About Me

First Name	OldManJam
Nickname	oldmanjam
Why I'm Here	Been playing since the 70’s. Started with an Aria then a Yamaha nylon and then a Martin D28 (1974). Almost tossed it due to neck separation and cracking bridge (too much dry air with a wood burning stove for heat) but my lovely fiance let me send it to Martin for repair. At the time (1992) we had only $900.00 between us and I recall it was going to cost over $500.00 for neck reset, new bridge and re-frets. She knew how much I enjoyed playing music. During reset they had to move the bridge a little to fix intonation problems and it came back playing and sounding majestically. 23 years later I still have the Martin and yes my wonderful wife has allowed me over the years to enjoy my love of music by way of other Martins. Hey still cheaper than kids and since we don’t have any I say why not.
City	I get together with several different groups and each offers different challenges. I've been pluncking around doing okay with the boys (Old Man Jam) but now that I have more free time why not try and be the best you can be. Since retiring in 2012 it has been fun and gratifying seeing an improvement in my playing and a deeper understanding and appreciation of music. I prefer fingerstyle picking but a couple months ago I smashed my right index finger right on the nail portion and have been forced to use a pick. Since then my picking has synched much better with my brain and while I still cannot do exactly what I want to when I want in terms of speed and finesse I now feel I have a better relationship with the pick. So the lesson learned is to try different things and work at it for at least a little bit each day and one will be rewarded with some improvement and any improvement in life is awesome. For me it's not about speed (although that can be a fun part especially after seeing Eric Johnson and Mike Stern at a concert ) it's about self expression and being able to play something that comes directly from my head and heart at the same time. Finally it is starting to occur. Having the ability and dexterity to do this is my goal in taking this course. So I decided to take this plunge and have Tony and the rest of you all help me kick it up a notch or two. My nail is almost back but I want to continue to use that picky thingy and these lessons have both exercises for fingerstyle and pick. Looking forward to hanging with you all!

OldManJam