GANEIDA'S KNOT.

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Quaker by conviction, mother by default, Celticst through love, Christ follower because I once was lost but now am found...

Friday, July 17, 2009

Oh, what a lucky Ditz it is!



"Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, save perhaps two.” -Fredric Chopin
Liddy had organised a lunch & movie outing ~ something both she & Ditz were really looking forward to seeing ~ so yesterday was well taken care of & Ditz got yet another day of school. If I were an excellent mama I would now make the child write a movie review & at least pretend we were doing school but I really can't see the point, particularly as Liddy did a blow by blow job on everything that was wrong with it & then Ditz explained to me on the boat home why it wasn't as good as it should have been so I feel we've covered the critical thinking aspect of things.

So while we were gadding about overseas Dearest had a visit from a very old friend [who just happens to be an American if you're interested] & this very old friend left a pressie for Ditz. Like the child needed another instrument! Ditz is so totally over the moon I was rather surprised. It was neither a clarinet nor a saxophone, both of which Ditz has been enamoured of for some time, but an acoustic/electric guitar, a JBanez acoustic/electric guitar. I am an acoustic all the way guitarist so this means nothing to me & it means nothing to Ditz who is only interested in the fact that it is a guitar, her very own, really, truly guitar.

I have a guitar & when Ditz was smaller she really loved it but it is an acoustic guitar meant for classical/folk playing & has a very wide neck. It is really too wide for me too, realistically, but I at least have an adult's hands. It was way too big for a small Ditz so though she could pick songs out by ear it soon defeated her & she had plenty of other instruments to be going on with.

Unbeknown to me Ditz has been saving her meagre pocket money to purchase herself a guitar. I do actually understand this. For a singer the guitar is perfect for self accompaniment & after the piano a reasonable way of composing so to have one land in her lap like this was rather a mind blower!

She chivvied me upstairs to hunt up the chord charts & old guitar music, though she is perfectly capable of playing by ear & I left her to experiment for herself. Later I will show her some basic chords & she can build on that. This is a steel stringed instrument that hasn't been played in some time [& I'd already decided the strings needed replacing, & replacing soon] when there was a ping like a gunshot & the top E string gave way.

For years our closest music shop has been halfway to town but just recently someone has opened a local music shop on the island! Guess where we're headed this morning! lol And though I know how to tune an instrument I have an abysmal ear & can never tell if the rotten thing is in tune or not so we will need a tuner. I hope Ditz has been saving hard because she will have to buy a whole new set of strings; no point just replacing the one that broke. God is very good to that child. Every single instrument she owns, & there are a few of them now, she got by the grace of God. The keyboard ~ on indefinite loan from a friend's daughter; the organ~ from our old minister on his death; violin ~ Ditz bought herself with a monetary present she was given; the flute ~ a complete act of God & now the guitar. Bizarre!

Guitar is the one instrument I do actually know something about ~ & how it works musically ~ so this will be interesting because my Ditz does not think highly of my musical acumen! ☺ Being steel the sound is a little too tinny for my liking but it seems to have a good tone, good enough for Ditz & she is fussy. I hope she gets good quick. We already endure the violin & that is more than a little excruiating at times. Another stringed instrument sounding like a drowning cat is asking a lot of the whole house.

10 comments:

The HoJo's said...

:o) now I have the full story! I play clarinet, started when I was 10 I think, lovely instrument. Just as we were leaving the pub I mentioned to a friend that Missy was thinking of taking up the instrument, and was given a beautiful old clarinet, she now has my old one! Gorgeous, precious gift. Ian bought me a sax for my birthday a while back, I really need to continue teaching myself that one, but the time, I have none.
We had Frasers half size guitar re stringed as he is a leftie, he plods with it every now and then but no real interest, yet. Singing in our house though, if I could get them to take it seriously, they have lovely voices.
Ah.....happy days, kind of wishing we hadn't left the piano in the Uk but we had a wall built which boxed the wretched thing in and I wasn't in the mood for removing a window from a 600 year old building to get it out!


xc

Ganeida said...

Well at least you know what you're doing, which is more than I do.

Ditz is the only one here who can sing though. She gets a little snooty every now & then but I just skyrocketed in her opinion because I actually managed to tune her guitar!!! :) OK, so I used the tuner but I did it while Ditz couldn't do it even *with* the tuner!

The HoJo's said...

hee hee well done

you can tell one of the children is a bit poorly, I am home! poor chap, I do feel sorry for him, but 2 whole days off for little me, yay, ahem.
Bad Mother award goes to......

xc

Ganeida said...

MEEEE!! lol You guys sure do work hard. Now we've started the new financial year will things ease up a bit for you? I don't know how you manage ~ but I should go completely demented working with food. nd the public. Hope you are enjoying your time off.

The HoJo's said...

We must have 2 consecutive good years to be allowed to stay, so pressure still on for another year at the very least. If that goes well we can apply for residency. If we don't do it all before Aug 2012 we get booted out of the country!

Yes, I have enjoyed the time off, nice to have the children all at home and also nice for it to just be us, we have a couple of regular stayers which I don't mind but sometimes it is nice to just be with mine :o)

Are you sugesting I am not demented? aw how kind you are :o)

xc

seekingmyLord said...

The Lord is good! You know someone is truly blessed by the Lord with talent when the things needed to use that talent just come to her!

I also played guitar and I have a twelve string I pick at now and then as well as the bowed psaltery--and the piano...? What is it with me and strings, all of which must be tuned? I was toying with the idea of learning piano tuning once not only to save us money but to make a bit as well. However, I am like you, I need a tuner to help out. It seems I tend to make my the string of G, which is F on a twelve string, a tad flatter than everyone else, which of course means the last two high strings are also a bit flat.

Diane Shiffer said...

Well, the mere fact that you can intelligently discuss things musical is impressive to me, as I am a complete and utter dunce about such things. I love how God lavishes us with gifts. Once, after a particularly miraculous occurrence of God's provision, Amelia said she couldn't understand how people could *not* believe in God. I tend to agree with her.

Oh, and a thought about the movie review report thing. Could you write a report yourself, related your discussion- say that Ditz had presented an oral report, and defended her view in debate form, giving an example of her arguments, etc. Just squirrel it away to use when you have to write up your reports. I do that sort of thing all the time, lol. It's truly amazing what can qualify as "school." But as a former public school teacher, I don't feel the slightest bit guilty- in fact that is how much of what constitutes "education" is justified;)

Molytail said...

Oh wow, awesome! Yay! *grin*

I know a few chords, but I can't play - despite my cousin attempting to teach me a few years back (Norm, the cousin I chatter about - he's played since he was about 5)...I'm just completely hopeless when it comes to music. Well, I can play the harmonica ~ does that count? :-P

Sandra said...

she has the luck of the celts!

Jan Lyn said...

That's remarkable provision going on there for Ditz with all her instruments. How wonderful. Hmmmm....I must add that my oldest daughter just had her first guitar lesson last week. She is now in the stage of practicing EVERY day FAITHFULLY. I keep telling myself, it is a good thing, but yes, quite some thing to listen to at first.......wheww.