It’s been quite a summer. In late August I returned home from a funeral with a virus. This cough is more irritating than my hungry cat at 5:30 am. People at work are looking at me with that post-covid side-eye. You know the look. And the virus is not going away. It’s been three weeks. That’s longer than some of my junior high relationships.
By evening I’m so tired of coughing I wouldn’t mind going to bed right after dinner. Deja vu!
I remember when I actually did that, back in seventh grade. This September feels a lot like that one: sad, uncertain, but full of exciting possibilities.
Back in ’73, the news blared nonstop about Watergate. Gas prices were soaring. Junior high classes were held in trailers by the high school, a new location with teachers I didn’t know. So daytime was uncertain and exciting, but evenings were just plain lonely.
My nearby cousins had all moved away. My younger brother had been lost in an accident the year before. Mom and Dad did their best, but they were sad and quiet. I would come home from school and by 6:30 just go to bed. There was nothing else to do.
But then Cousin Tim came to stay with us.
He was six years older and taking college classes. He played the flute, and one day he came out of his room with some music. “Hey, can you play this?”
It was piano accompaniment. I fumbled through it, made a lot of mistakes, and he said it was perfect. Just what he needed! And also, would I have time to do this with him every evening? Well, it might cut into that 6:30 bedtime, but I thought maybe I could work him in.
Then he gave me his old Peter, Paul, and Mommy LP. And a few days later, he pulled out a hand-me-down guitar. He didn’t need it anymore. Would I like the old one? Um, yes. And would I like him to show me the chords for Puff the Magic Dragon? Well, duh!
These days you see the phrase “This changes everything” about once every 12 seconds. You can find Substack notes of me making fun of its overuse. But hey, Cousin Tim really did change everything for me.
Music went from something I had to practice by myself to something we did together.
And once you’ve learned a few chords, you realize it isn’t that hard to come up with a little melody. And if you doodle on your colored notebook paper for long enough, you can come up with simple lyrics.
And then, if you are going to start singing with your guitar, why not pay attention to the girls who get praised for their good voices? They all have one thing in common: vibrato. Can you get some of that? Look deep inside. It’s in there somewhere. Just close your eyes, and listen to yourself, and breathe the way the choir teacher said to breathe.
And once you’ve found that vibrato, you can take the guitar to school and start meeting up with those girls. Suddenly, you have new friends. Teachers are asking you to do special music for events. And you’re definitely not going to bed right after dinner anymore.
Which I still really wanted to do this week, but I resisted and got busy sorting through old documents instead.
Which is how I ended up logging into Evernote the other day—yes, Evernote, which I thought had gone the way of floppy disks—and there it was: a song my daughter wrote when she was nine. AND I HAVE BEEN LOOKING ALL OVER FOR THIS!
The melody is hers, then I helped with the chords. She was enrolled in Yamaha guitar lessons at the time, so once she understood which chords went with which part of the melody, she was ready to go. The song, called Dare to Discover Peace, won 3rd place in a little school competition back in 1995.
Last year I wrote my own lyrics about her writing that song and set it to music using Suno AI. So yes, a song about writing a song. Very circular. I posted an early version of it here using what was then version 3.5 of the product. Early days! So I thought I could redo it now with a newer version, inspired by the sing-along quality of Karen Carpenter's 1973 classic, Sing. (Oh, Karen, I still miss you!)
This little Suno Song is not a concert-ready production, but my little granddaughter will enjoy it. My seventh grade guitar tunes in my room weren't concert-ready either, but they were life-transforming.
I don’t have a guitar right now, and my vibrato is distinctly “old lady,” but maybe Suno is my new hand-me-down guitar.
Listening to it today, the way this week has been going in the states, and the wars that continue in other parts of the world, I think my daughter’s song is apropos. It’s simplistic but gets to the heart of things.
Don’t fight. Talk it out. That’s what peace is all about.
Was there a time when music made a difference in your life? Or a cousin? Let me know in the comments.
Great song @Nancy G. Carver! I think cousin Tim has a lot to be thanked for ... He not only awoke something in you but, in doing so, he also contributed to what you were able to pass down to the next generation. Thanks for sharing a different side of you than I had seen before!