This is pure gold!! I love your sound and your demeanor!! I haven’t been to France yet but it looks beautiful there.
I’m getting in to blues myself and this inspired me to document my guitar work….differently, and a little more, creatively.
Your talking voice is awesome, let alone your singing voice. Guitar tone is great. Keep rocking!
Hello Toby, this seems like quite a lot of work you’ve been putting in…really impressive to me, it’s all coming along very nicely and I’m looking foward for the next chapter! My eyes and ears were caught by that thumb playing the bass lines…is there any specific exercise you found useful to build this consistency or you just practiced the pieces? Love that kind of muted sound…and the tone of your guitar was just perfect! Cheers. 
Hello Toby, happy anniversary to you my friend!
Great job and great sound!
Mike
@Traveler Travis thanks for that ! I still hate the sound of my own voice but have got used to it over the years (lots of recorded presentations when I was working). Now I am a little more relaxed but the wine also helps 
Also glad to have been an inspiration for you to chart your progress. The “Diaries” came out of the blue on the old forum, when I just thought why not just talk rather than type ! As to the guitar, yeah I love that Takamine tone, sounds great with just a condenser, but this time a few “tools” were need to get a decent sound off the pickup. Might use my T-Bucket for the next set. Appreciate the listen ! 
@Silvia80 Hi Silvia ! Just steady progress over a number of months but taking my time. The timing of the thumb is just practice. Getting the muting just right and finding the groove. The course I am following builds in stages, so that bass note is the starting point. Then add the pinches before adding the melody notes on the +. Just layering up in complexity. So nothing special just learn, apply, practice and practice and practice. Glad you liked it !
@MikeSebastianP Greetings Mike and thanks for the anniversary wishes and kind words. Been back on the electrics the last day or so, so might have some more recordings coming, all being well. Hope all is good where you are !
Hey Toby, Enjoyed the “catchup with you” video. All your videos were enjoyable. Impressive Fingerstyle. Happy Anniversary!!!
Toby, I guess I am one of the new people you are talking about in the first video. I finally watched your blues diary videos - and all I can say is: Please keep them coming 
Like Silvia, I especially enjoyed videos 6 - 10. One day, I would like to be able to do that. It will take ages, but I’m not in a rush.
Everything pales however in comparison to the story about the German Shepherd you had. I literally saw a little movie of the events playing in my head.
In short: A huge thank you and please continue
Hey Toby, just wanted to mention I didn’t know about Sophie. I went back to see what you had posted and saw you lost her last December. I’m so sorry for your loss. I had thought about asking about her in my previous post but thought better of it. Sorry I haven’t been on the forum enough to know about it. You take care and I’ll try to keep in better touch when I can.
Nice progress there Toby. I know what you mean about some of the more complex pieces being, er, complex and hard to nail. I haven’t attempted much but I like the idea of getting simpler pieces under the fingers first.
I’m up to the “Blues Lead” part of Grade 4 - haven’t watched any lessons yet but that’s the next thing. So I’m hoping to get into some similar stuff.
Where did you get this course? I’m curious as it looks like it builds short pieces nicely.
Saw this coming up and looked forward to taking it in, however took a while for me to find time to give this the appropriate attention it deserved, so this slow Sunday afternoon felt like the perfect opportunity… Sitting listening, watching you talk in your orchard, bathed in late evening summer warmth, with a tasty red and good story to tell, was a delight! I too was seated (albeit behind glass) in full sun, gathering in all I could from its watery, mid-June glow, with low angle and limited heat, to try and transport myself to the French countryside in summer… Almost had myself convinced! 
That was excellent, Toby, please continue this new series, and I hope more follow your lead, I would love to see that. 
Impressed by your playing, each recording had a unique flavour of its own, whilst also a similar, continuing thread. My favourite was no. 8, loved the slides, gave it that authentic old school blues vibe to my ear. Also you’ve got that Takamine sounding fantastic! I read through the posts above and your comments about taking a while to dial in the tone just right, but man you’ve got it locked in now! Inspires me to pull my acoustic out for my (somewhat slow) blues journey I’m embarking on! 
Cheers to more of this to come! 
@JokuMuu Nicole thank you for your kind words. Like everything guitar it just takes time and patience. Glad you have that movie in your head. Guess that was one of the primary reason I started doing this format a few years back, bringing a little humour and light during the dark days of the pandemic. So thank you for the support, I will return.
@pkboo3 Hi Pam no need to apologies, we all have life balances to manage and this place is certainly a bit unwieldy compared to the old forum and easy to get overwhelmed now and then. Thank you so much for your comments re Sophie. A constant companion in so many of my recordings and sadly missed. Nice to hear from you.
@jkahn Yeah funny how this guitar thing get more and more complicated the more you explore it but there is actually some simplicity in that style of fingerstyle as you are never playing full chords but lots to get your head around. I’ll send you a DM later regards the course. Best of luck with the Blues Lead, I see Justin has reshot the vids but the contents seems to be the same. Seem to recall he was going to rewrite the course ? Never quite got on with it but others obviously have for sure. Thanks for the listen.
@nzmetal Jeff thanksfor finding the time man, this was a long intro being a kick start. And boy what a difference a week makes. Cloudy, thundery and sticky this weekend but life goes on. There’s 20 pieces in all and yes all a little different but there a lot of possibilities to mix and match in the future and something to explore. Doing the recording via Reaper and using the PlayAcoustic as the input definitely improved to tone and vibe - it was your success that prompted me to revisit, so thanks for that. And yes grab that acoustic and have a dabble !
Hey Toby glad to see the diaries back! 
happy anniversary to you and the missus, playing was really cool and I enjoyed most numbers 4 and 6 as they hit my bluesy feeling the most. Waiting to see more real soon!
Toby playing blues on an acoustic! Did not know you even had an acoustic Toby🤣
The end result in #10 was a blast! Sounded extremly cool.
Nice sound from that Takamine as well.
Hello Toby, watching your vids was such a pleasure . I really enjoyed your talking (had a good laugh about the ‘rules of Mad Man’s World’ 
). Watching videos make this community and its members even more real, despite the virtual character of this forum. I definitely want to encourage you to do more of this sort 
.
I also found your blues studies very inspiring. As I hope to hit this road as well somedays, I watched your fingers closely. I was especially impressed by how well you had your pinky under control. There were some finger stretches I’m quite certain I couldn’t manage them right now.
My favourite, by the way, is no. 5. I cannot actually tell you way, I just like the sound .
I’m already looking forward to seeing chapter 2 
.
All the best to you and thanks a lot for sharing your diaries .
Trond not just one, here’s and old pic of my Encore and Fender T Bucket !!
Rules in the Madman’s world ? Must put a stop to that !! All about sharing the “love” and spreading some warmth, I am glad it is still working.
I will have to watch the videos again in reference to that Pinky comment. When I am improvising on the electrics or practicing licks over a BT that little monkey is waving around all over the place ! As to the stretches, many are not quite there but its all about practice. While I learn the next in this series, the plan is to up the tempo on the first 10 ! Always a challenge always something new. But yes there will be more for sure!
Belated happy anniversary Toby and Mrs Toby, I hope you both had a wonderful day.
Great to see you back doing your vlogs. That was a great collection of what you are working on at the moment Toby. I enjoyed them all.
Do you think you had problems with recording stuff because you had got out of the habit of recording stuff?
Lovely setting too, it would be great if you did us a small tour of your land in one of your vlogs.
Thank you for making your way through that lengthy set of recordings and I appreciate the support for the vlog if that’s what its called - I’m still olde skool when it comes to labels !
Glad you enjoyed the Blues pieces. Lots of fun to play and not too difficult to learn when you get the basics and co-ordination down. Number 11 is proving interesting in that respect
As to the guided tour, maybe selected spots each time would be safer. Walking, talking and recoding could end up a disaster. But yeah I’ll be back for sure!
Thx again for the listen.
