Sometime BC, I was working on my abandoned list and trying to revive it for 2020. Well that hasn’t worked out too well thanks to current circumstances, but one of the things I did add, was to learn to play a musical instrument. I suppose I could count the beautiful melodies played out on the old brown school recorder. After all, everyone should be proficient in playing Three Blind Mice on one of those. It’s a life skill that I’ve turned to time and time again throughout difficult times. I was pretty good on the old triangle and tamborine too.
What to learn? I had previously toyed with the idea of leaning to play the sax, but that idea had waned. Piano would be good, but no room for a piano. Drums would be fun and excellent for stress relief, but the neighbours might not be too happy. So I settled on guitar. Relatively inexpensive (for a beginner one), doesn’t take up too much room and easy to transport.
A quick search led me to Ron Leigh’s Music Factory which is just around the corner. Handy. Decided it was meant to be when someone mentioned that they’ve been around for ages and are very well regarded. Right then, it was time to pick a guitar and book in for some lessons. And then along came Covid-19 and that plan was temporarily shelved.
But just last week on a walk around the neighbourhood, I walked past Ron Leigh’s and spotted this groovy purple guitar in the window (brand name was Valencia – I took it as a sign) and the cutest collection of ukulele. Being a Sunday, the shop was closed, but I did notice they were still open during the week.
On Thursday, Emi surprised me and came home with a ukulele. I think it’s more of a “display” piece, but it is very cute and lets face it, I have no idea what I'm doing anyway. Today, I lovingly took it out of its bag and turned to that great teacher, YouTube, and found a few free lessons. Lesson 1, “You are my Sunshine” and learning a few Chords. Obstacle 1, I have to cut my nails. And practice. A lot. I have no idea on tuning (gotta get me one of those little tuner thingies) or if the notes are even close to what they are supposed to sound like. But that’s OK, minor details.
I do still want to buy the purple guitar and get some lessons, but I’ll wait until they are back doing them in person. In the meantime, well I’ll practice on my new little ukulele.
