About
I'm Martijn Tennekes, a guitarist living in Maastricht.
I picked up the guitar at nineteen and taught myself, with books, online lessons and above all my ears. Since then I've played in all kinds of bands, from classic rock and blues rock to alternative rock, pop and gospel, while my taste kept widening: funk, soul, jazz, and lately flamenco and gypsy jazz. It's a road without an end, and that's exactly what I like about it.
Teaching has been part of my work for years: in my day job in data science, I teach courses to professionals. What I enjoy most is combining structure with creativity. On the guitar, that means exploring theory and chord shapes systematically, and then using them to make music. SpiceMap, my app that turns music theory into pictures, comes from that same mix.
Listen
What musicians I've played with say
Martijn is an outstanding guitarist. I learnt a lot by watching and jamming with him, and highly recommend his musical insight. You will be taught by somebody who knows the guitar inside out and can play a lot of varied styles, namely blues, rock, and acoustic fingerpicking. 10 out of 10!
About Martijn, it was an honor to share moments of music. I liked how Martijn dedicated himself to playing the songs that we had the privilege of presenting to the Oxford audience and the rehearsals were also very productive and I felt happy when he invited me to we started a music project. Despite the distance, I hope it works out very well. because I like the sound and the solos that Martijn plays on his guitar.
Ik heb Martijn een aantal maanden mogen meemaken als gitarist in een band waarin ik zong. Waar ik soms gitaristen een erg groot ego vind hebben en nadrukkelijk op de voorgrond zie als persoonlijkheid, zie ik Martijn een bescheiden, vriendelijke humoristisch leuke man die zich niet in de picture duwt maar gewoon zijn plek heeft door een heel fijn gitaar werk en zijn prettige persoonlijkheid. Als hij Stevie Ray Vaughan speelde, deed ik simpel weg mijn ogen dicht en kreeg ik kippenvel over heel mijn lijf. Een stem kan je raken, maar het gitaarspel van iemand raakt niet minder als dat! Martijn heeft die gave om gevoelig en verfijnd “die snaar te raken”.
English translation
I was able to experience Martijn as a guitarist for a few months in a band in which I sang. Where I sometimes find guitarists to have a very big ego and see emphatically in the foreground as a personality, I see Martijn as a modest, friendly, humorous nice man who does not push himself into the picture but simply has his place through a very nice guitar work and his pleasant personality. When he played Stevie Ray Vaughan, I simply closed my eyes and got goosebumps all over my body. A voice can touch you, but someone's guitar playing moves no less than that! Martijn has that gift to sensitively and refined “touch that chord”.