Tony McManus is known across the world as a leading exponent of the guitar and an innovator in its use in Celtic music. But he is also known for constantly exploring music beyond the boundaries of the Celtic world. Though his background in traditional Irish and Scottish music has shaped an original approach to the acoustic guitar, from the beginning of his career he has applied that approach to a diverse body of work from an African anthem to a Charles Mingus elegy and more recently the work of composers such as J.S. Bach.

In this lesson Tony takes us through his various approaches to the “other” music in his repertoire; for example how the ornamentation techniques he derived from listening to Irish fiddlers can be applied to an ancient Jewish hymn. Some of these arrangements involve non-standard tunings such as Dropped D and DADGAD. An introduction to the ideas behind these tunings is included.

Tony's musical journey has always been an interesting ride. Here's an insight into the ideas that make the voyage so interesting.

Titles include: Gnossienne #1, Shalom Aleichem, Wonderful World, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Goldberg Variations Aria, and N'Kosi Sikelele Africa

120 minutes • Level 3 • Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD