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about music

I came from a partly musical family; my father had a keen interest in music, specifically jazz and even had his own band. He was a very talented musician and had even been approached by the local symphony orchestra asking him to be a participant. He was honoured but had to turn the offer down as it would have meant too much time away from his family (which he wouldn’t have liked as he was a real family man).

So there was always music in our house. Dad had his band over to practise at least once or twice a week at our house and some of my favourite memories are of falling asleep to big band numbers(rather than lullabies)

Dad even constructed his own, “hi fi”(the precursor to steroes, which of course predate CD’s and Cd players(themselves almost out of date) He also put a impressive stereo amplifier system into our kitchen wall so that we could enjoy music during meals.

We all were encouraged to play some sort of musical instrument. We of course started with the ubiquitous piano, and from there, my sister developed an interest in singing and belonged to several choirs. My brother similarly went from the piano to learning how to play drums and later, Dad’s own double bass.

I too took piano lessons and dutifully hammered through my scales and trundled off to my mean old piano teacher’s house twice a week. I think she knew that I was not a dedicated musician but she obviously needed the money so endured my hacked out renditions of various classic piano tunes.

This went on for some time. Finally I decided that I would like to try the clarinet.

My father was a bit sceptical but borrowed one for me to use. The lessons for this were at school and sadly, I found that by the time I had put the instrument together the lesson time was almost over(lol)

So my musical career was not to be..(still love jazz though!)