During lockdown in Britain a physical fitness instructor called Joe Wicks has achieved international fame through his P.E. with Joe daily workout for kids on TV and YouTube. This has been followed by families around the world who are cooped up at home and find they enjoy Joe’s approach to exercise. He was recently interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ and my attention was caught by the luxury item he chose to have with him on his island. Rather to the surprise of the presenter, who was probably expecting him to request something like a trampoline, Joe asked for a guitar, because, as he explained, “It’s never-ending, the journey on an instrument.” And in the background of his exercise videos there is usually a guitar hanging on the wall.
Musical instruments have an important place in the lives of so many people. Linus summed it up in the Peanuts cartoon reproduced in the Pete Seeger banjo manual: “I feel sorry for little babies… When a little baby is born into this cold world, he’s confused! … The way I see it, as soon as a baby is born, he should be issued a banjo!” It’s so important for kids to be introduced early on to the possibilities of actually playing music for themselves. Inevitably some will not be interested but they should at any rate be given sympathetic encouragement. (But I do think it quite wrong that kids should be forced to play an instrument just to fulfil the ambition of parents.)
The sooner kids can listen to music the better. And please let ’em pick guitars if they want to! The most off-putting problems are usually in the early stages of learning. I sympathise completely with the beginner who asked on a discussion forum “How long did it take you to smoothly switch chords on an acoustic guitar?” During my first year of learning I would have appreciated the encouraging advice given by experienced players on this forum. After going through the practical technicalities one member commented “The coolest thing about playing guitar is the nearly endless possibility. Many people make it hard on themselves by expecting to always play it the way someone else does. But music is infinite.” Apart from marvelling at the brilliance and facility of Django Reinhardt’s musicianship I am always encouraged by remembering that his left hand disability forced him to find other ways of fingering. With careful thought and practice you too can allow yourself to do things differently, if it achieves the result you want.
One family who have no trouble in encouraging their children to practise musical instruments (for up to eight hours a day!) are the Kanneh-Mason family in Nottingham, England. Their son Sheku played the cello at Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and the entire family of seven musically gifted children was featured recently in a BBC TV programme This House Is Full of Music. They have been confined to home during the lockdown period, and have enjoyed themselves playing music together. Videos of their performances in various combinations are available on YouTube, where you can also find Sheku’s cello interpretation (and hit recording) of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
The Kanneh-Mason children are exceptionally talented, indeed gifted, but this does not mean that the rest of us cannot also derive satisfaction from our own attempts at making music. Chet Atkins remarked, “Now I owe this guitar a lot, I really do. If it wasn’t for this guitar I might be running the streets practising law or medicine.” For myself I owe my mandolin, banjo and guitar a lot (together with my modest singing voice) just for giving me some balance and stability in coping with the responsibilities of everyday life. For most of us a major stumbling block has always been finding the necessary time for practice, but as Pete Wernick once pointed out there’s an awful lot of television you can miss without any loss. A daily practice routine works wonders.
Practice may not make perfect but it sure is rewarding!
John Baldry
July 2020
