Another thing to learn ... maybe.

I have always wanted to play an instrument. My mother played piano beautifully, but gave it up when she married -- in fact, we never had a piano when I was a child. I think Mom felt this loss keenly, though she would never have said so. When J. and I bought a piano for the kids to play, Mom showed a rush of enthusiasm she hadn't felt in a long time, and bought herself a couple books of piano music. Sadly, she died not long after, without much of a chance to reclaim her musical roots.

When I was in my early forties, my kids took piano lessons, and so did I (briefly). Not only did I lack time to practice, but was totally unprepared for reading bass clef (as a chorister, I read treble clef pretty well, but bass clef might as well be written in Greek). I labored away at it, but never got much beyond "Abide with Me" in my easy book of hymns. That two-hands-playing-different-lines-thing? Not happening. The kids blew right past me, of course. My daughter still plays when she's home, especially if she thinks no one else is in the house.

So when I recently came across an article about playing the recorder, I thought: Hmmmm. Maybe I can do this. So, very hesitantly, I began to price recorders.

The nice wooden ones? Let me tell you, you can blow a few hundred dollars really easily on a nice, handmade rosewood recorder, or a nice burled walnut. Sticker shock set it -- I don't even know if I can learn this! I finally found the right source (Amazon.com, naturally) and found out that decent-sounding recorders come in plastic, too, for the handy price of $35.00,

So now, I am the proud owner of a plastic recorder, and a very elementary play-the-recorder book.

I hope it's written for simple-minded musicians who never managed to learn bass clef.