Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Tommy Emmanuel

We had an amazing time on Friday night! M had scored tickets to the Tommy Emmanuel concert at The Big House - and it was fantastic! It was the first time I had seen Tommy but before I went in I made sure I looked him up on the internet so I could at least try to appreciate the show. Which I think I did, but not nearly as much as others - especially those with guitar skills like L who would have loved it had he been there rather than over in the States auditioning for a scholarship with the Berkeley School of Music! He won't find out until November whether he was successful but F thinks L is so determined he will go anyway, even if he doesn't get the scholarship, and work so hard in his first year there that they will give him one. I think F was saying that they are quite generous with their scholarships - something like 40% of students get one although the amount varies. We're keeping our fingers crossed for him ... which is something I don't think even Tommy Emmanuel can do when he's playing! I was absolutely stunned when he trotted out a song he has just recorded - Secret Love - which some of us remember Doris Day singing in Calamity Jane! Even though the concert was supposed to be finished at 9:30 Tommy Emmanuel was still going strong at 10:30 and we would probably still be there if the house lights hadn't gone up at the end of the encore. I'm not the only one who thought that they might have just kept on playing if they hadn't. I was thinking throughout the concert that there isn't much you couldn't learn from him - passion for what you do, enjoy who you play with, don't be afraid to share your knowledge, and give people more than they expect ... and that's just for a start!

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