I can't let Mother's Day go by without a special word of gratitude & love to my mom for putting me on the good path of being a musician. She herself was a great pianist & loved to play & sing at church & home. Mom started me on piano lessons when I was only 7 years old.
Mom began her own lessons as a girl by "practicing" at home on a roll-up fabric (or paper) keyboard, learning the positions & names of the notes by rote. As Zechariah 4:10 asks, "Who can despise the day of small beginnings?" Certainly not me - a lifetime of music in our family was the result of Mom's humble musical beginnings.
Here she is at the keyboard of her brand new 1957 Wurlitzer ebony spinet, the same piano chosen by Sam Phillips for Sun Studio in Memphis. I don't know that she was aware of that when she chose her new piano, but I wouldn't be surprised.
And here I am at the same Wurlitzer in '59. It's the piano I learn to play on with lessons starting a couple of years later. It's been a treasured part of my music studio now for many years.
