I went for a walk yesterday. If I didn’t believe in fate before, maybe a rethink now…
Walking with my youngest child, 13, we hear music in the distance, trumpet. We walk towards it, a guy playing his trumpet: very good!
He hears me talking in English: he plays the British National Anthem: lovely touch from a showman!
I stand to attention and salute. We talk music, Chet Baker, pianist Bill Evans et al. I tell him that I sense divine souls in these otherwise drug-wrecked and tortured musicians. He is playing in the open so as not to wake his neighbours. My son and I walk on….
I suggest to him that that was our cue to start learning to play a musical instrument, me, piano, he, his preferred instrument, guitar. He’s up for it. I also suggest that we choose a piece of music that we both like and set a target, a year to be able to duet.
I’m currently training with my eldest son for a 100-mile ultra marathon – up and down a street less than a half-mile long, in under 24 hours – in aid of mental illness organisations: so, my eldest and I, we run together; and, now, with my other son, music: what with my daughter?
On passing the trumpeter again, I thank him. I tell him that, because of him, seeing him, listening to him play, we, my son and I, have decided to start learning to play piano, me, guitar, him. He smiles…
I say it loud, “Enough’s enough, I keep saying that I would like to learn to play the piano – well, enough talking, JUST DO IT!”
“Like that?”, he retorts, pointing at some graffiti on a wall behind him, Nike’s “Just do it”: at that moment, I feel a coming together, people, time, souls….
Before leaving, I ask him if he is on Twitter – reply: no. I tell him to check out my blog, www.kobygould.com, that there is a ‘MUSIC’ category, that he can contact me via the website, that I’d like him to follow our progress.
I give him my name, ‘Koby Gould’, which leads to mutual gushing praise of pianist Glen ‘No Relation’ Gould and his playing of Bach’s ‘The Goldberg Variations’.
‘Fate’, my son and I to learn to play musical instruments, #guitar and #piano respectively, because of this meeting with an engaging, inspirational musician? This meeting was meant to happen…? Maybe…
Finally, I ask him, bouncing back to brass, if he’s ever heard Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ played on the trumpet. Reply: No. I direct him here (Steven Spielberg on Pete Postlethwaite: “the best actor in the world”):
As we walk off, we hear…
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