My Between the Lines Journal

A Musical Instrument Played when young

Just to get started, I picked one of the prompts suggested by the group.

Prompt Suggestion: Did you practice a musical instrument as a child? Did you like it why or why not?

I started taking violin lessons when I was 5 1/2 or 6, then my mother switched me to the accordian, and finally settled on the piano, sometime when I was around 6 1/2.

I remember my first piano. It was an old upright which I got around the same time I started playing. It was funny because it was "my" piano. My sister continued with the accordian, and occasionally played the piano also. But it was really mine.

No doubt it quickly became evident that I was a natural born musician. Practicing for me was not something I had to do. Many times I would just pick up the church hymnal and sit down with it and play.

I loved playing, and it was more a matter of getting me to stop than making me start. By the time I was ten I was playing for all the neighborhood kids. They would stand around the piano, and we would sing out of an old "All-American" Songbook. There were neat songs in it from the 30's and 40's, like "Casey would Waltz with a Strawberry Blonde". But our favorite was "Oh my Darling Clementine".

A sudden change. My mother was killed in a car accident when I was 10, and my two sisters and I went to live with my Grandmother. We moved back to Fillmore, a small town where I still live. And we took lessons from a local teacher, who was also our church pianist. So at 11, I started playing in the church. It was usually just on Sunday evenings. By the time I was 14 I was playing regularly for the church choir, and for Bible School. What fun! I loved playing.

Now, I am a professional free-lance church musician. It is a great part-time job, and one which I truly love. I still can't believe people pay me to do something which I love doing so much! LOL.

of course, I also work full time for the Navy, but that is another story.

While in college I learned to play the guitar, and also the soprano recorder. My plans for the future is to re-learn the violin, and also the Celtic Harp.

Hugs, Cynaemon