I got my first guitar when I was 13 years old and I was taught my first chords and songs by one of my friends at school. As my passion for playing the guitar grew, I started to learn how to play songs by ear and I would spend every hour of every day practicing my guitar. As time passed, I had to face the problem, which I believe almost every guitar player has experienced themselves in their musical life- the problem of knowing what to practice and how to practice it in order to get the most out of my time.
At age 19 I attended a jazz workshop, and there I had the luck of meeting guitar player Stano Počaji. His picking style became a major influence on my own guitar playing, and ever since I discovered the fingerpicking technique, I have stopped using guitar picks.
After I graduated High School I decided to move to Spain, where I spent a couple of years playing at restaurants and bars, while simultaneously building my fingerstyle guitar repertoire. Performing almost every night helped me to develop my own approach on how to better my fingerstyle technique. I started working on popular songs I liked by changing the arrangements to be played with one guitar; this routine has never once become boring to me.
In the last couple of years I have been focused on composing my own songs using my fingerstyle technique, which I believe adds a unique and special essence to the songs. Two of my own compositions: “Málo svetla" (2010) and “Tak neblázni” (2013) were very successful in a song contest I entered, named “Košický Zlatý Poklad.” Both songs made it to the final round of the competition.
As a lyrics writer I have had the opportunity to perform my poetry accompanied by my guitar at the festival Pohoda in 2012. I also collaborated with other musicians and singers.
Apart from all of these activities, I continue to perform at a variety of events, such as private parties. If anyone is interested in booking me for any kind of event, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will provide you with more information on how this can be done. If you have any questions or comments feel free to send me an e-mail to info@soymartino.com (you can e-mail me in any of the following languages: English, Spanish, German, Czech or Slovak)
As a succesful Youtuber with a lot of experience I also started running my own audio&video production company. Producing music videos for other artists has become my new passion.
Click the link below to read an interview I´ve given to the Guitar Journal (from Pasadena,California) :
http://www.theguitarjournal.com/interview-soymartino/