This is one of my favorite childhood photos – my Dad and I playing Chopsticks. Actually, I’m playing two-finger Chopsticks while he’s playing Heart and Soul.

Like many kids from my generation, music lessons were a part of our education. We all took private piano lessons for years and my brother and I both played instruments in the band – clarinet for me, saxophone for him.

My favorite piano teacher was Mr. Van (I can’t begin to spell his real last name). He was also my band teacher in junior high. He would take groups of students down to Daytona Beach during the summer for a London Symphony Orchestra concert at the beachfront band shell. (The LSO still comes to Daytona every other year and are enjoyed by all.)

My band career ended when I went to high school, but I continued piano lessons for a while. Dad once told me that if I could play Moonlight Sonata, he’d buy me any car I wanted. I got the first movement down, but my fingers just never were able to master the second.

These days about all I play is the radio, but those years of music lessons gave me a deep appreciation for those who do have the skill – and the soul – for making music. And, I’ve had a life-long love for the London Symphony.

As for my dream car . . . I bought it myself. It just took a few years.

Related posts:

1. Southern Exposure Music & Heritage Festival
2. Beauty Queens
3. Rockin' with Little Richard
4. A Band of Angels
5. Cherokee Rose

Tags: Carnival of Genealogy, COG, music
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Barker, History. You can leave a response, or set a trackback from your own site.