There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.
- Christopher Morley

You have entered www.tomaskarlsson.com, the official website of
Tomas Karlsson - guitarist, educator/ teacher, arranger/ composer/ songwriter, philosopher... - Kristiinankaupunki, Finland

Here you will find the latest information on what I am up to these days, like my bands, gigs and other projects. This site will also be a source for all kinds of nice and useful stuff for ( jazz) guitarists/ musicians such as FREE lessons, licks, transcriptions, original tunes, etudes and written solos, some tips and music- related links. You will also find that throughout these pages there are tiny bits of philosophy here and there interwoven with the music material. I like to think of it as Zen philosophy - but it is really nothing more than "ancient Eastern common sense everyday life type of wisdom" that most of us humans have lost somewhere along the way through history but that we can find again...

Latest News

• My FREE online jazz lessons are updated frequently
• My small lesson on Zen Guitar has been updated...
• I have just created a Zen Guitar group at SoundCloud. The mission of this group is to collect Zen Guitar songs by different musicians.
• Finally: some sound files - check out MySpace, ReverbNation, SoundClick, SoundCloud or the MIDI files section
• I also have a Facebook page nowadays...
• I just bought an Ibanez UKS10 ukulele. I am still at the stage of learning how to tune it, I guess GCEA is standard tuning for the soprano ukulele? :-)
• I have recently started playing in Närpes Big Band. The big band seems to be a dying art form nowadays. That is really a shame, I love playing in a big band, it is great to have to keep up the sight-reading skills and great to be allowed to play this classic type of music. I would love to be allowed to arrange/ write for a big band, too.
• I and a couple of other musicians have formed a working group called Krs Jazz. Krs Jazz will arrange jazz concerts/ gigs in the Kristiinankaupunki area.
• My CD is still in the works, going on the 10th year. Some vocals and percussion are still to be recorded and then it is the mixing, of course...
• I am getting more and more into teaching music. I have students of ages ranging from 10 to 60, from many different walks of life - all along the Finnish middle west coast. I give lessons and workshops on
  • ( jazz) guitar
  • ensemble playing
  • arranging, composition/ songwriting and music theory
  • improvisation/ jazz as an art form/ a way of life
  Check out my private lesson policies. I also teach guitar, electric bass, ensemble playing, improvisation and music theory at Musikinstitutet Legato/ Legato Music School, at Kristinestads medborgarinstitut, at Närpes medborgarinstitut and at Lappfjärds folkhögskola.
• Check out the map below by maploco! I love to see that this website is continuously visited from all over the world! If you like this website, how about dropping me a line? :-)

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