New To Forum(fresh fish)

[jazzhand]

I'm Tom in Charlotte, NC. 60 years old & started on the guitar in 1963 with a blond archtop harmony bought from a neighbor for $15. Ahh, Black Diamond strings, turn your fingers green. I did not start with Jazz but with pop rock of the time and then along came the Beatles & it was off to the races. Played till my fingers were sore learning their tunes, but it taught me to play guitar. Branched out to include folk & folk rock, rockability & later southern rock. Stopped being a working(starving) musician after getting married in 81 & after my first child in 84, got to playing less & less but never giving it up completely. In the late 90's, bored with playing, I started getting interested in learning to play jazz and my love of the instrument was revived. I have found it challenging and work intensive and have loved every minute of it. I've added to the limited amount of theory I knew and have few problems forming the new chords I encounter. I've made good progress in learning to play what I hear others do but I still struggle coming up with creative and interesting improvised solos. It does keeps the interest going trying to learn new things and improve technique.
I think that finding others to play & interact with would hasten the learning process at this point.
Anyway, it's late & this is way too wordy so I'll close for now;
Tom

[bruciekins]

Hi to all. My name is Bruce, I live in Durban, South Africa and am now 64. I make my living by teaching guitar (Classical, Popular, Rock and Jazz) and by playing tribute shows. We have done everything from Abba to Zappa (my favourite being 2 big(gish) band shows- 3 tpts, 3 saxes, 2 'bones and pno dr bs gt m +f singers, which I scored mainly by transcription. I started playing at 14, hugely influenced by "The Shadows", an English instrumental group who never made it big in the U.S. I saw their reunion show with Cliff Richard a couple of weeks ago, and they are more magical than ever. In the 70's I was bored with the night club pop music I was doing and started studying Classical Guitar, which I took up to a teachers diploma (L.T.C.L). Later I got a job teaching Classical Guitar at a Technikon (tertiary education), but the course was changed to jazz and I decided to do the course myself (N.Dip Light Music), which I completed in '93 (and I wasn't even the oldest student)! Kudos to Dirk for his site, which has most of the practical stuff you'd study at a university. At present I teach guitar full time at a Prep School (along with music theory and Arts and Culture), but retire towards the end of the year (boy, am I gonna miss that monthly deposit- not to mention the double pay check in December)! Music is a life long study, I'm still hugely enthusiastic, and want to continue learning for as long as possible.

[derek]

Welcome Tom & Bruce. It is a great site, most discussions are civil, and people are very helpful here.

[pierre richard]

yea Shadows...those guys are soo good...simple but very effective...

last I saw on dvd was the shadows final tour and resparked the interest..

time on the instument..pierre

welcome to the two new guys...