song: (Somewhere) Over the Rainbow
artist: Tommy Emmanuel
writers: music by Harold Arlen / lyrics by E.Y. Harburg (1939)
performance: “Songs” (2014, YouTube clip)

steel-stringed acoustic guitar: Tommy Emmanuel

This is a detailed note-for-note transcription of Tommy Emmanuel’s elaborate performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. It is an impressive guitar arrangement that combines musicianship and showmanship, and this performance is Tommy Emmanuel’s most viewed (currently >11M views on YouTube). I chose to transcribe this performance in particular, since it incorporates decades of rearranging and improvisation, hence summarizing the musical ideas of most of the other recordings. Enjoy!