When I was at Primary School, there was quite an importance placed on playing an instrument. Everyone had the choice to take up any one of a range of instruments, from the cello to the trumpet, and the local education authority had a stock of them to lend out. My first foray into the world of music was probably when I was about seven, when I chose the flute. Now that was all well and good, until it was pointed out that, as a fairly short child, I struggled to reach the end of it. Tricky to play an instrument you can't reach the end of, so back went the flute, to be replaced with an Oboe. I liked the Oboe, there is no question about that, but I didn't like it enough to practise regularly, or without daily nagging. After a few months, the decision was taken that the Oboe would go to join the flute. After a bit of a break, and probably quite a lot of "Please let me have another instrument please please PLEASE!" type begging from me, I was signed up for clarinet lessons....
The Clarinet was FAR more successful than the earlier instruments - I really enjoyed playing it, and being that bit older, was ready - at least at first - to take a bit more responsibility for regular practice. Over time though the novelty faded a little, and by the time I had reached the end of the hire period for the school Clarinet, it was decided that I wasn't committed enough to learning to justify the cost of an instrument being bought for me. Fair decision, no arguments there. My final foray into the world of musicianship at that stage was a step away from the woodwind family to a violin. Thankfully for all concerned, the hideous noises I was able to produce with it were enough to put me off fairly rapidly!
Every now and again over the last 30 or so years, I have found myself hankering after the idea of being able to play an instrument. For the most part this has been no more than a fleeting thought, but recently, as a result of having two friends who both play (Flute, in their case, they clearly longer arms than I did as children!) I have been thinking about it again. This time though, rather that just pushing the idea away again, I investigated for a local teacher, and bought a clarinet!
Actually, I bought two clarinets - the first, from eBay - turned out not to work terribly well. Well, actually, it turned out not to work. The second works just fine though, and while it looked a slightly sad, tired thing when I first got it home, a bit of elbow-grease with a microfibre cloth transformed it. It sounds rather lovely too - well it does sometimes, and more so when my teacher plays it than when I do, if I'm honest....
So far, so good, I'm enjoying playing again so much that practising regularly isn't any kind of issue. At least,not for me, the neighbours may feasibly have other views on this, but so far none of them have said anything... The cat hasn't said anything either, she just removes herself to the far end of the flat every time the black shiny thing makes an appearance. MrEH has been delighted by the fact that I can play the opening bars of the Welsh national Anthem. Those that know MrEH will be able to picture the true depth of his emotions on discovering this...
Robyn
No comments:
Post a Comment