I live in the Atlantic region of Canada, and am glad I found this nice warm little nest of jazz fans. I discovered Django's music over thirty years ago when I borrowed an old Hot Club LP record from the Public Library. I was instantly hooked, and to this day never grow tired of listening to Gypsy Guitar Jazz. I think my favorite player is Baro Ferrett, liking him marginally more than Django himself. Baro brings a dark, moody side to the genre, doesn't he?
As for playing, I'm a late bloomer with guitar. I didn't start until age 33, when I found a Fender Coronado at a garage sale. I learned the basic chords, and a couple of years later started playing in a contemporary church worship band. This really put me quickly over the learning curve. I eventually became known as "Mr. Barre" because of my extensive use of the chord forms of that name (no relation to the great Martin Barre
At present, I want to "re-learn" how to play and break my number one bad habit (barre chords). I'm finding this to be harder than I ever would have thought! One thing that was holding me back is my physical size- I'm 6'-5" tall, 215 lbs and have very big fingers. No wonder I found barre chords so easy! But there's no way I could cram my fingers in to make triads, and more exotic chord forms on a conventional skinny neck. Recently, I found a Dell'Arte Hommage guitar at a local music store, immediately recognized what a tremendous value it was at $600CDN with case, being only 6 months old and in new condition. It has a big wide neck, a super long scale making for plenty of finger room between frets, and of course I can get the right sound to play the music I love so much! So, I thought I'd join in a "Hot Club" music community to go along with my passion, and help with my learning. I'm glad to be here.