Tommy Emmanuel Harmonics Techniques: Guitar Workshop Feb 9th, 2013 San Francisco

[@sbingham1979]

Tommy Emmanuel is one of the greatest guitarists, and you can sense that he is also a wonderful and generous human being. That is why I love him.

[@phillipallen3468]

My god! That's brilliant! I could never understand how he could go so fast using just harmonics. It's because he isn't. When playing 8th or 16th notes, he's playing only every second note as a harmonic. And with triplets, he's using a pull off for the third note in the triad, while playing only the first and third notes as harmonics. No wonder he can play so fast. And here I was thinking he was playing EVERY note as a harmonic. That's why I could only play these harmonics half as fast as he does. That's absolutely brilliant. This one lesson has opened up a whole new area of music for me. It just proves how vital correct knowledge is. Wonderful. Thank you, Tommy. You are truly a master musician -- because you're passing on your superior knowledge to others.

[@surfyogi]

Thanks for your explalination; it helps to reduce the various things he is doing here. I agree, brilliant!

[@birsay123]

God bless you for taking the time to walk us through these techniques. I’ll never play as smoothly as you but you’ve given me lots to work n the expand my horizons as a long time played who had stagnated somewhat. Thank you.

[@delpuckett]

Tommy is the Master - period

[@Pinoysoundmachine74]

Del Puckett - Guitar Agreed! Before Tommy there was Chet Atkins period.

[@SocciMatthew]

Wow, some excellent teaching here. As a guitarist and composer, I find it can be easy for me to stick to my own style of playing and think I've learned it all but as soon as I see Tommy I realise I know nothing! It's amazing what sounds you can get out of the guitar. Thank god for people like Tommy who help musicians push themselves further!

[@aristotle358]

He makes it look so easy. It seems that the right hand with the finger and other finger pluck technique mirrors the chord shape with the left hand. He is arguably the best in the world at this.

[@TommyLourdesMusic]

+aristotle358 it does for sure, he perfectly illustrates what I had always suspected about the sweet spot being relative to the fretted position of each finger..

[@aristotle358]

Tommy Lourdes :-) I've not heard it called "the sweet spot" before, but I like it. It put a smile on my face. I may borrow that expression myself..

[@TommyLourdesMusic]

lol (8 rock on widdit! love this sort of playing.. dont want to master this style but just borrow from it to make my playing a bit more dynamic (8

[@jdw99]

+Tommy Lourdes Yes, it's based in mathematics. The harmonic nodes are located at equally divisible points along the string, so if you divide the string in half, you get the first harmonic node. Of course, if you fret the strings at different points, the halfway point is going to be different for each string, and so the nodes are arranged very similarly to how you fret the strings.

[@aristotle358]

jdw99

[@ericjo77]

Every time I watch one of your video, I want to leave the office and go play guitar :). You are THE Guitar Master/Motivator. Thanks for giving to the community.

[@keyboardwarrior11]

thanks for asking a good question, and for capturing the answer.

[@jottie4213]

I never heard of this guys until Two days ago. Boy have i missed it. Tommy your are WOW!! Words can't describe.

[@jamesrobinson1624]

Every time I hear Tommy, emotions come out that I never had. Thanks Tommy you are the master.

[@catfish1935]

i love how the 'basic as it gets' 12th fret harmonic bit he does at the end is still so damn difficult to do! god he makes it all sound so beautiful doesn't he. what a wonderful player with a great humility and chatting about what he does and trying to help, can't help but love him :)

[@francoismarchand5461]

Love, love, love. Great musicians are great human beings (sometimes). And sharing like that... that's even more fantastic. So many thanks. ☺☺☺

[@Powertuber1000]

He makes it look easy, but there are only a handful of people in the world who can do what he does and he is number one in that group.

[@TrinityGhost1]

I know Tommy wants people to be inspired to play guitar instead of disheartened and depressed, but watching this, damn... it makes it hard. I love how he's like, "there, ya see that?" No, I don't, lol. I have no idea how he's doing it, but at least I can watch/listen to him do it. I think I'll stick to sampling my guitar in parts for the insane level stuff like this (though normal stuff is okay of course, I play fingerstyle steel string, even) and mastering the piano/keyboard instead.

[@Powertuber1000]

Deter Pinklage We were born to play normal stuff, he was not and we have to accept that.

[@crasowl]

I know you commented 2 years ago but that's absolutely not true. There are tens of thousands of people who can pull this off. It's a novice technique. Just work at it and practice hard.

[@Powertuber1000]

crasowl Wrong, there may be many people who can pull off something similar and Tommy probably isn't the best, but practice will only take you so far, if the structure and innate function of your brain isn't capable of processing this level of performance no amount of practice will take you to that level, everyone's brain is different. Obviously.

[@crasowl]

Powertuber1000 Well of course there are limits to how much you can amount to skill-wise, but cascading harmonics isn't one of them. It's not a difficult technique at all. One of my students who have been playing for just over 18 months has already picked it up. If you learn the natural harmonics, it's simply a step-based route to being able to pull this off. 1. Natural harmonics 2. Natural harmonics in right hand 3. Spelling out a chord 4. Adding the third finger plucks I'd say once you're comfortable with natural harmonics, it'll take around 1-3 months to get a hand on cascading harmonics and a further 3-4 before you can really pull them off smoothly (of course all determined by your skill level/learning style).

[@geefoo4627]

Go to 4:15 if you want to learn how he plays harmonics ..... everything before that is him playing with no instructions.

[@ermattia]

Yes, but it's so beautiful listening to him playing!

[@stevepethel6843]

God Bless Tommy Emmanuel ...even more and continually...

[@EduardoBarelli]

Thank you for filming this!

[@viktorstruppek3537]

with a potatoe

[@jimhacker9899]

I must work on this (again) tonight when I get home. Truly amazing!

[@GollakotaPrithvinath]

Jim Hacker So, after 3 years, how did that go?

[@bumbpp1257]

Gollakota Prithvinath He's still working on it. Have some patience for crying out loud!

[@MrDon524]

Thanks Tommy you’re the best

[@gitaaa7740]

That technique he is doing is something I learned from studying classical guitar. Albeit he took it to the next level. 😊

[@misevibre]

Keep doing what you're doing man. Love your music.

[@adeshvar93]

Thank you so much for posting this. Really appreciated =)

[@GarryL]

i just had this workshop today, great guy, amazing guitarist

[@sjb523]

After all these years, this makes me realize what an intrinsically G Maj / E min PENTATONIC the guitar actually is in (standard tuning) with open strings. Don't mean to be a theory geek but I'm interested in how the simplest of relationships (folk music by ear) affect the human condition to the positive. Tommy's music seems to have found this 'sweetspot' between minimalism and complexity. The best thing is how his music makes you FEEL.

[@jdw99]

+sjb523 Yep, and that E min Pentatonic is basically a "blues scale", so that is one big reason that the rise of the amplified guitar led to rhythm & blues and rock & roll becoming so huge. If you had never heard the blues and you just set out to find a chord progression that any half decent guitar player could solo over, you'd come up with something like the 12 bar blues pretty quickly :)

[@RezaManzoori]

@4:19 second finger on sixth and fifth strings BOTH!

[@svendlundby3638]

Holy shit, i didn't notice that!

[@muzzlethathound1978]

Absolute brilliance

[@51516]

Hmmm... i think my guitar is broken. Mine doesn't make these sounds.

[@PeterWesh]

Lol mine too :)

[@SKing-on9gt]

51516 it's not broken it's just cheap

[@FutureRefrence]

practice more

[@wheelie63]

nobody's guitar makes these sounds......except Tommy's...................wb

[@peneleapai]

❤️❤️❤️ Awh. Thanks for sayin, so we don't have to (for *ourselves* I mean!!!!)

[@mtorres07]

How cool. I love this guy.

[@jessiemorton4024]

He's the best!!

[@erman3155]

he is so generous. What a great guy.

[@asxefv]

Man, i was looking for this !

[@paulrichard7226]

Thank you Tommy.

[@Edwin-E]

Amazing.

[@Tinydude10]

Thanks very much for these!

[@Hannib4lBarca]

Makes it look so easy.

[@CanveyIslandCream]

AND THIS GUY IS A DRUMMER !! SHEER GENIUS

[@oldgit4260]

Ex drummers often make good guitarist s

[@CooManTunes]

I wouldn't be surprised if this man inspired some of the Zelda: OOT soundtrack. Beautiful stuff.

[@dennisjohndreher7258]

Tommy Emmanuel shares his talent with others. Not many masters do that.

[@spacelooper5898]

It's a Guitar Workshop... this is not uncommon for Great Guitarists to do... Lenny Breau was doing the same thing in the 70's...teaching this same Harmonic technique.. it is Lenny's sound...

[@douglasmcintyre3297]

I hope more of these workshop videos get posted to YT as soon as possible. And i would have loved a close up on Tommy's hands while he did the tap techniques. Too far a way in the video to really see what he is doing.

[@pablors6718]

I MUST to get that sound !

[@SAZIZMUSIC]

What's the name of the song ? by which he starts his explanation 2:51

[@silviapopovic7036]

Tommy Emmanuel- Somewhere over the rainbow!

[@elpkhan]

One very important question . Is he picking with the thumb or the thumb pick? The thumb pick could increase the distance from the index finger playing the harmonic and make it easier to play and produce a better sound . The thumb pick hanging downward would make the plucking easier and the position of the hand less stressful .

[@wallyramirez5527]

He’s not even using his left hand on the fret board and it sounds ridiculously amazing!!!!

[@timtim-hf3ut]

Magical

[@ermattia]

What a video, what a gem! Thank you Nick. Where and when was it? Anyway, do you know what happened, when he stopped playing? 😁

[@MtnLiner]

It was in tune when I brought it.

[@j_wah3084]

Nice! Thank you.

[@Andrew-vj7gw]

Also love the Mt fingering he uses in last seconds of video.

[@Andrew-vj7gw]

M7th

[@rigolanrigolan5497]

I was convinced that he do only harmonics in somewhere over the rainbow's opening.

[@nick7028]

Pure mastery

[@SocciMatthew]

Cheers man, means a lot :)

[@jx2614]

Harmonic gratitude

my mind = blown

[@zmcleod1]

Lenny Breau was doing this in the 70's,and just as well.

[@albashum1]

+zmcleod1 Cool

[@objectivitycave11]

right, however, Lenny was not as proficient at teaching how to do it

[@eldiegoism]

zmcleod1 so ?

[@spacelooper5898]

actually he was... how do you think a lot of these guys learned?...amazing guitarists were always calling Lenny up when they were in Nashville and learning from him... he was happy to teach them.... the cascade technique is truly Lenny's Sound.. kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3imhJqNpsxjfMk

[@guitar1950]

Yes, but Lenny got the idea from Chet Atkins and expanded upon it. Chet and Tommy picked up Lenny's more complicated and beautiful technique and have probably expanded it more. Thankfully we all benefit from those great guitarists.

[@pablors6718]

what its the name of the first armonich that he use ?

[@anuraggill1162]

He is extra terrestrial. 🤪🤪🤪🤪😎😎😎👍👍

[@hotman718]

This is disgustingly hard. I've tried it. It takes years and years to master this technique or just play it decently

[@MattBrillant]

where the mystery come from : Lenny Breau Guitar Lesson Harp Harmonics Part 1

[@latenightfortunecookie]

can anybody list the chords he is using?

[@hotdoggravy]

Wow

[@SlickRick47]

this will be studied by guitarists for years

[@Pinoysoundmachine74]

Only the masters can do these harmonic touch.

[@joshuarbenton]

Genius

[@ArJay1972]

Mind blown at 6:58 ....

[@atmosphereadr588]

The first time I see someone doing that

[@applemanuk]

Why does Tommy have his AER acoustic amp facing away from the audience at not facing the audience?

[@freak49]

Just remember you always pluck the harmonic 12 frets up from where your left hand is fingering...that's the key.

[@pinkponyofprey1965]

Ha! I begin to have a rudimentary grasp of most of it. Now if I ever can get it to sound 1/10 as smooth as this black belt guitar guru is another question haha! At least I have a good time soooo .... :D

[@hotman718]

a lot of practice...

[@MrTomanderson76]

As far as a lesson on harmonics I like the video Tommy Emmanuel harmonics lesson better.

[@brianlavelle1]

Talk about gracious, Tommy reveals nothing. Don['t we all love him for it!! HIP HIP!! HOORAY!

[@dt1mdlara]

Wow! A Harp Guitar!

[@Lowden025]

Check out Lenny Breau. Pretty sure Tommy studied, learned from him. I know he s a fan of Lenny s.

[@chantalvigneau475]

With professor as Tommy in conservatories,Music would be better played ! We can always dream ....(I'm retired prof !)

[@MelomanMusicCollection]

and there are still people who do not like the way he plays?

[@johnwhite2923]

This takes a certain touch. It seems like something thats hard to explain.

[@チョコ棒-r6c]

すげーかっこいい

[@marcelogalle3439]

Legal

[@vinnothelizard]

tommy called martin taylor the governor because martin is !!! the governor!!

[@leeriley66]

Makes me want to cry...ohhh and learn how to play the guitar. :-)

[@garrisonic]

You mean Lenny Breau harmonic techniques? Yes, that's what you mean

[@blackie75]

can we get the man a cushion? he probably had haemorrhoids after this workshop lol

[@phosphorescence]

the dude tunes the guitar without even referencing other strings, just one harmonic in the end for the E I believe lol. wtf?!1?!?!

[@vacant4]

+phosphorescence he had a tuner on the floor, thats where he's looking Even if he did tune it without a tuner it still wouldnt be as impressive as his actual guitar skills anyway

[@ardnedeggy4756]

Bruce Willis..

[@willohteltv]

Jesus Christ!

[@rainblaze.]

he dosent show you how the harmonic taps relate to the neck hand .... he might have just as well said . I'm gonna show how you do this and thats get streanth in your neck hand and tap with your right, right? and how you do that? And that is..... PRACTICE

[@univuniveral9713]

why do i need harmonics? I am a beginner. I am sure there are loads of cool tribal techniques out there we are never gonna learn, so take whichever what appeals to you , and harmonics don't do me that.

[@subversed]

+Univ Univeral Why do you need to comment? You are a beginner. I am sure you have loads of cool tribal friends out there who we're never gonna meet, so hang out with them instead of commenting to do you that.

[@rblaclewell]

Not from the this earth 🌏

[@paulthoresen8241]

step one: be born with giant fingers

[@hernan7436]

Alan gogoll es mejor

[@keyboardwarrior11]

thanks for asking a good question, and for capturing the answer.