[Approaching the back of Tommy Emmanuels guitar technique! Guitar Hero Posture Analysis - Tommy Emmanuel - Things guitarists should know about their body

Hello! My name is Takuto Fujioka, an occupational therapist specializing in guitarists.

The second guitar hero posture analysis was popular last time (?)!
This time I’ll analyze Tommy Emmanuel, the god of the acoustic guitar world that everyone loves.
When I changed from electric guitar to acoustic guitar two years ago, and I first saw Tommy Emmanuel perform, I remember being shocked (?) like someone knocked me out of bed while I was fast asleep. He was a guitar of a different dimension, so I couldn't tell if it was a dream or reality.

Today we are watching a performance video of "Angelina Songs" released on Tommy Emmanuel's official channel.

It is a great pleasure for guitar kids to see a pro’s performance video showing their hands in this way!

This time, I'm going to take a look at one scene from the videos posted on YouTube!

To describe Tommy Emmanuel's posture simply, "the core is solid"! (He has a bit of a belly, but… lol)
Especially, the stability of the upper trunk is good, and the control of the shoulder joints, elbow joints, and wrist joints are excellent. As expected, he is worshiped as a god. He is perfect right up to the way he uses his body. Is it because he is a former drummer? It's a bias, but many drummers have a solid core.
From the perspective of posture analysis, we will approach the back side of the guitar technique of such a guitar god!

The great thing about Tommy Emmanuel is that he has a delicate expression like a harp, sometimes strumming violently almost like blues, or hitting the guitar like percussion, which makes you feel as if you are listening to a band performance. I think it's his "expressiveness".
In order to achieve this high level of expressiveness, "picking stability" is absolutely necessary.
I think that stability here can be rephrased as reproducibility. The higher the reproducibility that "you can play the same phrase with the same quality no matter how many times you play it", the more stable your playing will be. With that stability, I think that you can freely change the arrangement and accent for each live performance.
The story of “stabilizing picking = stabilizing the scapula” was explained in the previous article, so please take a look at that as well( ・∇・)

Returning to my story. This time, I will focus on the right side of the upper trunk!

I am sorry for a slightly rough image. Lol

Think of the blue triangle as the position of the scapula, the red line as the position of the spine, and the green line as the bones of the arm (upper arm, forearm, and hand).
Please be somewhat aware of these three positional relationships.

Not only in this video, but no matter whether he is sitting or standing, the position of Tommy Emmanuel's shoulder blades basically does not move from the position in this photo, and the arm position is slightly wide open on the side set at the picking position (just so that the hand is near the bridge).When changing the position of the hand to fine-tune the picking position or add an accent, the position of the guitar itself is moved, the shoulder joint and the arm parts are moved, but the scapula hardly moves.

No matter which scene you look at, even during intense performances, basically the positional relationship between his shoulder blades, spine, and arms does not shift significantly. He keeps a good posture suitable for playing.
From this, it is possible that Tommy Emmanuel has a high ability to correctly understand and control what is happening with his body. He almost looks like an athlete.

It can also be considered that the scapula, which is the central part, is stabilized in the correct position in order to express delicately with the right arm and hand.
The point here is the correct position.
Stretch the muscles around the shoulders and snap the shoulder blades!If it is completely fixed into position, the arm and the entire neck area connected to the shoulder blade will be stressed, and delicate movements will not be possible. As a result, the position of the scapula also deviates from the original position.
On the other hand, if the muscles around the scapula are too weak, the position of the scapula will be lowered or the shoulder will be rolled up, and the picking position will be slightly displaced each time and will not be stable.
I think that the muscles around the scapula work properly to maintain the original correct position of the scapula and enable stable and delicate performance without change.

To summarize!
The back side of Emmanuel's guitar technique as seen from posture analysis is the expression of the right hand created by the power to correctly understand and control what is happening to one's body, and the muscle strength around the shoulder blade that can maintain the correct position of the shoulder blade. It's a force that assists in picking stability.

The posture while playing has a great influence on the performance itself. If you read this article, please take this opportunity to take a look at what your posture looks like and what your favorite guitarists are doing! I think the guitar will be more fun if you notice these things!(^o^)

See you soon!