Name: Ove Kuven Born: 1982 Lives: Norway, Kleppe Inspiration: Steve Martin, Erlend Aasland, John Fogerty, Mark Knopfler I never saw myself learning how to play the banjo. To me the banjo seemed like an anoying and boring instrument. That was before my grandfather bought a "Morgan BJ-45" 5 string banjo for me. I managed to get a hold of a booklet called "First Lessons Banjo", by Jack Hatfield. I spent about 2 weeks learning the basics from the booklet, which had CD and DVD, and I tried to look closely to what Mr. Hatfield showed on the DVD. About two weeks after I recieved the banjo, me and two other fellows were scheduled to play at the senior home in my village. This was a Lions Club thing, and they needed someone that could play something for the seniors. We ended up playing a medley containing "Cripple Creek", "Tom Dooley" and "Go tell aunt Rhody". This was pretty much a "hit" amongst the seniors, and the year after I was asked to perform again. This time I introduced "Dueling Banjos". Only problem was, I was alone, and did not have two banjos, as I had to tell the seniors. I normally play using picks, but I find clawhammer style to be the one style that amazes me the most. I play a couple of tunes using clawhammer, but I am not a clawhammer player, due to that I don't see myself doing it well enough. The person that made me fall in love with the clawhammer style is the famouse actor, Steve Martin. My dream would be to own a Deering black diamond banjo at some point in my life. Hopefully I will be able to get an open back too. My arsenal of banjo books contains "Banjo Case Chord book", "The complete bluegrass banjo method" by Fred Soklow, "The Banjo encyclopedia" by Ross Nickerson, "First Lessons banjo" by Jack Hatfield, and not to mention, "Earl Scruggs and the 5-string banjo", obviously by Earl Scruggs. I have played the guitar since I was approx 9 years of age, and have had a couple of guitars over the years. I still have my very first guitar, which was bought used at a store. My father changed the strings on it back then, when I was 8-9 years old, and to this date, all 6 strings are still on that guitar. Over the years I've had a couple of good guitars. The first eletric guitar I ever had was a "Westone Pantera", which sounded poorly. A Fender Stratocaster Standard US '95 was a guitar that I managed to get a hold of by a norwegian painter, Ivan Storm Juliussen. I changed the knots and all to white, since I didn't like the black color along with the sunburst body. Today it contains 3 pickups that are italian made, named "Magic Coil", by Antonio Chiarelli. The amplifier, "Fender Princeton Chorus", was and still is my only amplifier. I've had it since I was 13-14 years old, and it still works great.