Was there something you always wanted to do and never got around to because you were working and parenting, and furthering your education?
I always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument. I had fantasies of playing (a guitar a piano a ukulele a drum) an instrument of some kind and singing along. Never mind that I can't sing, have no range, and can't remember any songs. It was a fantasy right?
Nonetheless a few years ago on Mother's Day, my daughter bought me a ukulele and I started taking lessons in Collingswood at the music shop just off Haddon Ave next to the bakery. My teacher's name was Scott and he was a young jazz musician and a very good teacher. After a year, however, I ran into financial difficulties due to car repairs and other household repairs and had to cut back. The lessons were $30 each or $120 a month. I gave up the lessons, Wawa, and for a time, I gave up getting my hair done. It saved a lot of money. Still, I kept thinking how good I would have been by now if I had kept on playing.
It is the same thing people think who had piano when they were young and gave it up as they entered their teens.
I never dreamed of being coming really good my modest fantasy was to be able to noodle around and play simple songs, folk songs. When I stopped my lessons, I was learning a Woody Guthrie song "All they will call you is deportees" about flying the migrants home to Mexico after they pick the crops in the US.
Well, right now, at Eiland Arts in Merchantville (the old railway station that is now a coffee shop and Art Center) I am taking ukulele lessons again. They ran a summer one month accelerated music course. You pay one flat fee ($200) and you get two lessons a week for a month. That's a discount over the regular less fee which is $30 a lesson. And I am really enjoying playing again, though my naturally vagrant memory has forced me to go back to the very beginning on my own practice time. That way I have a hope of keeping up with my new teacher, Matt, though he is the kind, patient and relaxed type of teacher that is necessary for someone as nervous as I am.
Zen Mind Beginners Mind, is a way of looking at things. When you are taking up something totally new and outside your usual experience, you are not good at it unless you had a hidden gift that you are discovering. Generally, if it is woodworking, stained glass, music, painting, any kind of craft or art practice, or for that matter a sport; you start out rather clumsy and slow. It takes time and practice and experience to become good at anything. So I am a clumsy, slow, and humble learner on the ukulele!
But, I am good at painting and have three paintings on display at the Gallery at Eiland Arts right now. The opening is Sept. 6, I think, but the show is up and running and I had a chance to see it. It is a beautiful show full of diversity in the approach of the artists to the theme which was trees and flowers.
Go grab some brunch or lunch and coffee and enjoy the show and if you too always wanted to learn to play an instrument, guitar, ukulele, piano, whatever, sign up at Eiland Arts and make your dream come true!
The Railroad Station in Merchantville is right off Centre Street, make a right into the parking lot and drive to the lot on the east side of the station. On Saturdays they have a fun farmers market there too and live music at Eiland Arts. It is a dream come true! You can enjoy a nice meal, shop, and listen to music in the shade of the trees that line the rails to trails that is where the railroad once ran.
Happy trails!
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com'
ps. Get on the mailing list, they have pop up dinners, and all kinds of art programs there too!
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