And There Is Music

I thought it would be fun to let you see a little of another part of my life. I've said before that the "gig" part of this blog title comes from the music part.

This week's calendar has two gigs. My music partner (he and I taught together for years at a local music store) and I practiced just after breakfast on Monday. We are getting ready for a school arts day performance later this week. This will be our 10th year with that event. 

We have laughingly named ourselves "APB" which to us means "Annual Peformance Band." He and I used to play together often but as our lives changed and we went in different directions, we don't see each other much now. We have clung to this event as a way to know we will at least play together once a year. Oh, how we look forward to it each April!

Yesterday I played for an event with my ukulele band, the Yesterukes—a senior adult, all ukulele band. I formed this band about 7 years ago and have enjoyed watching it grow into a solid musical group. We have had great fun for years entertaining others.

Like many children, I took piano lessons for years. I started at age 5. I am a decent pianist, but I always wanted to play guitar. There was just never a way for me to learn. Then at age 47 that finally happened. Glad I didn't worry much about being too old to learn! In the years since then, I have taught guitar and mandolin lessons and started a ukulele band and played for many, many audiences. A side benefit—as I learned music in a different way, my piano playing improved greatly!

Life lesson here? If I had learned to play guitar when I was a teen like I wanted, I likely would have moved on to some other hobby after a few years. Learning these new skills later in life put me on a path to meet and play with these wonderful people that are now part of my life. Thinking about this always reminds me of a song my children sang when they were little, "In His time, in His time, God makes all things beautiful in His time." This all worked out just like it was supposed to. I didn't get to do what I wanted on my schedule. I got a schedule that was even better.