Getting Emotional
Lesson time: (2min 5sec)
Course preview
This lesson is part of the course Learn guitar and songwriting with KT Tunstall
Watch a preview of the full course below.
Lesson transcript:
Exploring the Dynamics of a Band Song
It's worth saying with this song that it's very much a band song. The band brings a lot of dynamics to the music.
Playing Stripped-Back Versions
When you're playing a song on its own, which I think is a very valuable thing to do, people love hearing stripped-back versions of band songs. It's great to hear songs played in different ways.
The Challenge of the Middle Eight
For me, a challenge with this song was the middle eight, or the bridge. In the UK, we call it the middle eight because traditionally it was always eight bars.
- Personal Preference: I love a 16-bar middle eight, a middle 16.
On the recording, I was really interested in exploring guitar solos, but I don't have a lead guitarist right now since I'm playing acoustic. So, I just play around with it.
Using Your Voice Instrumentally
I think it's an opportunity to look into using your voice in an emotive way instrumentally, where you're not using lyrics. This is even feasible, and it's not unreasonable to feel this way.
- Live Performance: I'll sing it differently every time I perform live when I'm singing solo.
It's a really good practice, I think, as a performer, and even if you're just playing at home, to allow yourself total freedom in those moments of instrumental vocal performance.
Letting Creativity Flow
Just play and sing whatever comes out. It's about getting rid of this (referring to inhibition) and allowing this (referring to creativity) to come through.
- Embrace Spontaneity: Just let it happen and see what unfolds.
Allowing this spontaneity is also a fascinating way to let songs evolve. When you play them, they sound different every time because there are slight variations in your approach. Each time you change it, you pick up on things that you liked from the last performance.
About the instructor

Photo credit: Tom Oxley Since scoring a worldwide smash with her debut album 'Eye To The Telescope' in 2004, which went on to sell over 5 million copies, KT Tunstall has remained at the forefront of UK singer-songwriter talent. KT followed up that early success with the albums 'Drastic Fantastic', 'Tiger Suit' and 'Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon' in 2007, 2010 and 2013 respectively, keeping the platinum sales rolling and cementing the Scottish singer-songwriter's reputation as a major recording talent, as well as a mesmerising live artist. 2012 and the years that followed saw a seismic shift in outlook - the loss of her father, a divorce, and a relocation to Venice Beach, California. After a period of healing, soul-searching, and a change of scenery, 2016 hailed the arrival of the first of a trilogy of KT Tunstall's albums, the critically acclaimed UK top 10 album 'KIN'. The trilogy evokes, separately and in sequence, spirit, body and mind. With 'KIN' being her phoenix-from-the-ashes 'spirit' album, 2018 marked the second offering of that trilogy, the 'body' album 'WAX'. KT Tunstall has toured the world many times over. She outsold every other female artist in the UK in 2005, won the 2006 Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, won the Ivor Novello Best Song award for her huge, self-penned hit 'Suddenly I See', and a Q award for Track of the Year. She also landed a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance with 'Black Horse and the Cherry Tree' and lent her tunes to a host of movies and TV shows ('Suddenly I See' being used in the iconic opening scene of the modern classic Meryl Streep film 'The Devil Wears Prada'). The first single from her latest release, 'The River', was named one of Rolling Stone's 'Songs You Need To Know'. The last few years have seen something of a creative rebirth for KT Tunstall. Upon relocating to the west coast of the USA, she was accepted as one of six annual fellows for the Sundance Film Institute's Composers Lab (hosted by George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Northern California) and has since scored music for short and feature films. She has also been awarded the Inspirational Artist gong at the Women In Music Awards and was chosen as the first ever female Grand Marshal (following the likes of Sir Sean Connery) to lead April 2018's annual New York Tartan Week parade. In May 2018 she and Mike McCready, of legendary multi-million selling Pearl Jam, released a cover of Tom Petty's huge hit single 'I Won't Back Down' with proceeds going to Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Foundation. In 2018, KT performed sold-out intimate headline shows across the UK and US and toured worldwide supporting acclaimed artists including Simple Minds, The Pretenders, and Barenaked Ladies. 2019 saw KT perform a large headline tour across the UK and Europe with her all-female band, playing festivals all over the UK (including a headline set at Glastonbury Festival). She toured the US & Canada, Japan, China, the Netherlands, Mexico and Brazil, as well as supporting Hall & Oates on their UK arena tour. Touring continued for KT in early 2020 with headline shows in the US, performing with Jools Holland across Europe, and playing New York's legendary Madison Square Garden, supporting Hall & Oates. In her Song Studies course, KT pulls back the curtain on the guitar parts and songwriting craft behind her biggest hits - a rare chance to learn how a Brit Award-winning, Grammy-nominated songwriter actually builds a song. read more




