Greetings from Portland, OR

[TieDyedDevil]

Hi, everyone.

I've been aware of this site (and forum) for years, but just got around to registering this month...

I picked up the guitar in 1999 after a 20+ year layoff. I was 45 at the time. I played original pop/rock music for a few years in local bands until I got tired of that scene:

* sitting around in smoky bars for four or five hours to play a 40-minute set to 20 or 30 people and walking out at the end of the night with a few dollars for my time and effort.

* hanging out with music-gear owners who think they're musicians; the clue here is that they use rehearsal time to practice their parts.

* playing to the lowest-common denominator in the band; I got really fed up with the lack of harmonic and melodic diversity in these "bands".

Three or four years ago I decided to try to do something on my own. I started to learn some of the things I missed as a know-it-all kid when I started playing. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise: music theory is important!

I've been spending most of my time since then learning about chord structure, harmony, fretboard layout, and other things that'll help me compose and improvise. I've developed a collection of motifs and a facility for knitting them together in a relatively pleasing manner. I perform solo, doing my improv thing at wineries, galleries, and any place else I can find where folks are receptive to instrumental background music.

Here's the thing: I don't consider myself a jazz guitarist. I appreciate some jazz performers, but I don't have any real affinity for the jazz tradition. My earliest musical exposure was classical; my teen years (late 1960s and early 1970s) were spent listening to pop music. But when people hear me play, *they* hear jazz.

If pressed to name my genre, I'll admit to playing what I call "folk jazz". It acknowledges both the perceived sound and my own interest in motifs that are "folkish" in a modern (non-traditional) sense.

You can go to my web site <http://lamkins.net/> to hear some of my music and read some musings and gear reviews.

Meanwhile, I'll be hanging around trying to learn ... something.