Name: Jie (Jack) Xu Chinese name: 許杰 Birthdate: 16/10/84 Origin: Guangzhou, China Current location: Sydney, Australia Fave music: Classical, folk, jazz, pop, rock, r&b, rap Fave. Male singers: David Tao, Jay Chow, JJ Lin, Chris Yu Fave. Female singers: Amei Cheung Fave. Western singers: Craig David, Bee Gees, The Beatles Fave Bands: Tension, F.I.R Fave DT song: " 流沙 " (Everythings gone) Interesting Fact: I do not like using a pick. Other played instruments: keyboard, piano.

Born in Guangzhou, China in 1984, I migrated to Sydney, Australia in 1991 and received all primary, secondary and tertiary education there. I started singing at the age of 8 (1992) at family and friends gatherings and was influenced by chinese folk music and some chinese pop music, especially the original version of the song "月亮代表我的心" (moon representing my heart) and several other works by 鄧麗君 (Theresa Deng Li Jun). I was given a keyboard from my aunt at around the same age but never received any proffesional training. I listened to songs by various hong kong pop artists such as Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung through my primary school years. My interest in music started to decline at the end of primary school (1996) since my parents discourages it due to external factors such as the extreme competition in the music industry and difficulty in obtaining a career in that field. I started listening to western music during middle school (1998) and was influenced by artists such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera but my interest towards them slowly declined due to their increasing attitude towards image rather than music. Nsync and some punk rock bands such as "wheatus" and "offspring" were also major influences at the time until the end of highschool. I started learning guitar since 11th grade (2nd Yr of highschool in 2001) when a music teacher in the school designed a board endorsed performing arts course which lasted about a year before it was officially discontinued by the department of education. I practiced guitar ever since. Learnt to play several Beatles and Elvis Presley songs during the guitar learning process and was influenced by their music. Songs that were one of my personal favorites were "Tears in heaven" by Eric Clapton and "Blackbird" by the Beatles. One of the most vital skills learnt that became a foundation of most of the tablatures posted in this site was a technique developed by a 4 fingered guitarist in which allows a normal guitarist to play several chords in a scale without moving his last 2 fingers. When my skills had reached a reasonable level, I started making guitar tablatures. The first one I made was the song "7 days" by Craig David followed by "Walking away", then "Angel of Mine" by Monica. During the last years of highschool (2001-2002), I began listening to several chinese pop artists. One of which was Jay Chow who most of my friends have been bragging about. When I first listened to his music, I was really impressed and it inspired me to make tablatures out of his songs. In my first year of university (2003), I met a friend who introduced me to a song called "Our Story" sung by the taiwanese band Tension and I was quite impressed by the vocals in that song and especially when I heard the acapella version of it. Initially I was unaware that the song was written by David Tao. A few weeks later I listened to my friend's mp3 player and heard a very unique version of the song "月亮代表我的心" (moon representing my heart) and it just blew me away. It was the same song that I cherished during my childhood. I became a David Tao fan ever since. In the same year I made a friend who was a brilliant pianolist and was willing enough to give me some piano coaching. Today my skills on the piano are still limited but someday I will get there. The first David Tao tablature that I made was for the song "普通朋友" (Regular Friends) in 2004.