Music

When I was a teenager, I loved sitting at the piano and playing songs. It was a form of escape. I wrote a lot of my own songs. I loved those times. I haven't played the piano much since then though my mom let me take the piano. It is an old piano and some of the keys don't make a sound. I have called tuners over the years, but they never do fix it. A few years ago, my sister was buying a new electric piano and gave us her old one. Stacy loved to play on that one. Sometimes we would play Pachelbel's Canon together, on our respective pianos. I let Stacy take that piano when she got married. I miss hearing her play. She played almost everyday. Sunday mornings were always filled with church music. When Cody was little, around 2 years old, he had a fascination with violin music. We bought him a toy violin and he played it all the time.

(Note: his violin looked a lot like this one, without the purple and green.)

As he grew, I wished that I had the money to buy him a real violin and enroll him in lessons. One day, I went with my sister-in-law Valery to visit a friend who was moving. The friend was giving away some of her things. On the porch was a violin case. Upon opening it, we found a 3/4 violin without a bridge and strings. I asked if I could have it and she said yes. I took it to a repair shop and my ex paid the $100 bill to have it fixed. Cody started lessons shortly thereafter. He eventually saved up his money and bought his own full sized violin. He was quite good, but life got a little too busy to practice much.

A couple of years later, Jace seeing Cody play, decided he wanted to play. We found him a cheap, 1/2 size violin and he started taking half of Cody's lesson since we couldn't afford more. The teacher was really impressed with Jace's talent. He picked it up quite easily. He was eight years old.

Jace and Cody took lessons for a couple of years, then their teacher quit to go back to teaching elementary school. Jace has played off and on since then. He has taken Orchestra but hates having to write essays on musicians so quit. Stacy took a guitar class in school, and Jace showed interest in the guitar. He taught himself how to play using tabs found on the internet. This summer Stacy and Jace took guitar lessons a learned a little more. He kicks me off the computer now and then to look up more tabs and I hear him singing and playing a new song. Joy fills my heart as music once again fills my house. Music is his escape too. I'm glad he has found an instrument that he loves to play just for fun.