If I had to make a living as a musician, I would not starve to death. People
would shoot me long before I had time to starve ;-)
My instrument collection includes my grandfather's violin. He had a fine
violin that he loved dearly... that would be the one my great-aunt left on
the bus when she came home from her violin lesson. I inherited the cheap
replacement he bought after that. Of course, as long as I could remember, it
sat in the attic of his house. I did not understand why. After he died, no
one else wanted it, so I asked for it. The sound post needed re-set, it only
had one string in place, the bow had no hair, etc., so I took it to a music
shop to have it put back to rights. The guy they jobbed it out to called me
up to ask if I played left-handed because thaty is the way the existing
string was setup. At that point things clicked and I remembered that my
grandfather had managed to lose the ends of the fingers of his left hand to
a mower many years ago. Unable to play right-handed, he obviously re-strung
it for left-handed and tried that. Apparently it didn't work out, despite
being ambidextrous, so it wound up in the attic.
Toss in a couple penny-whistles, a harmonica or two, chicken-shakes, and a
double dulcimer of the fretted variety (Hammer Dulcimists Never Fret!) and
you have my assortment of instrumentsa that have mastered me over the years
;-) I do much better with the tape-deck, the turn-table, CD players and
those families of instruments.
David Lieb
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