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.