Being recently reminded of my distant past as a combined guitar teacher and medical student makes me want to write a word of thanks and do a little publicity for Finn Olafsson, the gifted professional Danish guitarist (and composer and producer).
It is in part due to Finn that the guitar has remained an anchor point in my life, through medical school and all my years training and practicing psychoanalysis.
When I applied for the job as guitar teacher to 14 to 18-year-olds in Copenhagen, I was just good enough to teach beginners and a little beyond. It was both crazy and wonderful that I was offered to take over Finn’s classes. Finn had already then a solid reputation and a long waiting list of potential private pupils, plus concerts and recordings. He had decided to stop teaching at the school and the principal handed his classes over to me. Wow!
Still, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. The pupils I inherited were used to an amazing teacher who could play a classical J. S. Bach piece on a guitar one minute and the next switch over to a rock guitar to play an Eric Clapton solo. Finn was completely out of my league. I was attending medical school with occasional night shifts at hospitals. What was I to do? The atmosphere in the classes was excellent. That was a good start, but it wouldn’t be enough. Hence, for months I spent as much of my “spare” time as possible practicing, practicing, and practicing some more. That helped and it is still with me.
Tak, Finn.
Do listen to his music — beautiful guitar work. I’m particularly fond of his album Acoustic Guitar 2.
His website is at https://www.finnolafsson.com/
Finn was/is lead guitarist for the group ACHE.
The group’s website is at https://achesite.dk/
And, as Anders Krag rightfully adds, check this out:
An Evening in December – song by Finn Olafsson | Spotify = https://open.spotify.com/track/1CtLq7RjNai2dKHc9EzIm1?si=i7bpGr8NRYmNrg56wqp0Hg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A4gg1OtKBaQozEhXVQFESaS&fbclid=IwY2xjawHLn5NleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHSuk3xrp-DFPbceDXL9Jd4zfDnYgckD_P73C548CBFOqUeiIDJ2SHz2_zA_aem_V7-37Smpn5gXDvjyB-v0QA&nd=1&dlsi=eaa639dd7c2e4207