are so many different stylistic things.

02:00

Speaker B

There's a lot of really sophisticated jazz harmony that you do in there.

02:03

Speaker A

Well, they, they're the surprise moments.

02:05

Speaker B

Yeah.

02:06

Speaker A

You know.

02:07

Speaker B

That we talked about.

02:08

Speaker A

I saw your interview with Sting and and Dominic.

02:12

Speaker A

And, um, you know, uh, Sting is so right about that.

02:16

Speaker A

We need to be surprised.

02:18

Speaker A

Because actually, surprise equals entertainment.

02:20

Speaker A

You know.

02:21

Speaker A

And I learned that from Pat Metheny.

02:24

Speaker A

And so surprise me is a beautiful thing.

02:27

Speaker A

So, you know, I, I purposely, I went looking for stuff that that is purposely not predictable.

02:32

Speaker B

That's where it gets into those more sophisticated harmony.

02:35

Speaker B

You're really combining so many different styles of harmony in that right there.

02:39

Speaker A

Right there.

02:42

Speaker A

Well, you know, I, I have a lot of people to thank for that.

02:45

Speaker A

You know.

02:46

Speaker A

Chet, of course.

02:48

Speaker B

Yeah.

02:49

Speaker A

Jerry Reed.

02:50

Speaker B

Yeah.

02:51

Speaker A

Ray Charles.

02:52

Speaker A

Yeah.

02:53

Speaker A

Um.

02:54

Speaker A

George Benson.

02:56

Speaker A

Um, and, uh, Lenny Bro, of, of course.

03:00

Speaker A

And, and every jazz player that I've ever come across.

03:04

Speaker A

And piano player.

03:06

Speaker A

I remember one time I was walking through an airport.

03:10

Speaker A

I can't even remember where it was.

03:12

Speaker A

And I, I heard this piano playing.

03:15

Speaker A

And it was, it was.

03:17

Speaker A

And he was playing Moon River.

03:20

Speaker A

And he went, you know.

03:22

Speaker A

Moon River.

03:24

Speaker A

And he wasn't singing.

03:25

Speaker A

And then he went.

03:26

Speaker A

And I went, holy smoke.

03:28

Speaker A

What was that?

03:29

Speaker A

You know, because guitar players don't do that.

03:31

Speaker A

That's right.

03:32

Speaker A

This piano.

03:34

Speaker A

And I said, I gotta steal that straight away.

03:36

Speaker A

So I sat down and got my guitar and worked it out.

03:40

Speaker A

And then I thought, okay, how can I vary it?

03:43

Speaker A

Because I can't use it every time.

03:45

Speaker B

Right.

03:46

Speaker A

So, so.

03:47

Speaker A

The second time.

03:49

Speaker A

Yeah.

03:50

Speaker A

Then.

03:51

Speaker A

So forth.

03:52

Speaker A

And, and I'm.

03:53

Speaker A

I'm trying to do piano things on the guitar.

03:57

Speaker A

To be different because I don't want to be sounding like every other kind of chordal melody kind of guy.

04:00

Speaker A

You know.

04:01

Speaker B

When you're working on an arrangements.

04:03

Speaker B

Arrangement.

04:04

Speaker B

Is there some style of, of, uh, harmony that you like to use?

04:07

Speaker B

If you're playing a Beatles tune, for example.

04:09

Speaker A

Right, then I go for the vocal harmonies.

04:11

Speaker B

I was wondering about that.

04:12

Speaker B

Because I noticed that.

04:13

Speaker A

Yeah, a lot of vocal harmonies do this.

04:17

Speaker A

So some parts go up while the melody's going down and vice versa.

04:21

Speaker A

Right.

04:22

Speaker A

And sometimes you get a harmony.

04:25

Speaker A

Like, uh, like Chet did this beautiful thing in, in Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

04:29

Speaker A

But then.

04:30

Speaker B

Yes.

04:31

Speaker A

Yeah.

04:32

Speaker B

You know.

04:33

Speaker A

It's very pianistic too.

04:34

Speaker A

Yeah, it's very Hollywood as well.

04:36

Speaker A

And there were so many incredible arrangers came out of, you know, the 30s, 40s, 50s in, in Hollywood movies.

04:43

Speaker A

And the music is, is truly amazing.

04:46

Speaker A

So, you know, I stole that idea immediately.

04:50

Speaker A

One day I'll wish upon a star.

04:52

Speaker A

And wake up where the clouds are far.

04:55

Speaker A

So forth.

04:56

Speaker A

Um, and I'm always looking for something that sounds vocal.

05:00

Speaker A

That's, that's, that that is a kind of sound.

05:03

Speaker A

Like it's written in stone.

05:05

Speaker A

The important thing to me is interpreting the melody properly.

05:09

Speaker A

What I learned, uh, through my life, thus far.

05:13

Speaker A

Is that if you want to learn a song and come up with an arrangement, you've got to learn the melody.

05:18

Speaker A

As the, as Chet would say, as the composer intended.

05:21

Speaker B

Yes.

05:22

Speaker A

So learn the melody properly first.

05:24

Speaker A

Um, don't go learning all the other fancy fancy stuff that that so many creative people do.

05:30

Speaker A

Learn the melody properly first.

05:32

Speaker A

Learn the right chords.

05:34

Speaker A

Then if you want to change it and make it your own thing, you can do that.

05:39

Speaker A

But you've got to learn the melody properly first.

05:44

Speaker A

People often say to me, how did you come up with this arrangement of classical gas?

05:48

Speaker A

Right.

05:49

Speaker A

So I learned the original, uh, from my friend Mason, hello Mason.

05:57

Speaker A

As a solo piece, it just took too long to get going.

06:00

Speaker A

The public, when when you're playing in bars and stuff like I was all those years ago.

06:05

Speaker A

Yeah, people have the attention span of a three-year-old.

06:08

Speaker B

You're being generous, I think, too.

06:10

Speaker A

You've got to.

06:11

Speaker A

You've got to keep it rocking and and you got things have to keep moving and grooving and and all that stuff.

06:15

Speaker A

You know.

06:16

Speaker A

So what I did is out of necessity, I changed everything about it.

06:22

Speaker A

And I purposely didn't play the, the original version.

06:26

Speaker A

Because it just didn't work as a solo piece.

06:29

Speaker A

I just took the iconic parts, which is.

06:32

Speaker A

Right.

06:33

Speaker A

And then.

06:34

Speaker A

Yeah.

06:35

Speaker A

Yeah.

06:36

Speaker A

The other three iconic parts.

06:38

Speaker A

Yeah.

06:39

Speaker A

So, um, I just built the rest of it around it.

06:43

Speaker A

And I just threw it out there.

06:46

Speaker A

You know.

06:47

Speaker A

Um, and and people loved it.

06:49

Speaker A

They responded straight away.

06:51

Speaker A

I always judge how something's going by audience response.

06:55

Speaker A

Because.

06:56

Speaker A

That's my job, I'm playing.

06:59

Speaker A

My job is to play for people.

07:01

Speaker A

I, I judge what my work is like and how I'm performing it, how, um, how it comes out.

07:08

Speaker A

By your response.

07:10

Speaker A

You know.

07:11

Speaker A

So you're, you're my, uh, you're my yard stick.

07:15

Speaker A

You're.

07:16

Speaker A

You're my quality control.

07:19

Speaker A

I'm talking to you out there.

07:21

Speaker A

You know.

07:22

Speaker B

If you take a song like Somewhere Over the Rainbow, that has such a sophisticated chord progression.

07:26

Speaker B

That versus if you're doing a, a Beatles song, for example, that may have a simpler chord progression.

07:31

Speaker B

You're always bringing different things in there, different techniques to, to make the, uh, the.

07:35

Speaker A

But the bottom line is, I'm still interpreting the melody correctly.

07:38

Speaker A

Hopefully.

07:39

Speaker B

Yes.

07:40

Speaker A

When I, when I play Lady Madonna.

07:42

Speaker B

Yeah.

07:43

Speaker A

My, my biggest decision is how do I want to make it feel?

07:46

Speaker A

Yeah.

07:47

Speaker A

You know, so I want the singing part to be like Paul McCartney.

07:50

Speaker A

Lady Madonna.

07:51

Speaker A

Right.

07:52

Speaker A

So.

07:53

Speaker A

How do you just play like that?

07:55

Speaker A

Without even, I mean, even warm up or anything.

07:57

Speaker A

I warmed up at 6:00 this morning.

07:59

Speaker B

Oh.

08:00

Speaker A

Um.

08:01

Speaker A

Now, I'm thinking like a singer.

08:03

Speaker A

When I, when I play, see, let's do a quick thing here.

08:06

Speaker A

Here's what happens.

08:07

Speaker A

When you're learning a new song that's complicated like Lady Madonna.

08:11

Speaker A

Yeah.

08:12

Speaker A

You don't play anything else.

08:13

Speaker A

Only that.

08:14

Speaker A

For at least until you can play it well.

08:17

Speaker A

You know.

08:18

Speaker B

Like how long would it take you to, to actually play, to, to do the bass and the melody together?

08:21

Speaker A

Well, I've been playing Lady Madonna, I'm trying to remember when I worked it out.

08:25

Speaker A

It was in the late 70s.

08:26

Speaker B

Yeah.

08:27

Speaker B

I've heard you, I've heard you play it for years.

08:28

Speaker A

I've played it many different ways and I play it differently now to what I did two years ago.

08:32

Speaker A

Mhm.

08:33

Speaker A

Uh, and I just played it a little differently then.

08:35

Speaker A

You know.

08:36

Speaker A

Um, so, which tells you that I, I'm free now.

08:40

Speaker A

I, I'm not, I'm not wrestling with the skill of playing this song.

08:44

Speaker A

Right.

08:45

Speaker A

What I'm doing is, um, I'm putting my, my mojo on the melody.

08:48

Speaker A

Yes.

08:49

Speaker A

Right, so all the rest of it is take, is all taken care of because I've played it enough.

08:54

Speaker A

But when you're working out something like this.

08:57

Speaker B

Yeah.

08:58

Speaker A

You're, it's not music yet.

08:59

Speaker A

It's skill.

09:00

Speaker A

Okay.

09:01

Speaker A

So you've got to work out carefully.

09:04

Speaker A

And people.

09:06

Speaker A

Don't want to do this.

09:08

Speaker A

But there is no other way.

09:10

Speaker B

No.

09:11

Speaker A

You've got to start out bar by bar, a little bit by little bit.

09:15

Speaker A

And and practice it and practice it and practice it.

09:17

Speaker A

Until it comes together and then something happens with our brain.

09:23

Speaker A

And what it is is.

09:24

Speaker A

Our attention suddenly goes to the melody and everything else starts to feel good.

09:30

Speaker A

But our attention goes to the melody.

09:33

Speaker A

Well, I shouldn't say we because.

09:36

Speaker A

I have to speak for myself because it may be different for you.

09:39

Speaker A

You know.

09:40

Speaker A

So our little gray cells.

09:42

Speaker A

How they work.

09:43

Speaker A

But so when I play Lady Madonna now, all I'm thinking about is how do I want to make it feel?

09:47

Speaker A

Right.

09:48

Speaker A

And and I enjoy it.

09:51

Speaker A

I love the song, it's so beautifully written.

09:54

Speaker A

As everything is with Paul McCartney.

09:56

Speaker A

You work out the skill of playing it and with enough playing.

10:00

Speaker A

And enough dedication, that skill turns to music.

10:04

Speaker A

And girls and boys, that's a great reason to get out of bed.

10:08

Speaker B

That is a great reason.

10:10

Speaker B

Okay, so I want to know though, what is hard for you to play?

10:14

Speaker B

Is there something that you're, oh man, that's hard.

10:17

Speaker A

A lot of the stuff that I write.

10:19

Speaker B

Yeah.

10:20

Speaker A

If I don't practice it.

10:22

Speaker A

I, I play it on stage and I come off going, what the hell was that?

10:26

Speaker A

You know.

10:27

Speaker A

Why aren't my hands doing what they're supposed to do?

10:30

Speaker A

I have nights where I come off stage mad at myself.

10:34

Speaker A

Because I haven't come up to where I need to be.

10:38

Speaker A

I'm, I'm trying to push myself.

10:40

Speaker A

You know.

10:41

Speaker A

And I realize, like if I listen to something I recorded 20 years ago.

10:47

Speaker A

I struggle with it today.

10:50

Speaker A

But back then, I was all over it.

10:54

Speaker A

I was just hosing the hell out of it.

10:56

Speaker A

And and it all came and and flowed and it sounded perfect.

11:01

Speaker A

The tuning was great.

11:03

Speaker A

The timing was good.

11:04

Speaker A

Okay, that's good.

11:05

Speaker A

And then, you know, today, if I don't play that song 10 times today.

11:10

Speaker A

I will struggle with it.

11:12

Speaker B

So that's the thing, it's like really keeping up on it.

11:15

Speaker B

Warming up, practicing and and playing.

11:17

Speaker A

Just playing the songs.

11:19

Speaker A

You know.

11:20

Speaker A

What was I playing this morning?

11:21

Speaker A

I was playing.

11:22

Speaker A

Um.

11:23

Speaker A

I was running over a song that I wrote with Chet Atkins, uh, a long time ago.

11:29

Speaker A

Because I wanted to put it into my show.

11:31

Speaker A

And tell the story.

11:33

Speaker A

Because it's an interesting story.

11:34

Speaker A

But, um.

11:35

Speaker A

I was running over it.

11:37

Speaker A

It's called Chet's Ramble.

11:38

Speaker A

I was just running it down.

11:40

Speaker A

Because, uh, there's a couple little parts in it that that needed some skill work.

11:44

Speaker A

And stuff like that.

11:45

Speaker B

Okay, when you say skill work, what does that mean?

11:47

Speaker B

That, that means like attention to detail?

11:48

Speaker A

Attention to detail.

11:50

Speaker A

Making sure that, that every move is, like there's a part in the song where there's a key change.

11:54

Speaker A

The song's in A.

11:56

Speaker A

There's a key change into C.

11:58

Speaker A

And it.

11:59

Speaker A

You know what I mean?

12:00

Speaker A

Just that move.

12:01

Speaker A

To get to that clean.

12:02

Speaker A

So that melody just does that.

12:06

Speaker A

Right.

12:08

Speaker A

And sounds like it has a life of its own.

12:10

Speaker A

So.

12:11

Speaker A

And like that.

12:12

Speaker A

And just milk that vibrato out.

12:14

Speaker A

And this thing just.

12:15

Speaker A

It just speaks, you know.

12:18

Speaker A

But you can't travel a lot with an instrument like that.

12:20

Speaker A

It's too fragile.

12:21

Speaker B

Yeah.

12:22

Speaker A

You know.

12:23

Speaker A

The Matons are awesome, they really are.

12:26

Speaker A

And, uh, when I was a kid in Australia.

12:30

Speaker A

What.

12:31

Speaker A

The people that we were idolized, you know, Chet Atkins.

12:36

Speaker A

Uh.

12:37

Speaker A

Glenn Campbell.

12:38

Speaker A

Yep.

12:39

Speaker A

Um.

12:40

Speaker A

Eric Clapton.

12:41

Speaker A

The Beatles.

12:42

Speaker A

Everybody had Gibsons, Martins and, uh, and Fenders.

12:43

Speaker A

You know.

12:44

Speaker A

Couple Rickenbackers in there.

12:45

Speaker A

And Gretsch.

12:46

Speaker A

Of course.

12:47

Speaker A

Chet, Chet was great.

12:48

Speaker A

And Rickenbackers too.

12:49

Speaker A

Yeah.

12:50

Speaker A

My first good guitar was an Australian made Maton.

12:51

Speaker A

Which is in their factory.

12:54

Speaker A

And, uh, where I'll probably, I'll be stuffed and mounted in the factory there.

12:58

Speaker A

You know.

Topics: Tommy Emmanuel acoustic guitar guitar techniques music arrangement jazz harmony Chet Atkins song interpretation guitar interview Rick Beato musical expression


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