FEATURES – NOVEMBER 2009

The Music Inside You

Have you ever dreamed of learning to play an instrument?
Here’s a step by-step plan to get you started,regardless of
your age.

 

Music In You
Bookmark and Share by Tom Robotham

For me it all began with“Oscar theOctopus.” I was 5 years old, and my mother—a music teacher—had decided it was time for me to learn to play piano. And so, one Sunday afternon after church, we sat down for my first leson.

I got to know “Oscar” in no time: C-DE; C-B-A; C-D-E; C. I was off and running. Within a week, I had learned every song in the Schirmer Green Book—the equivalent of a kindergarten curriculum for piano students. Over the next few months, I did okay with the Red Book and soon moved onto the Blue Book, or level two. But before long, I began to lose interest.

I did so for a couple of reasons. One was that I developed competing interests: Little League, watching my favorite TV shows and roaming aimlessly with my friends in the woods surrounding my suburban development in Staten Island, N.Y. But if I’m going to be honest with myself, and with you, I have to admit that I also lost interest because I grew frustrated. As I confronted more difficult pieces, I lost the will to overcome the challenges.

When I was 10, I tried music lessons again—this time with the guitar. I distinctly remember the feeling of delight that welled up in me on Christmas morning when I saw a Dan Electro guitar under the tree. For the next year or so, I dutifully went to my lessons at a local music store. But there was a problem: I didn’t sound at all
like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page. For several years, I kept up with it nonetheless. When I was 12 I even formed a band with two friends. We called ourselves The Tidal Waves. We learned to play a few songs—I remember playing the Monkees’ “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” at the 6thgrade talent show—but within a year we had gone our separate ways.

Throughout my adolescence music remained an important part of my life. I’d spend hours in my room playing air guitar to songs like Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You,” and went to concerts in Manhattan every chance I got. But my dreams of becoming a rock star had fallen by the wayside. I had become a mere fan.

If this story sounds familiar to you—if you’re one of the countless men and women in this country who had piano or guitar lessons as a kid, or played trumpet in the middleschool band, only to abandon your instrument in frustration— then read on. I’m here to tell you that it’s not too late to start again—or to start from scratch if you’ve never picked up an instrument in your life.

I’m speaking in part from personal experience. Last year, after neglecting my guitar for two decades, I picked it up again and started taking lessons with Lewis McGehee, a guitarist, singer and songwriter who’s been giving private lessons to residents of Hampton Roads since 1985.

McGehee agrees that it’s never too late to take up an instrument, and he insists that virtually everyone can learn how to play. “I have students of all ages and backgrounds,” he says. Some are more talented than others, he admits. But he says he has never encountered a student who couldn’t learn to play, at least on a basic level. “It’s like lifting weights,” he observes. “Some people will never be able to bench press 300 pounds, but if you workout regularly you will get stronger.”

Karen Somers is a case in point.

“I’ve always loved music,” says the 48-year-old Naval officer, “but my parents never gave me lessons when I was a kid. “I dated some musicians years ago, but that was about the closest I ever came to musical instruments,” she adds with a laugh.

All of that changed three years ago after her husband bought her a guitar and a few pre-paid lessons with McGehee as an anniversary present.

“I literally had never held a guitar,” she explains, “and I doubt I would have taken the step by myself. But I’m so glad my husband did. It’s been great.”

Somers admits that it wasn’t so much fun at the start. “It was actually pretty painful at first,” she recalls. “My playing didn’t sound much like music. But Lewis is a wonderful teacher.”

For the rest of this article see the November 2009 issue of Hampton Roads Magazine.

 

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