by Marty Alan McGill

Created on: March 28, 2007   Last Updated: April 05, 2007

Man was created to make music. We have built-in rhythms and melodies in our hearts. It's only natural that we seek out ways to express those melodies. That's where musical instruments come in ... I can only imagine the joy the first musicians must have felt!

I started learning my first instrument when I was seven years old. My Dad brought home an electric guitar he found in a pawnshop and turned it over to me and my brother. We didn't have an amplifier, but we didn't care.

We beat on that old Sears Silvertone like we knew what we were doing. My brother gave it up fairly quickly, but I was hooked from the start. Now, forty-one years later, I'm still hooked.

Through the years I was constantly learning. Not only the guitar, but also banjo, bass, violin (fiddle), dulcimer, and I have gotten fairly proficient on the piano in the last five years. If you could only know how much pleasure it is to make music, you would surely take up an instrument today.

I can say without a doubt that I have never been bored for very long in my life. I could always pick up an instrument and amuse myself for hours, when I started the piano it was not uncommon for me to practice five or six hours a day. I loved it that much, and those lengthy practices paid off, I learned in five years what it takes some people twenty years to learn.

Another reason to learn is the fact that music is a huge stress reliever, remember it soothes the savage beast. It also can make the worries and trials of everyday life melt away, at least for awhile. It is never too late to learn, I started the piano at forty-two years old, and wish I had started when I was a child.

Throughout the years, I've heard the following on countless occasions ... "I wish I'd of kept taking music lessons!" This is a common refrain that all ex-students share. It may not surface until their thirtieth, or fortieth birthday, but it will surface. I usually hear this after I finish playing, and it breaks my heart.

Don't wait another day, take up an instrument! It's never too late, and I guarantee you this ... you will never regret the decision to join the ranks of the musician.

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