One of the returns from learning to play music comes when you have a chance to play, even informally, for people you have recently met. My wife Linda and I recently returned from a SeaDream cruise. SeaDream is a small cruise line, just two small ships, about 90 passengers per cruise; in fact, their slogan is, “It’s yachting not cruising.”
It was winter and the ships were in the Caribbean. There were 52 passengers on this trip and a crew of 90 (the service is so attentive the cruise line has won the industry’s best small ship award for service every year for decades). So it was easy to get to know many of the people at dinners and on shore excursions, and of course, late at night in one of the ship’s bars.
The music for the cruise was provided by two musicians, a pianist-singer and a guitarist. On the second-to-last night of the cruise, dinner was served on the decks with drinks and music around the pool. As the evening wore on the duo got past their usual mix of recognizable pop tunes, and eventually broke into a funk groove that got me churning in my seat. I hadn’t played funk since New Orleans in the ‘80s.
In meeting others on the ship and sharing our life stories, I had mentioned my novel, The Musician, and the word had gotten around. In fact, several of the people onboard had already pulled up their Amazon accounts and ordered their copies. But few were aware that the novel was based on the early years of my music career playing in clubs around the country. Admittedly fueled by the dinner’s fine wines, I was unhesitant to approach the duo, ask what key they were in, and step in behind the piano. As they, and their supporting electronics, burned away with the accompaniment, I soloed for at least 64 bars, ending with a descending minor scale to a final single E note.
As I walked from the piano, the passengers—all 52 (with the exception of Linda) had stayed up and were there around the pool—rose to cheer. Then, as the evening drew to a close, the musicians came to where I was seated and we spent another hour or so talking about music. And on the day we disembarked, the guitarist, Ruel, came down to the dock to say good-bye.
That’s the kind of return you get from learning to play music. What could be more fun or more rewarding.
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