Making Music

I have always wanted to be able to play a musical instrument. As someone whose entire life has revolved around music, to be able to reproduce the sound of a guitar, drums or saxophone is the dream. Sadly, my brain won’t play ball as my dyspraxia makes it impossible to develop the coordination to seamlessly and naturally move my hands with the speed and accuracy required. One year in my 20s I remember learning guitar at an adult education class and I was the only person who made no discernible progress in 10 weeks. I couldn’t change the hand position for chord changes so I was unable to play the simplest song all the way through. Each verse was taking about 3 times as long for me as it was for everyone else. At the end of the term I gave up to save myself further embarrassment and never picked up another instrument.

My youngest daughter played clarinet for 4 years and she made huge strides as she inherited my wife’s coordination. My youngest son was similarly able to play the guitar at a reasonable level, but he never really carried it on. I really enjoyed hearing both of them make progress and I was pleased that I had been able to give them the interest in music that encouraged them to do so.

I would now have the time to develop my playing abilities but as they are non existent there seems to be little point. As a teacher I know when someone is a lost cause, and believe me lost causes are vanishingly rare, and I am one such lost cause when it comes to musical instruments!