When I was six years old I was taken to a very large old house in the next town where I met my first piano teacher Mrs Guttery. Mrs Guttery was old - very old. At least she seemed very old to someone of six. Her house was amazing, like something from a film set. The front garden gate had paint peeling off it and the pebbled cobbles up to the front door looked pretty. In the hallway was a small low rectangle box which I later learned was an early piano - how early, I cannot remember.
On the left was a large room filled floor to ceiling with shelves upon shelves of books. Mrs Guttery called this the library and it would become for me the room I waited in for my piano exams as the next few years rolled on. The room on the right of the hallway was the piano room. There was an upright piano as I walked in - up against the wall - and in the middle of the room was a grand piano which was where I began to learn how to play.
I still have the note book which Mrs Guttery wrote in each Saturday with spidery hand-writing reminding me of what we had learned and what I was to practice for the next lesson.
Mrs Guttery was a gentle bright and cheerful lady and I was very fond of her.
My foray into playing music began in primary school when we lived in Kingswinford, West Midlands, where my sister and I were born. I began by learning to play the recorder as we all did in those days (1960s). Once I had mastered that, I began learning to play the trumpet and at aged 10 joined the Dudley School Orchestra.
Of course I was still learning the piano and by the age of 10 had taken a couple of piano exams. As I was about to leave Junior School and join the Comprehensive School, Dad was relocated by the Midland Bank to a branch near Coventry in Warwickshire so we had to move house. I carried on with my piano lessons each fortnight when we would travel back to the West Midlands to visit my grandparents.
At my new school in Kenilworth, I began to learn the clarinet but I didn't really take to it - I didn't like the teacher as he hit our fingers with a pencil if we played wrong notes! Wouldn't be allowed these days would it? I learned long enough to pass Grade III but then gave it up as I was not enjoying it.
By the time I was about 16 I was desperate to learn to play the guitar. Mum and Dad gave me an acoustic guitar for my 17th birthday and I spent the next couple of years learning to play (badly) along with my record collection which was full of stuff like The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell.
By now we had moved again - back to Stourbridge in the West Midlands - and I had begun work as a junior shorthand typist with a large firm of Solicitors. As time went on I had stopped piano lessons at around Grade VII and only played keyboard when I joined a music group at church which I loved.
Skipping forward to my mid twenties, a friend at work wanted to sell a violin and I bought it and began having lessons from my friend Ian who led the music group. Again I took a couple of exams and enjoyed playing.
I guess what I am saying to you is that music has been a very big part of my life and one of my simple pleasures these days is giving Nathaniel a lift and putting on our play list in the car so we can sing along on our journey. Nat has a very similar taste in music to me and I am absolutely delighted that he loves music so much that he is doing a degree in popular music in University of South Wales, Cardiff.
One of the disappointments of being careful during the COVID pandemic is that we are unable to sing in Church. I know that many of you also enjoy singing or listening to music and I do hope it wont be too long before we can raise the roof again!
Here's a video made by Nat and his friend Alex for a Uni project. I'm sorry I don't know the name of the band but they are also at USW, Cardiff.