Guitar advice from Tommy Emmanuel

Tommy Emmanuel. Photo / Suppllied

Tommy Emmanuel returns to New Zealand next month to remind us why he's considered one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world.

He has a new album It's Never Too Late in the works, out in September, but it's the live shows where Emmanuel fretboard dazzle makes the most sense.

But as well as being a touring musician's musician the Nashville based Australian - who was briefly a member of Kiwi band Dragon - has been holding guitar workshops and camps for players since he shifted his career to the United States. It's all part of the virtuoso guitarist's efforts to pass on the torch - the one he picked up from his idol Chet Atkins, the finger-picking guitarist who first invited Emmanuel to the American capital of country music in 1980, where he's lived for many years.

The pair played together over the years: one of their duets was nominated for a Grammy not long before Atkins died.

"When Chet got old and had cancer his motor skills pretty much disappeared. He wanted me to play for him so he could have a guitar playing close to him and there were so many things that he wanted to hand on to me.

"He said 'call me as often on the road and let me know what is going on out there in the world'. He'd ask 'Are there any good finger-pickers in Japan?' Or I could be in a place like Malaysia and I could call him up and say 'hey I am doing a workshop and I have 500 students today do you have a message for them?'

"He'd say 'Well tell them to tap their foot' and stuff like that.

Well, as we're in a musical advice kind of mood, oh guitar guru, what should folks do if they or their offspring want to take up the guitar?

Here's a sort of Emmanuel guitar manual chapter one, abridged.

1. Don't spend a fortune

"The first thing is don't run out and spend a fortune on a guitar. Just get a cheap guitar. Make sure the guitar is set up comfortably so it's not going to be a struggle to play. A lot of parents are not even aware of that. Usually the retailer doesn't say anything about that, they want to make the sale. But if when you buy a guitar - say it's something medium like a Yamaha - you have got to remember every instrument comes from the factory set up with a higher action [the distance the strings are from the fretboard] so it sounds the best.

So don't spend a fortune on an instrument, but get it set up so it's nice to play."

2. Find a good teacher

"Find someone who will start the person off in the right way to learn chords and learn what the notes are. Some people think you have to learn to read music or you are not considered a musician and that is not true at all. I still don't read music. I am completely self taught and I play by ear and I have been getting away with it my whole life."

3. Learning off YouTube or interactive learn-to play technology is fine but ...

"It's all good. No doubt about. The only thing I always caution people on is don't get trapped into only being able to play a song while you are reading it off tablature. Tablature should be a road map for you. What you should be doing is learning the song by ear and exercising your ear and learning how to use your ear, learning how to recognise a chord and a sound and work it out by the sound of it."

4. Practise and perform

"Get you repertoire together. Get your playing together. Get some experience and get out there and play in front of people. That is the only way you are going to get started on it."

Who: Tommy Emmanuel
When and where: Founders Theatre, Hamilton on Wednesday, August 19; ASB Theatre, Auckland on Thursday, August 20.

- TimeOut