Did you have to take Piano lessons when you were a kid? I did, but I made sure they didn't last long. I think I got to four fingers simultaneously going in opposite directions on the keyboard, and that was it. Oh, I learned to read music fairly well, but when notes on the treble cleft were on or between different lines of the staff on the bass cleft, I lost it. I guess that's why my parents got me a clarinet.
Like any beginning clarinetist, I spent months squeaking and squawking as I butchered the most basic of songs. But, I eventually got it, and managed to stick with it through most of high school. I remember our Mr. Wetlaugher, our band director, switched me over to bassoon for a few months to expand my music skills, but that took me right back to the bass cleft, and I was always two notes plus one octave lower than the rest of the band. It took me a while to understand why he kept putting his hand in his shirt. He was turning off his hearing aid. He could still keep time; he just couldn't bear to listen.
I did take up classical guitar for a bunch of years after that, but what I miss the most is piano. I wish I had fifty years of practice behind me so I could now play more than my CD player. Maybe I'll take up the iPod, instead.
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