My name is Andrew Murray. I live in a little town called Moraga, in the hills above the San Francisco Bay.
I’ve been a music aficionado since I was very young and first heard the Beatles playing on a tube car radio in the early sixties (yea, I’m that old). I’ve lost count of the concerts and club shows I attended and have fantastic musical memories over the decades.
For the last two decades of my professional life, I worked at UC Berkeley managing the design, installation, and maintenance of complex AV systems in over 200 classrooms and auditoriums. It was a great way to wrap up my long career in audio/video.
When I planned on my retirement last year, I wanted to take the opportunity to finally learn to play guitar (I have Strat and Tele). I have tried many times over the years, but having access to the online learning resources made it far more realistic for me. Justin was the first online teacher I discovered and I’ve been a big fan ever since.
I’ve been teaching myself with multiple resources for three years now and have made some decent progress.I am now at the point where I know enough to know that I am ready for a more structured learning program.
I have always loved blues and rock since the early sixties and I’m keenly aware that blues is fundamental for many different musical genres. I have been working on blues and many other styles of music and I realize how much more I need to learn before I even think of calling myself a musician. The Blues Immersion Course is an important step toward reaching that goal.
I could write several pages about this, but I tried to keep it concise to avoid TLDR.
I look forward to working with all of you. In the meantime, keep on playing!
It’s nice to hear about your journey and your excitement for the blues immersion course I did it last summer (class 1) and I really enjoyed it. My progress has been great and I am sure yours will be too.
You will meet many people in your class 3 cohort community section, but don’t hesitate to interact in all sections of the community as there are many people out there who likes the blues.
Whats up Andrew. You are stoked to be in a great area for music. It sure has some serious history, The Greek Theater, The Filmore, Club Fugazi… Shorline! Man so many amazing venues. I Lived in Reno for years and would pop over and see show all the time. Stayed in Santa Cruz a lot. My wife is from the Sierras, mostly Carson and Reno but she lived in Grass Valley with her dad who still lives up there in the trees. One of my best friends lives in San Jose. I am totally familiar with the whole Northern California area. I spent so much time there. I am living in Arizona right now and unfortunately do not have near as many shows.
I am glad you found Justin’s its a cool community and a ton a great peole. Lots of support and a ton of resources on both sites. Those are the community site where the forums are and the learning site where the educational videos are. Its a lot to dig into. BLIM is a great course. You are going to love it. I signed up for another round for the heck of it too, So I will be seeing you in there.
Stay with your cohorts and find a good fun group, but dont worry about getting everything memorized and perfect. You will have a long time to consolidate. Always ask questions too, the staff is great. Questions help everyone.
Welcome to the club Andrew. I’m a late bloomer as well. I keep telling people Justin and the team have made the world a better place, on guitar player at a time!
