New Trick for an Old Dog

Music has always been an important and joyous part of my life since I was a little boy. By osmosis, I began to be immersed in the pop music of the day and, surprisingly, fine classical music of by-gone eras.

As a teenager, I was mesmerized by the romanticism of the stories and the melancholic minor keys predominantly employed in ballets such as “House of the Rising Sun”, “Five Hundred Miles”, and, strangely enough, the theme song to an animated space adventure series of the ‘50’s, called “Fireball”.

My spirit leaped into action. With a couple of friends, at age 16, I formed a folk group, called “The Ripples”.

“The Ripples” did very well over the three years of its shelf-life, receiving popular acclaim in the local folk scene. We were invited to sing from campus to campus. We even performed in a city-wide folk competition at the concert hall.

Totally musically illiterate, I just learned to strum a few guitar chords from my band-mates. Having no musical training, I became very frustrated at how much I would like to do with music that I could not.

That frustration lasted long enough!

Two years ago, I decided to learn to play the guitar from a teacher.

Little did I truly know I’d experience the adage that “practice makes perfect”.

It was a daily grind, everyday for two years, with practicing the chromatic scale, the guitar version of pre-chopsticks.

Two years later, with about sixty 30-minute-lessons under my belt, I performed in public twice, not at all perfectly, “Romance de Amor”, admittedly a difficult classical piece.

Even my wife conceded that wasn’t that bad at all.

Debbie encourages me with this musical pursuit all the time. Her encouragement has helped me tremendously on those days when I didn’t feel like fingering the chromatic scale anymore.

Learning to play classical guitar helps me to stretch my stubby fingers, making them more limber to do other things, such as bar-chords.

By any standard, I am by no means good at the guitar yet.

But, I am pleased with the honest and simple fact that I now play the guitar, instead of pretending to play it as I have done my entire life.

Yes. Practice does make perfect.

And, yes again. An old dog can learn new tricks.