Phoebe DeCook

Today’s topic is: “Do you play a musical instrument? If not, what musical instrument would you love to learn to play?”

I am in awe of real musicians, those people who spend hours perfecting their skills and have the ability to create such beautiful music. In another lifetime, I’d like to think I could have been one of them.

Like many children, I played music at school when I was young. In fourth grade, I started practicing the flute. (Don’t you just love my high-water suspender pants over the sweater look? My fashion sense took a while to develop.) I vividly remember having to go to after-school flute lessons, but beforehand, I would stop at the local convenience store to buy a box of Lemonhead candy. My hope was to be too puckered up to be able to practice.

I had developed a crush on Kirk Montague and in the fifth grade, I somehow convinced my parents to let me switch over to playing the trombone. Being a temperamental pre-teen who actively avoided practicing the flute might have been a convincing argument. For the record, I also had a crush on Gabe Winkler who played the saxophone but the idea of sucking on reeds to get them ready to play seemed too strange to me.

Just before sixth grade, I moved to a new school in a new life but I continued to play trombone for a couple years. I haven’t picked up either instrument in nearly 30 years.

Someday, I would like to have the time to learn to play music again. I have a keyboard set up in the living room in hopes that my young daughters will discover some spontaneous genius ability to play. I also hope to inherit my mother’s hammered dulcimer because I think it can make some of the most beautiful sounds in the world. But for the foreseeable future, music will remain tucked away on my bucket list.

Brag about your musical talent in the comments.

~ Phoebe DeCook