I am an amateur acoustic guitar player from Iisalmi, Finland. I have played since mid 70's but almost half of that time has my guitar rested. It seems that something you start young, can't be totally forgotten even at older age and I play once again.
I have played Classical Guitar in my teens first privately with Esko Hartikainen in Kuopio and later with Kai Nieminen in Conservatory of Jyväskylä. My dream was to be a pro guitar teacher but I found out that I'm not talented enough to be a pro, but today I see how important those years were for my current playing. That time I also heard acoustic Blues and Ragtime played by Stefan Grossman and Rory Gallagher. I thought that it would have been nice music to play but it left. Now in my adult years, thanks to Internet and YouTube, I've found that music again and I've done quite some work to try to master it with my guitar. I am happy to learn to know great Swedish guitarist Lasse Johansson, who has given me some good guidance on the Rocky Road of Ragtime. I have taken part to his seminars in Hungary a couple of times also Mike Dowling and Woody Mann as teachers. I want to thank also Jarkka Rissanen, a local guitar great, who taught me the idea of alternating bass "boom chick" yeras ago.
My love to Hawaiian music flamed in 2012 when I first time heard that music in YouTube played by Fran Guidry, it was Love at First Sight! I feel there has lived a small Hawaiian in me all my life and he came out with Ki Ho'alu. I live in snowy land of Santa Claus and I dream of scenery and sun of Hawaii. That's where my Nahenehe gets it's nutrition from. And perhaps some day I will travel there to listen and learn the Real Thing... At the moment I study with great Jeff Peterson in his Slack Key Workshop on Internet and I will travel to Kauai for Aloha Music Camp by Keola Beamer on Feb '20.
Since 2021 I have played the classical guitar again and I have a guitar design of my own. I choose not so hard pieces and I try to concentrate on music, not in virtuosity which I even ever have had.
I performed some 10 gigs a year, only small occasions. It's a kind of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde thing for me: in a way it facinates me and in a way I dislike it. But still I find myself playing to people again and again, by my own will, weird... At the moment (2022) I don't perform anymore, my dislike of it won...
I love guitars and I have collected some nice instruments to play with. It's nice to own an over 100 years old guitar and to think to pass it to next generations as well as my hand made guitars too. As Dutch shop for quality guitars,TFOA's motto says "Life is too short to play shitty guitars".