Humming a Hymn

My parents took me and my brothers to lots of concerts. Oh… no, not the “good” kind that most kids would want to hear… more like the “parent” kind of concerts. You know… classical music, choirs, brass ensembles, pianists, vocal trios, trumpet trios, violin trios… anything that came in a trio was supposed to be just marrrrvy I guess!

When I was real little I don’t think I cared much what we went to hear/see, I just wanted to be with my family. But in my “tude” years… and maybe even a little before I revealed exposed copped my tude, I really could have cared less to attend “THEIR” musical events. This just wasn’t my kind of music and my folks were old, boring and didn’t know what “good music” was.

HA.

Teens are so funny.

Life is so funny.

Paybacks are… actually, some of life is just not funny.

It is because of THEM (my parents) that I love and appriciate all forms of music now.

Yes… as I’ve told you before I don’t have a musical bone in my body. But it wasn’t for the lack of trying. Shoot, with all the music my parents exposed us to – it’s a wonder we didn’t have our own little quartet going on. Maybe they tried that… I don’t know… all I do know is I can’t play a thing and I can’t sing. Can’t hold a tune to save my life. And I WANT to hold it. I TRIED to hold it!

I took voice lessons in high school. Mostly because my brothers sang in the “good” choir (and by “good” I mean the small can’t-fake-that-you’re-singing kind of choir!) and got to take trips to like Hawaii and DC and stuff, and I wanted to go too. But after two lessons the teacher patted me on the back and said that I should stick with my art. I KNOW-Hu. Guess some things you just can’t teach.

Well, anyway, I tried to play piano (which I did for three years before they figured out that I couldn’t read a note of the music! I wish they taught Suzuki back then! I would have done well!).

I tried to play the clarinet (I faked my way through a band concert and the instructor asked me “why?” afterwards. I said “how could you tell?”  He said “your hands were backwards.” SHOOT. I just didn’t want to squeek and embarrass myself.).

I tried to play the big bass – you know… that huge guitar looking thing that was as tall as I am? (I think the only reason I even tried it was to be near a certain boy… who turned out to be a jerk… so by-by bass!)

I tried to play the drums. But it turns out you have to be able to keep a beat. (darn)

 I even tried to play the oboe. It must have been a very short try because I can’t even remember why I stopped trying!

And finally, I tried to play the flute. I didn’t do too bad with that one. But by the time I found it… I was almost out of highschool and once I was away from the band teacher… I was done. Never played again. (But I LOVED listening to my band teacher play Edelweiss on the flute! So much so that he played it at my (first) wedding for me. Beautiful!)

Well, I’m not pinning over the lack of musical abilities… I’m good listening to other people’s talent! It’s just that lately I’ve been recalling so much of that music and the hymns that my parents “forced” us to endure. WHO KNEW? It is actually a blessing. I now see the importance of exposing kids to all kinds of music. Left to their own devices they might not ever even know what an oboe  or a bassoon are. Which… I know… you could live your whole life not knowing… but I think it’s good to know. It’s like… brain food.

Last night I was laying in bed trying to recall the words to an old hymn I was remembering. Part of the lyrics were rolling around in my head and most of the tune… but I couldn’t come up with it all.

So, this morning when I got up I googled it. (the part I knew) and there it was! A very short hymn written by Bill Gaither. Here is the best rendition of it that I could find. It sounds like the Heritage Singers singing it… but I couldn’t find a youtube video of them… so maybe not. I don’t know.  (My patience level on the computer is pretty much ZIP, so I can’t say that I looked real hard.)

 

A good song to have running through your head on ANY given day! 

Thanks Mom & Dad. I’m sorry for all the “tude” I gave you about music while growing up. You did a good thing!

🙂

hi-d