connerwalden
Verified buyer
12/31/25
Great purchase, definitely not a beginner course though
It’s like Tommy is on a couch giving me insights on my playing!
Play With Fire: Stories Without Words
Storytelling with Solo Fingerstyle Guitar
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About this course
TrueFire’s Play With Fire is a curated video series of music education documentaries that examine today’s most influential artists and their unique contributions to our musical heritage. In this Stories Without Words edition of Play With Fire, Tommy Emmanuel shares his extraordinary musicality and creative techniques for composing and performing songs that tell “stories without words.”
”Hello thrill-seekers! I’m excited to share with you a lot of my early experiences and influences that formed the building blocks for the things that were coming later in my career as a songwriter and performer. We’re going to go deeper into the melodic, rhythmic and harmonic approaches that I use today to tell “stories without words.”
I’ll share some of my early influences and show you how they helped shape my own sound. In particular, Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, Marty Robbins, The Shadows, my brother Phil, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.
I’’ll demonstrate how I use the thumbpick, harmonics, moving baselines, rhythm, melody, percussion, tempo and harmony when writing, arranging and performing songs.
I selected 10 of my own songs to illustrate how to transform all of these influences, approaches and techniques into evocative musical stories that connect with an audience.“
Tommy will explain, demonstrate and break down all of the key concepts and approaches in play. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies.
Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar and let’s tell stories with Tommy Emmanuel!
”Hello thrill-seekers! I’m excited to share with you a lot of my early experiences and influences that formed the building blocks for the things that were coming later in my career as a songwriter and performer. We’re going to go deeper into the melodic, rhythmic and harmonic approaches that I use today to tell “stories without words.”
I’ll share some of my early influences and show you how they helped shape my own sound. In particular, Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, Marty Robbins, The Shadows, my brother Phil, Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.
I’’ll demonstrate how I use the thumbpick, harmonics, moving baselines, rhythm, melody, percussion, tempo and harmony when writing, arranging and performing songs.
I selected 10 of my own songs to illustrate how to transform all of these influences, approaches and techniques into evocative musical stories that connect with an audience.“
Tommy will explain, demonstrate and break down all of the key concepts and approaches in play. You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies.
Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.
Grab your guitar and let’s tell stories with Tommy Emmanuel!
What you'll learn
- Apply harmonic techniques to melody arrangements
- Visualize fretboard shapes while looking down at the guitar
- Learning to appreciate melody, chord structure, and harmonic relationships
- Developing a mindset focused on meaningful composition
- Develop hand strength for sustained harmonic shapes
Release date: 12/07/2021 • 4h 55m runtime
Sample lessons
Telling Stories Without Words
Overview
Lewis & Clark
Telling Stories Without Words
Lewis & Clark
Performance
Dixie McGuire
Performance
What's included
51 lessons • 39 charts
Play With Fire: Stories Without Words
Hello thrillseekers, Tommy Emmanuel here and welcome to Stories Without Words.
I’m excited to share with you a lot of my early experiences and things that happened to me that became the building blocks that set me up for the things that were coming.
We’re going to examine and go deep into what I’ve learned along the way, what I use, and how I use it to tell Stories Without Words.
With this series of Stories Without Words, I’m going to take ten of my songs and I'm going to reveal to you everything about them. I’ll show you how to develop your technique and how to improve your skills.
Ready to go? Grab your guitar and let’s get started!
I’m excited to share with you a lot of my early experiences and things that happened to me that became the building blocks that set me up for the things that were coming.
We’re going to examine and go deep into what I’ve learned along the way, what I use, and how I use it to tell Stories Without Words.
With this series of Stories Without Words, I’m going to take ten of my songs and I'm going to reveal to you everything about them. I’ll show you how to develop your technique and how to improve your skills.
Ready to go? Grab your guitar and let’s get started!
Musical Memories
In this video I'll talk a little bit about my childhood, and how my parents' love of music helped shape the person I am today. My mother's desire to learn to play Hawaiian songs on guitar eventually led to the two of us playing guitar together after school and learning everything we could get our hands on.
Early Influences
Hank Williams, Jimmy Rogers, Marty Robbins, and The Shadows were all major influences on me. I'll get into more detail about some of these major artists of the day and demonstrate how the song "Apache" by The Shadows really opened my eyes with regard to playing rhythm guitar.
Ear Games with Phil
My brother Phil and I came up with a game we used to play on long car rides that, in hindsight, really helped to hone our listening skills. From there we were able to sort out chord relationships and other important musical elements with nothing more than our minds. I'll talk in more depth in the video. Check it out!
The Happy Accident
One thing nobody had ever taught me, was that there was such a thing as a bass guitar! In this video I'll talk about a defining moment of my life that happened while I was holding a makeshift radio antenna out of the car window. Enjoy!
Telling Stories Without Words
In this video I'll explain a little bit about what it is I'm trying to do when playing guitar. In short, I'm telling stories without words. Check it out!
Lewis & Clark
Here I'll talk about my song "Lewis & Clark" and describe my thought process for trying to convey the amazing story of Lewis & Clark without any words. How do you say all of this with music alone? I'll do my best to explain.
+ 44 more lessons
Reviews
10 results
to0511
Verified buyer
12/07/22
Great to know the background for each song.
Guitarman001
10/27/22
Perfection
This is like watching the best movie of your life plus throw in great songs that you can learn, all direct from the master. Absolute masterpiece of a course!
sbamah
Verified buyer
10/24/22
Training with story behind it
This is a nice training video from the great Tommy Emmanuel, but in addition, this package provides a good in-depth story behind the songs under consideration.
Scotty77
Verified buyer
03/18/22
Very informative
I've loved Tommy's playing since I first heard it. So, to be able to hear where his influences came from is fantastic. Above my playing abilities technically (which I knew before buying) but truly inspirational. And, it gives me something to work towards. Which is what it's all about, isn't it. Thank you Tommy for letting us get into your life.
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