In our continuing Amazon holiday shopping (and shameless promotion) blogs …
It’s Cyber Monday Deals Week all this week (Starting today) at Amazon.
This week’s emphasis is electronics and computers, including specials on laptop computers, desktops and monitors and GPS and navigation.
Also now through December 31, Amazon is having deals on all manner of other electronic devices. For example:
Along with gifts for musicians like music-related stocking stuffers under $15 and musical instruments for kids for less than $50 and guitar beginner kits for less than $200.
What?!! No Acoustic Guitars? Nor any violins, electric or otherwise?
Probably just as well. A guitar would be bad enough. My family would probably strangle me if I tried to torture their ears trying to learn how to play the violin.
Jim B — As someone who was forced, much against my will, to take violin lessons for two years in grade school I sympathize and strongly advise no violin playing for anyone who is not Itzhak Perlman. (And IMHO, even he’s welcome to keep the damn screechy machine to himself; to this day, the sound of a violin makes me feel as if someone is running a horsehair bow across every one of my nerve endings.)
But I’m quite sure you can get an acoustic guitar on Amazon without causing too much offense.
A well-played violin is a beautiful thing . . . but that learning curve makes you want to poke your eardrums out!
Once when I was watching the old TV program “Soundstage,” they had a show titled “Fiddlers Three.” The first was a jazz violinist, Jean Paul something or other. He was amazingly talented but I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to make sounds like that. The second was Doug Kershaw, a Cajun fiddler, whose main skills were stomping his feet and ruining bow strings. It was obvious he knew he was terribly out of his league. The third was a classical violinist who played a selection from Carmen. I understood enough from having fooled around with a guitar to see that he would do something incredibly difficult with his left hand, then change in five seconds to do something totally different that was also incredibly difficult. And he went on and on like this, seemingly relaxed; he would occasionally smile and sometimes raise his eyebrows. I kept saying to myself, “Who is this guy? Who IS this guy? So I watched the credits carefully at the end; it was Itzhak Perlman. Then I looked him up.
I played piano in elementary school. Upon reaching 7th grade, I was given a choice of continuing with piano or joining the school band. I chose the band to get out of the house. At the time, saxophones were popular in rock and roll. I was told that if I learned to play a clarinet, I could learn to play a saxophone in five minutes. So my parents rented a metal clarinet. After a year, they surprised me with a good clarinet. I practiced and played for another year and a half, then got caught cheating on a band test in the middle of the 9th grade (a rat squealed on me). After that, I went through the motions but never practiced again. I later lost the clarinet in one of my many moves. I wish I could have at least sold it for something.
I do have motivation, though, to use your Amazon link. http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Woman-Tased-Mall-Fight-Black-Friday-Philadelphia-233855601.html