I have been experimenting, this morning, with adding things to spruce up my blog. I love to Twitter, so I thought I'd put my Twitter updates on here and add a few pictures. I enjoy the technology of blogs, Twitter and other popular social media sites. But I'm very much self-taught. I trial and error my way to eventual success. But as I was merging my Twitter life with my blogging life, I realized you don't know a very big part of me. I am also known as Musicgirl77.
I began taking piano lessons when I was 5 years old. I couldn't read the words on the pages so my parents would read what I was suppose to do to me and then I would read the music notes. As with any child, I wanted to stop lessons many times through the years. But I was pretty good and my mother wouldn't let me stop. I did enjoy the notoriety I got when I was to a level I could play piano for the other kids singing in the choir or do a real nice, little solo for talent days. I began teaching a couple of private piano lessons to neighbor kids when I was about 15. It's a skill I got better at and how I made my pocket change while in college. I majored in Music Education, mostly because I wasn't of the level of the performance majors and I couldn't imagine life outside of a school.
When I was in fourth grade, I began playing violin. I had wanted to play the cello, but there was an old fiddle in the family that was free, so violin it was. I enjoyed the community of playing in a group, in an orchestra. I got pretty good at that also. When I was in high school I went back and forth with another girl between first and second chair. She had learned to play via Suzuki style, a style that learned to play more by ear than by reading notes. She played better than I did but I could read notes and play a piece quicker than she could because of that. So she and I spent our high school years challenging each other for that top position. I continued to play throughout college in a very fine orchestra. But when you get to the college level, even great high school players are suddenly confronted with the fact that there are alot of more talented people than themselves. I wasn't THAT good. It was very humbling. But I did get to learn the basics of most instrument groups and had tons of fun doing it.
Backtracking to my high school years again, I also learned to play organ because the organist at our church decided to leave, leaving no organ players. So I learned and had the privilege to play for the funerals of a good friends that died along the way. I also took guitar lessons for a couple of years. I had wanted to play banjo but my mother decided starting with guitar was called for. I don't know why. I wasn't bad at the guitar either, but it wasn't a passion by any stretch of the imagination and I finally quit. I guess quitting after two years showed I wasn't interested and learning banjo was never pursued. I was OK with that by that time. I was getting a bit burned out on lessons.
I never taught in a school system. While they taught us music, they didn't teach how to interview and it wasn't something I came by naturally. I blew the interview in my home area and wasn't ready to leave to pursue jobs in other areas. So I made my living as a secretary and continued to play my violin and piano in church. When my husband's job started transferring us around, I continued playing in our various church homes and teaching private lessons when I could get the students. We now attend a megachurch and the quality level of its musicians are professional-like. Age and nerves have slowed my public performing down to nothing, but I still love playing on my own and accompanying my son when he works up trumpet solos. There's a VERY special joy in doing that!
So, even though you may think of me as a writer because of this blog, I am very much Musicgirl. A moniker I can still be very proud.
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