Tom Arri — Elizabethtown, PA, USA

More About Me

Been playing guitar since 1968, bluegrass banjo and traditional mandolin since 1983 and old-time fiddle since 1992.

I play and teach 5-string banjo, Scruggs style... but most of the non-traditional tunes I play and teach include Melodic and Chord-Melody styles also.

I look at playing music on any instrument, including the banjo, as 'Music Therapy", i.e., among my goals as a teacher/instructor is to help the aspiring picker have FUN with the banjo... to use the time playing and practicing as a creative and fun escape from whatever your life is throwing at you. Therefore, there is never pressure or brow-beating from me, it's all about you and enjoying the banjo.

Back in the old days, when I worked in other fields, I always looked forward to the moment I would 'clock out' from my day job and get home... the main goal was to get dinner started and play my guitar, mandolin or banjo in the kitchen while the food cooked.

I typically work from materials I prepare in advance for the lessons, be they tabs, chord charts, theory sheets, etc.

I typically don't do transcriptions, but I do my arrangements from recordings as I don't use slow-down software... or other people's transcriptions.

My own taste in music is all over the place, and you can tell from my postings to the BHO tab request forum and the Site Map on my own web site, that I play many genres of music, including, but not limited to, bluegrass and traditional music.

My own choice is to arrange melodies I enjoy hearing in any genre and make them as easy as possible to play, presenting them in tablature form.

As of January 2012, I now teach at The Music Academy in Campbelltown, Pennsylvania...


Music Academy Building
2849 Horseshoe Pike, PO Box 499
Campbelltown, PA 17010
Phone: (717) 838-8732 or (717)361-8474

tomarri2@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

Very Sincerely,

Tom