Clearing Paths For the Next Generation

Have you ever played a musical instrument? Were you good at it?

I've never been good at any instrument, which is a pity as I so love music. Not the best singer, either. Got a voice like beef jerky: either you love it, or you hate it. I think most people hate it. I like it. But then I hear it from inside my head and not thinned out by the air.

My grandmother had a piano and I remember banging on the keys with my siblings and cousins, but nobody ever taught me anything. Daddy tried to, but he couldn't read notes. What he did was chord with his left hand and sound out notes with his right. His familiarity with the keyboard allowed him to quickly duplicate most any song he wanted, but his method of teaching was, "You got to hear it." Well, yeah, but that style of learning didn't suit me. I never learned to play piano.

The first instrument I really wanted to play was the harp. My introduction to it was Marx Brothers movies. Harpo would pluck a few strings and then do glissandos. The truth is, he wasn't really playing the harp. He was playing with it. My understanding is that he actually learned to play the harp, but not until after he quit making movies.

When I was in my late twenties I managed to convince Spouse to let me buy a harp. Got it from Chester E. Groth Music in Minneapolis, MN. I had walked in one day just to look at harps and Mr. Groth himself showed them to me. When I explained I didn't have four or five thousand dollars to buy one, he showed me a troubador harp for nine hundred. It was ebony. Thirty-six strings. No peddals. Levers were used to set the harp to play either sharps or flats. When Spouse agreed that I could purchase it, I raced to the store and bought it. Mr. Groth put me into contact with a harp instructor. I am so ashamed because I don't recall her name. She was an older woman who had played alongside Marcel Grandjany. When I told her about my Harpo Marx inspiration she became almost indignant. That was kind of like telling a famous chef you liked their filet mignon because of the ketchup. Spouse was (and still is) convinced she was in love with me. That's why when she changed the venue of our lessons from Chester Groth's music store to her house Spouse came along. I said she was more than twice my age and had no interest in my like that. Spouse wasn't convinced. I didn't argue. I was playing the harp. Spouse could be there if she wanted.

What made the harp so wonderful was that it sounds pretty - even when I mucked up royal. I brought it with me to work and would practice during breaks. I was developing a small following of people who liked to listen to me - especially when I learned the glissando. But mostly I did not use that technique. I learned to play notes. Even enharmonic ones, in which you change the note a single string plays. I didn't particularly like that because I wasn't that good at it. My instructor played it beautifully. After a few months she deemed me to have progressed to the point where she would play along with me, harmonizing to my melody. But before I really learned to play it - so that I could really perform before a real audience - I sold the harp for practical reasons. I was going to learn a trade to earn better money. One of the most stupid decisions I have ever made in my life. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb!

The second instrument I truly wanted to play was bass guitar. Always liked the tempo beat bass guitars added to the music I listened to. And when I saw an imitation Hofner in a Montgomery Ward catalog (company out of business), I knew I had to have one. But this was a nightmare for me. Not only was my family poor, but they were not encouraging about music for boys. My brother Mickey had wanted to join band, but my parents wouldn't pony up for the instrument. They did for Judayl. And Helvie. But not Mickey. And certainly not me. I wanted to play bass guitar. Left handed.

I forget how many times I was told (by everyone in my family) how nobody played guitar left handed. Daddy even went so far as to point out that they didn't make left-handed pianos. I'm not sure what the significance of that was. Didn't even at the time. But you didn't argue with Daddy. Of course, when the Beatles hit the U.S. and we saw Paul McCartney playing the Hofner bass left-handed I felt vindicated. But not in the eyes of my parents. That was Rock 'N' Roll. And there was no way they would fork over good money for that cr*p. So I did not get a bass.

Did get an accoustic guitar, but it was right-handed. I tried restringing it for left-handed, but even my instructor criticized me constantly about it and I wound up giving up. The only one who encouraged me was my grandmother, and I just didn't see her often enough. I'm not strong enough within myself to pursue my own dreams vigorously without outside help. That's why I have never succeeded.

When Lynahr was landed in the hospital with pancreatic cancer, I told Spouse I was going to go out and buy a left-handed bass guitar. I didn't ask. I told. My rationale was that I could die tomorrow, and I didn't want to die without at least having tried to play the bass. So we went out and I walked into a guitar store and stated what I wanted. The owner asked me how important it was that the bass be left-handed. I said very. Then he handed me a 5-string which had just come in that week. I bought it. I took lessons. Sixty dollars a month. Did that for five months. Then I lost my job and had to quit the lessons.

I have kept the bass, and I try to pick out accompanyment to some of the slower songs I have. Can do "Don't it Make You Want to Go Home", and "Reflections of My Life". For a while I was able to do "Year of the Cat", but I forgot it. Recently purchased a book of bass songs with a CD accompanyment. Been playing "Imagine" off and on. Mostly off. It's hard to play when I know I don't play well. And it's hard to play well when I don't really believe in myself. But I will still pick up the guitar and try at whiles, wishing I could play faster and with fewer errors.

Which brings me to the present. I have a son who is very interested in music. He also has been demonstrating talent. Real talent. This is not just my opinion, it is the opinion of two different instructors at his schools.

His first interest was drums, and we bought him a kid's drum set. But when he was old enough to try out for band he chose the tuba. He has been recommended for state band, but we can't afford that. He is the first tuba player to make jazz band in the school's history. And he is one of the very few sixth graders who have done it.

Recently, he began teaching himself keyboards. The school will only teach one instrument per student due to costs of time and money, and his instrument is the tuba. We can't afford other lessons. We have an autoharp I inherited from my grandmother, and he is learning that. I ordered an instruction book for him. It was only nine dollars. And he learned the recorder in an earlier grade, but he doesn't practice that much.

What he wants now is to add the tenor saxophone. That's about a two thousand dollar instrument. Without consulting Spouse, I offered that if we can make two thousand dollars at our garage sale, we would buy him a saxophone. Then we would find a way to come up with money for lessons.

Today, on the way home from his most recent jazz band concert, we stopped at a Schmidt Music store to price tenor saxophones. His band instructor said to let him know makes and models and prices and he would let us know which were good deals. While at the store, his mother looked at the prices and began to back off the agreement. (She had agreed after I told her.) I came down harder than I needed to, but I said we had made an agreement, and if we could keep it, we would. I'm going to do everything I can to encourage and stimulate this musical gift my son has. I have no clue how good he is really, or how good he can become. What I do know is that NO ONE who can participate in music has ever regretted it. They may have hated the learning, but knowing how to do it is always a blessing.

My son will be Blessed. I promised him that. I sang it to him for months before he was born, and after. In whatever way I can help, he will be Blessed.