Tommy Emmanuel Fingerstyle Guitar Lessons (TrueFire REVIEW).

See if this sounds familiar-

You’re a fan of Tommy Emmanuel and you play guitar. You would love to be able to play his tunes even somewhat like him, but no matter how many tabs you find and YouTube videos you watch it never seems to come together.

Something is missing.

I know how you feel.

That was me before I stumbled on TrueFire’s Tommy Emmanuel guitar lessons.

Now, I don’t mean to give the impression that I can play acoustic guitar as well as Tommy Emmanuel. I doubt I’ll ever be that good. But I realize I don’t have the kind of time to devote to it that Tommy does.

What I can do since I’ve been using the TrueFire courses is play Tommy Emmanuel’s songs far better than I ever thought possible.

This is why…

Learn fingerstyle guitar from the master himself!

TrueFire offers 5 different guitar courses taught by Tommy Emmanuel himself:

• Certified Gems – Tommy teaches you how to play 5 of his classics (including Classical Gas).
• Certified Gems Vol 2 – Learn how to play 5 more Tommy Emmanuel tunes.
• Little By Little – Learn how to play virtually the entire album!
• Fingerstyle Milestones – Tommy will teach you the fundamentals to solid thumb-and-finger style guitar.
• Fingerstyle Breakthroughs – This course builds on the fundamentals learned in Milestones so you can take your fingerstyle guitar playing to the next level.

For each song Tommy first shares a little background on his inspiration for the composition and then performs the tune in its entirety.

Next Tommy takes you through a detailed note-by-note breakdown covering every section of the arrangement and every technique he employs during the performance.

This part alone is worth every penny because you get all the tips, inside and out from the composer himself!

Tommy covers the intros, verses, choruses, outros and any improvisational sections. It’s almost like watching him as he composes.

This is the only way to truly learn the tunes because, as he states many times over the lessons, others often misinterpret the trickier passages. Even when you learn the passage from another instructor there is often an easier way to play it that Tommy has figured out.

Why not learn it straight from the man himself?

Tommy Emmanuel Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar Lessons on TrueFire

Fingerstyle Milestones

Fingerstyle Milestones is a 97 video course of foundational etudes (studies) and songs:

• Beginner’s Blues
• Buffalo Girls
• Creole Belle
• Yankee Doodle Dixie

Tommy Emmanuel is not only one of the most talented fingerstyle guitarists in the world, he’s also a gifted teacher. His passion for sharing his knowledge and craft is on full display in these lessons.

Tommy’s Fingerstyle Milestones guitar lessons are a perfect course for those looking to develop their fingerstyle technique as fast as possible. It’s an accelerated learning experience that will put you on the road you to where you want to be.

Fingerstyle Milestones is ideal for early intermediate to advanced guitar players who are ready to develop finger and thumb independence and explore the polyphonic wonders of fingerstyle guitar.

Tommy’s engaging, hands-on ‘milestone’ teaching approach will guide you through all of the fundamental principles and techniques required to play bass, rhythm and melody parts simultaneously. You’ll play your way through the course material and Tommy will have you up and running quickly without tedious theory or boring exercises.

-Tommy Emmanuel

The Fingerstyle Milestone course is broken into four sections, or milestones:

• ORIENTATION
• THUMB & BOOMCHICK
• ADDING THE FINGERS
• LEARNING SONGS.

SECTION 1: ORIENTATION

Tommy begins with the basics here. He discusses different types of guitars and how they relate to fingerstyle playing. He also covers string choice, thumbpick options, hand size and more.

SECTION 2: THUMB & BOOMCHICK

Here Tommy covers the anatomy of the boomchick sound. He covers using the thumb for bass, palm mutes, and thumbpick angle. You’ll learn to play “BoomChick” Etudes in E, C and G in open position and Barre chords.

SECTION 3: ADDING THE FINGERS

You will learn how to accompany your thumb by playing the melody with your remaining fingers. Tommy covers hand posture, timing, syncopation, chords and much more.

SECTION 4: LEARNING SONGS

The final milestone is the one you waited for. Here you learn the classic songs in fingerstyle by putting it all together.

Strap on your favorite thumbpick and take a trip to the woodshed with Fingerstyle Milestones and you will become a fingerstyle player far quicker than you ever imagined.

Here’s a demo:

Great course for anyone new to “Boom Chick” Fingerstyle playing! If you’re interested in Boom Chick fingerstyle, but have never played it before, this is a great intro course. Tommy really walks you through it, step by step. All the lessons are fun and interesting and really give you a solid foundation for this style.

brock25

Tommy does a great job here, starting from scratch and going over basic rhythm only etudes. This does quickly grow, and I found the trick here is to stay on one step at a time until comfortable, because each etude brings a new physical skill you’d need to play the whole tunes. You have to enjoy Tommy’s humor and modest approach all along.

dragansd

Tommy Emmanuel, is an excellent teacher! But really excellent!! The lessons are very well presented, short, with no blabla, an exercise preparing to the song, challenging but short so that you can quickly get it and then practice it to make it sound. And after every lesson you can play something nice, even if it’s only the boom chick, which keeps the motivation, which makes all the difference.

Anna Scott

Fingerstyle Breakthroughs

Continue your fingerstyle guitar studies with Fingerstyle Breakthroughs : 59 video guitar lessons.

Songs including:

• Sweet Alla Lee
• Spanish Fandango
• Back Home Again In Indiana
• House of the Rising Sun
• Tennessee Waltz
• Liebestraum
• Waltzing Matilda
• Lime House Blues
• The Entertainer
• Avalon
• Golliwog’s Cakewalk

Fingerstyle Breakthroughs is Tommy Emmanuel’s newest acoustic guitar lesson course. In this course you will learn even more of Tommy’s tips and techniques.

Fingerstyle Breakthroughs* picks up where Fingerstyle Milestones left off.

”On our journey as fingerstyle players, we start out learning the importance of thumb independence, boomchick bass, chords, melodies and harmony. In Fingerstyle Milestones we worked on your basic fingerstyle skills, and now with Fingerstyle Breakthroughs we’re going to learn 11 songs and new techniques such as inversions for boomchick patterns, muting techniques, classic fingerstyle licks, and how to build thumb speed.”

-Tommy Emmanuel

This course is broken into 3 sections:

• 2 new songs
• ‘breakthrough’ techniques
• Tommy’s original fingerstyle arrangements of 9 more songs

SECTION 1: New Songs

In this section you will learn Sweet Alla Lee and Spanish Fandango. Tommy first plays the each song through at tempo, then breaks it all down for the instructional, just like the other lessons.

These two songs teach bass muting techniques and sustaining the melody (keeping the higher notes ringing out).

SECTION 2: ‘Breakthrough’ Techniques

Learn Tommy’s Boomchick Inversions, Muting Techniques, Classic Fingerstyle Licks & Exercises, Bringing Out The Melody, Building Thumb Speed, Quick Chord Changes, 4 Stretching Exercises & Playalongs, and Key Changes.

This sets the stage for section 3.

SECTION 3: More Songs

Here you will learn to put it all together by playing the following songs:

• Back Home Again In Indiana
• House of the Rising Sun
• Tennessee Waltz
• Liebestraum
• Waltzing Matilda
• Lime House Blues
• The Entertainer
• Avalon
• Golliwog’s Cakewalk.

It was thanks to Tommy Emanuel that I first came to the TrueFire website. And this is a course that has changed a lot for me. Not only did I get better as a guitarist, I got a new way to learn something new. As for the course itself, it is magnificent.

Ivan D.

Great Fingerstyle Course. This is an incredible True Fire course. Tommy Emmanuel is a guitar legend and he walks you through the basics of fingerstyle guitar. He shows you how to play in the styles of Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. Overall a great course on the fundamentals of fingerstyle guitar. Definitely check it out!

Brendan C.

Outstanding! I would peg this course as fitting for someone who is already somewhat adept at playing finger style, but wants to extend their knowledge to Tommy’s (and Chet’s, or course) style. If you do this course, take the time to nail down each section. You may not be 100%, but keep working and it will come. I totally agree with Tommy; learn songs, not just scales, arpeggios, etc.

Greg

Certified Gems

Tommy Emmanuel’s Certified Gems includes 52 multi-angle video guitar lessons comprised of full performances and detailed breakdowns of the follow songs:

• Borsalino
• Classical Gas
• Cowboy’s Dream
• Mr Guitar
• To B Or Not To B

”In this first edition of Certified Gems we’ve picked 5 songs for you – some of them I’ve been performing at my concerts for quite a while, some of which people have written to me and asked to do an instructional video about. We’ll learn Mr. Guitar, Classical Gas, Borsalino, To B or Not To B and Cowboy’s Dream. First I’ll tell you a little about the song – where it comes from, why I wrote it – and then I’ll perform the song for you, after which I’ll break it down and teach you how to play it.

These are songs that I’ve thought about carefully because they’re all songs that I love to play and wonderful songs to learn. When I tour, people are always asking me “Can you play ‘Classical Gas’? Will you play “To B or Not B’?”, and I just wanted to share them with you. I’m also so excited about the fact that we’ve got this new technology where you’ll be able to get any kind of camera angle you want. We’ve got different ones on the left hand, different ones on the right hand, we’ve got a wide shot, and even a composite view. I want you to have fun with this and I’m really, really thrilled that we’re able to bring you this kind of teaching method that is really thorough and done properly, and I just hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as I’ve had bringing it to you. So, enjoy!”

-Tommy Emmanuel

Tommy can do no wrong in my eyes. He makes no bones about it, this is a challenging course, but his very explicit breakdown to achievable steps makes it accessible, and when you have climbed each little mountain, there is such a great sense of achievement

Terry218Smith

Certified Gems Vol 2

Tommy’s Certified Gems 2 includes 52 multi-angle videos guitar lessons.

Full performances and detailed breakdowns of these songs:

• Dixie McGuire
• Waltzing Matilda
• Stevie’s Blues
• Amazing Grace
• Hope Street

”In this second edition of Certified Gems we’ve picked 5 songs for you – some of them I’ve been performing at my concerts for quite a while, some of which people have written to me and asked to do an instructional video about. We’ll learn Hope Street, Waltzing Matilda – Australia’s unofficial national anthem – and Amazing Grace, a beautiful and spiritual song. We’ll also work through Stevie’s Blues, dedicated to the great Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Dixie McGuire, which I recorded with Chet Atkins. First I’ll tell you a little about the song – where it comes from, why I wrote it – and then I’ll perform the song for you, after which I’ll break it down and teach you how to play it.”

-Tommy Emmanuel

I love the teacher’s easygoing style. You get a lot of content and absolutely no fluff; the teacher stays on subject and keeps the lessons bite-size so you are able to learn as much as possible in a short amount of time and you are able to keep adding layers of knowledge with each new lesson. Great teacher and great material! Tommy Emmanuel is awesome and this gems course is just what the doctor ordered. I highly recommend this course along with his other gems course.

Jeffochka

Little By Little

This course is 162 videos totaling 5 hours of guitar lessons. It’s essentially a video songbook of the entire Little By Little album.

• Halfway Home
• The Jolly Swagman
• Locomotivation
• Haba Na Haba
• Waiting For A Plane
• Tears For Jerusalem
• The Finger Lakes
• The Welsh Tornado
• The Mighty Mouse
• Rubys Eyes
• Moon River
• Jack Magic
• Papa George
• Mountains Of Illinois
• Countrywide
• Smokey Mountain Lullaby

”Hello thrillseekers! I’m excited to offer you 16 video song lessons from my album, Little by Little. Take that title as your mantra, because that’s the way you’re going to learn these things properly; a bit at a time. All the instruction you need is on here and I’m also so excited about the fact that you’ll be able to get any kind of camera angle you want. We’ve got different ones on the left hand, different ones on the right hand, we’ve got a wide shot, and even a composite view. In this Little By Little Video Songbook we’ve included video lessons for 16 songs on my Little By Little album.

First I’ll tell you a little about the song – where it comes from, why I wrote it – and then I’ll perform the song for you, after which I’ll break it down and teach you how to play it. This is a wonderful teaching method, and I’m really thrilled to be a part of this whole program for your benefit. So, I wish you all the best in your journey learning these songs, and I hope that it improves your playing, improves your life, and inspires you. What we need to be is inspired! Got that? Good luck!”

-Tommy Emmanuel

Master Class by a CGP! I bought this course because I love Tommy’s Little By Little album. I had no finger picking experience prior and in hind sight I could have chosen lighter material to begin my journey. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t change it – these tunes are extremely difficult but if you’re willing to put in the work the sound coming out of your 6 string will be more than worth. Tommy breaks down all the tunes with multiple camera angles.

seanymullz

I have been playing guitar with passion for nearly 40 years. I used to play mainly rock/blues electric. I thought I was a really good guitar player. Then I discovered finger-style guitar. I have been learning it for almost a year and now realize that I have a loooong way to go before I’m satisfied with my playing. Tommy and many others have been a tremendous influence in this change my approach to the guitar. My only regret is I didn’t discovery this sooner in life

Chris

I got this course last week, wow, this is like having Tommy come to your house for private lessons. very intense and thorough, every nuance is explained and the multi camera angles are very helpful, great tab also. this course is value for money ++++, you get 15 songs from the CDs enough to keep me going for the next year.

Kevin W.

Why you should consider TrueFire courses (my personal story).

I’ve seen programs like this in the past and the courses are usually poor quality, or very expensive – or both! This is not the case with TrueFire. The courses are all high quality and most contain 3 camera views so you can see the left hand front two angles and the right hand all in sync to get the best view for what you’re learning. The price of  downloads typically ranges from $12 to $30, but they have frequent sales and I’ve even gotten a number of courses for $5 during “12 days of Christmas” and similar sales.

I hate spending money on something I’m not going to use and I had been bitten in the past by various “online guitar classes”, so I was cautious about TrueFire in the beginning. But I have to say that they have been the best use of my time and money, next to having a 1-on-1 in-person lesson. I’ve gotten about 20 different courses that suit my style interests and skill level and I’ve made more progress as a player in the 10-20 minutes a night that I use these courses than I had in the first 15 years of playing!

TrueFire is the perfect platform to learn fingerstyle guitar lessons from Tommy Emmanuel. The reason is their mult-camera recording technique and interactive lesson player.

An artist like Tommy is notoriously difficult to catch in his native environment. He is simply too phenominal to catch in the act. You need to have detailed video and slow motion in many cases and that isn’t possible from a concert performance.

This is where TrueFire comes in.

The TrueFire learning platform features:

• multi-angle interactive video
• looping
• zooming
• standard tab, standard notation, Guitar Pro files
• text narrative and other handy learning tools and controls.

The multi-angle video is killer. You can watch your choice of wide angle, right-hand, left-hand and composite views of all lessons.

Ever wonder what it is that Tommy is doing with his left hand when he plays an inverted chord with hammer-ons?

Now you can slow it down and zoom in to see for yourself!

The looping feature is pretty much essential for deciphering his outro licks. I swear I would have worn out the player learning Mr Guitar and Borsalino if it wasn’t digital.

TrueFire offers their lessons online or via a desktop or mobile app. The great thing is you buy the course and it’s yours – watch it from whichever device you want at any time!

Plus the new desktop interface tracks your progress and allows you to set any lesson or course as a favorite, for easy access in the future.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your guitar and head over to TrueFire now!

Check out the free previews – you’ll be glad you did!