Tommy Emmanuel- He’s Got The Beat

Tommy Emmanuel – Mombasa (Center Stage 2008)

Here’s Tommy again..

and this time he performs the song Mombasa, from the Sargam Hindi Movie Sountrack.

Now I know a lot of you don’t care for guitar as a percussion instrument, but let’s face it… Tommy makes you realize that the guitar does have some fantastic percussive tones that are more closely related to bongos, djembe or a cajun. So you folks out there that comment that he should just “get a drum set” might want to take into consideration that the song itself is percussive by nature…. so for one man to do this, on guitar…. it’s called showmanship… and the audience simply loves it.

Also, this vid should leave no doubt that Tommy could have been a smokin’ hot drummer/percussionist…

So many guitarists fail to realize the importance of good rhythm.. It translates to the guitar in a big way. You could take any guitarist and ask them to hand tap out some rhythm…. if they are not so good at it, well, you could expect the same on their guitar. Rhythm simply is what separates the okay players from the great ones.

Just another observation here… listen to the transitions between his percussion playing and the guitar… it’s just so seamless!

This video is just another example of why so many people consider Tommy Emmanuel the greatest all around guitarist.