The one thing I wanted to do more than anything when I was in 6th grade was to play the guitar. My cousin had donated a 3/4 size Framus guitar a couple of years earlier, and Willy C. and I would get together, he with his ukulele, I with my guitar, and we would "play" and make up songs. Neither one of us knew what we were doing, but we had a good time doing it. We would "rehearse" over at his house because his mother had more patience than mine did, and write these goofy songs that we’d play into his tape recorder. At the end of our sessions, we’d rewind the tape and listen to it.
One day Willy said to me, "Maybe we should learn how to play for real." We decided to ask our parents (in my case, my mom, because my dad had died earlier that year) if we could take guitar lessons. There was a dance studio in the neighborhood who had a guitar teacher on staff, and that September we both started with Stan.
Willy caught on really quickly, because he would practice. I wasn’t quite as good about practicing, and soon my weekly lessons turned into a standoff between Stan and me. I was not enjoying the selection of songs in Mel Bay’s Modern Method For Guitar, songs like "The Volga Boatman," "Swanee River," and the ever-popular "Etude #3." I had learned all the notes from frets 0-5 on all six strings and the chords in the keys of C and G, which got me started playing songs at home, none of which had anything to do with what I should have been practicing.
Finally, he threatened to call my mother and tell her that I wasn’t cooperating with him and practicing what I should be. I talked him out of it, went home and told Mom that I wasn’t getting anything out of lessons and that Stan was a real jerk, and that I wanted to quit. She was fine with it, and that was the end of that.
I continued playing the guitar, and only quit playing for good when I had my stroke and couldn’t hold the pick or control my right hand. I miss it.
I’m sorry to hear this, I understand how much you miss it. My son loves to play the guitar and the drums; and my daughter, the violin. I always wanted to learn a musical instrument, but my parents could never afford it. Through life, I’ve found little things that bring joy to my life. What brings you Joy nowadays?
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Writing the blog. Seriously. I also played harmonica back in the day and I’m trying to get that going again. with mixed success.
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This is great. And seeing the amount and quality of your posts, I can see that you love what you do. Good luck with the harmonica too, I find its sound quite soothing.
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I like performing more than rehearsing, but rehearsals could be fun. Sometimes.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
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Clearly you have to practice or rehearse, but there’s no point in making it a drudgery.
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for some dunb reason wordpress is not letting me like your posts or anybody’s comments!GRR!!!!! 😢
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Try signing off WordPress and signing back on. sometimes that works. Also, if you’re using an ad blocker, sometimes it blocks things you do want to see.
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thanks I’ll try that
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So sad. Sorry you had to give it up. My husband is going through some tough time right now too. He’s been a musician all his life & he’s wrote & recorded many songs, but never had a connection or knew how to get them goin. He quit the last band he was in due to a strong dislike with the drummer, and because they lost their vocalist to that Harley death wobble accident (he’s confined to a wheelchair now & needs someone to feed him last I heard, but he’s doing okay otherwise). They got another singer & he was a trucker & he was killed in an accident. Dave quit right after that. He’s been super depressed since. I keep trying to make him pick up the guitar, but to no avail. 😦 Sorry you had to quit my friend. Do you have any tapes or videos of your playing??? Bet that would be great to have. Have a good day my friend. Stay healthy. Stay Safe. STAY HOME!
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I perfer to say I have set aside my music for the time being,I fully intend to get back to playing my Hammered Dulcimer again,even if I have to relearn all the tunes all over again!
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I think you’ll find it comes back to you.
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Nope, no tapes or videos or even pictures of me playing….
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I am about as amusical (is that even a word in English?) as they come. I tried to learn to play the guitar when I was at summer camp in Russia when I was 14. However, I had never played an instrument before and the instructor spoke only Russian and English, while I only spoke Dutch. Needless to say I gave up quickly.
It’s so sad you can’t play the guitar anymore.
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Yes, “amusical” is a word, and if it wasn’t, it is now.
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🤣 Agree.
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It must be hard not being able to do something you enjoy. I’ve never been particularly musical but hubby enjoys the guitar and our youngest son did well with the clarinet and drums.
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It’s rough, but I guess that’s what I get when I take it for granted…
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It’s such a shame when we can’t do something we enjoyed anymore. Did your friend continue on and does he still play, as far as you know?
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Last I talked with him, he’s still playing the guitar and learned the tin whistle. He’s really into Irish music.
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I’m sorry that you can’t play anymore. It’s really hard giving up something like that. Those who make music take such pleasure and find so much comfort in it.
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I played harmonica as well, and decided to take that up again. Gives me something to make myself crazy with…
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John,now that I have been seizure free and am lookifordward to when I can open the back door sit on the patio and set up my Hammered Dulcimer,and attempt to relearn the tunes I used to play.
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Hope it’s sooner rather than later.
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I took piano but lost interest because of the songs I had to play. I also took dance lessons, mostly tap, and loved it. I still like to dance and it’s good exercise.
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Mary took some piano lessons as an adult. She started with a guy who was just taking her through “John Thompson’s Playing the Piano” (or whatever it was named), which every kid doing piano lessons takes. She quit that guy and found a woman who came to the house once a week, and got more out of it. We no longer have a piano (or an organ, another of her hobbies), and she doubts she could play either. (She also has her accordion, but we won’t get into that.)
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Way back in the day, I moved my piano more times than I want to remember. I finally sold it. I never thought about playing an accordion, which doesn’t seem like an easy instrument to play.
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I watched Mary play, and I don’t know how she did it.
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I was the same as a boy – piano.
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It’s great fun playing the piano. Not so much practicing the piano. The really good musicians can make their practice sound like playing, and no, I couldn’t do it…
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