Been playing for awhile. Mostly jazz, chord melody arrangements, etc. Wanted to learn rock-and-roll but I got a Juilliard grad as a teacher (what did I know at 12?) who said if a fly lands on the manuscript I better know how to play it! He was awesome and I do have stories but that's for another time.

So I never quite fit with the high-school band thing but living near NYC I met a few musicians that you may have heard of. Anyway, I have so many years invested in my fingering hand and have mostly neglected advancing my right-hand technique so I'm hear to throw away the pick (ala Jeff Beck) and learn finger picking (shout out to the awesome GT instructor Lisa McC!) and other new styles that I hope will broaden my general horizons and inspire new ideas. Whoa, hope there's no grammar police here.

This is not to say that I don't have my influences. Give me a strat and I am a serious Clapton wannabe (but I'm here to learn technique that I can use to pick-up his later acoustic stuff). After "Eric" Django is the man ("hot" jazz hurts my hands!), Chet Atkins, Al Dimeola and pre-orchestra Acoustic Alchemy (some of the best duet guitar work I've ever heard).

Basically, I have 3 guitars. I use a real old Gibson ES-175 for jazz work, I love my Taylor 816CE but I still want to play fancy chords on it, and an old Ibanez solid body for when I get together with a few friends that like to shred. I know but they let the old man get a few licks in!

Gotten long-winded in my old age. Hope to chat with everyone and get tips and maybe names of some newer musicians out there I should give a listen to. I'm open to most genres.

Paul