How to learn any song
Back in 2012, a friend of mine asked me if I would like to come along to a concert with Tommy Emmanuel. I had never heard about the guy, but apparently, he was some kind of world class acoustic guitarist that was touring in my hometown Umeå. I said sure, it is always fun to expand one’s musical horizon. I went to the concert with zero expectations and it turned out to be one of the best things I have experienced in my life. Tommy Emmanuel is an absolute genius and a treasure of a human being. The things he creates with his guitar does not resemble anything else I have ever heard. He is the literal definition of a one-man band. In his own words: “When I was a kid, I wanted to be in show business. Now, I just want to be in the happiness business. I make music, and you get happy. That's a good job.” I don’t know of anyone who does a better job at that, than Tommy Emmanuel.
Those of you who know Tommy Emmanuel know what I mean. And for those of you that don’t know, his performance is like a mix of concert, storytelling and guitar clinic. Every time I have watched him live, I haven been smiling so hard that my face started to hurt towards the end of the concert. His guitar playing beggars belief. In a concert in Gothenburg he played together with another (young) world class guitarist and her playing was impeccable. But when Tommy entered the stage and joined in, the contrast was huge, and I could hardly believe it. It’s not easy to create contrast when you are already above the 99th percentile… What keeps impressing me is his sense of timing. It’s almost impossible to listen without tapping your foot or starting to nod your head to the beat.
Guitar playing aside, between his songs he tells wonderful stories from his rich life. He usually plays hundreds of concerts per year, starting his musical career at six years old, so his storytelling account is well-filled. He also gives simple tips on how you can expand as a musician. Back in Umeå in 2012 in between the songs he said that “I want to tell you how to learn any song in the world.” The audience laughed with what I perceived as a feeling of “No mate, we can’t learn the stuff you are doing, we are only human.” But I sharpened my senses and listened carefully. Here was a world class guitarist about to present the secrets. Here’s what Tommy said, freely interpreted by me.
First, you must find a secluded space for your practice, so that you don’t drive your family insane. Because you will be playing the same thing over and over and over. For days, weeks, months or in my case, even years (depending on the song’s difficulty level). The next step is to divide the song into small “chunks”. For example, if you have a 4-bar part of a song you start out with just bar 1 and rehearse it until you nail it. Then you practice bar 2 until you nail that part. Now you can connect bar 1 and bar 2 and practice the two together, which is not the same thing as playing them separately. And then you proceed with bar 3 and 4 in the same manner described above, and then finally you combine bar 1+2 with bar 3+4 into the whole “chunk” with 4 bars, and practice until you get that part. Then you do the same thing with the next chunk, and the next, until you have disassembled and put the whole song back together. It is also wise to do it with a metronome, starting in slow motion and then increasing until you get the original tempo. “It works for ANY song”, as Tommy said. It’s a tedious process which is a challenge if you are impatient. But I know that this method is the fastest way to acquire any song that you want to learn, and as soon as you start cutting corners, you will spend way more time learning the song and the result will never be as good. Using Tommy’s method, I know that I am on the shortest, fastest and most effective path towards song mastery, and then I just enjoy and love the process.
So, what song would you like to learn?