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

• I have been elected Kristiinankaupunki's Artist of the Year 2013!
• My upcoming CD Zen Guitar Songs is now being mixed. It will be featuring myself, Tom Forsman, Tobias Hurwitz, Stefan "Kilju" Lindblom, Oskar Nilsson, Kenneth Nordman and others. A lot of guitar is to be expected - watch out! :-)
• I am now going to play material from my upcoming CD Zen Guitar Songs live. You can hear this material on my upcoming gigs. In the band will be me and Tom Forsman - guitars, Kenneth Nordman or Stefan "Kilju" Lindblom - bass, Oskar Nilsson or Daniel Hjerppe - drums. It is going to be something special - spiritual and spectacular - do not miss it!
• I currently teach guitar, electric bass, drums, ensemble playing, improvisation, notation and music theory at Musikinstitutet Legato/ Legato Music School, at Kristinestads medborgarinstitut, at Närpes medborgarinstitut and at Lappfjärds folkhögskola.
• I have now enrolled at Berklee College of Music. Well, not in the traditional sense, I am not going to move to Boston. :-P But I am going to study online. The first course I have enrolled in is "Jazz Composition"...
• 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, SoundCloud, YouTube or the MIDI files section
• I am also on facebook and Linkedin nowadays...
• My company Tomson Music is keeping me busier all the time. Some examples of the services of Tomson Music:
  • artists/ bands for venues, conferences, parties, weddings etc.
  • sound reinforcement ( PA system) for venues, conferences, parties, weddings etc.
  • music lessons ( private instruction) - guitar, electric bass, drums...
• 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 12th year. Some vocals and percussion are still to be recorded and then it is the mixing, of course...
• 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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