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That thing on my knee

We are a musical family.  The Richardses are, and the Richards-Van Pelts-McPhees are.  I've been playing the clarinet for 37 years now.  (37 years!  I don't think I've done many things longer than that -- eating and reading, maybe.)  I adore the clarinet.  I adore all woodwinds, but the clarinet is so versatile and so perfect.  It has been my instrument forever.  My focus for all of those years has been classical music.  That's what I have been doing, and that's what has made sense.

So what is the banjo about?  It's weird, jangly, metallic, heavy.  My shoulders are still getting used to it. My fingers are raw!  I know nothing.

To be proficient at the banjo will take me years.  To make beautiful music will take longer.  That's some of its appeal.  It takes me out of my comfortable musical genres and into genres that some of my ancestors loved.  I don't want to only build on what I know.

I know nothing.  I am just playing.


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