And the Music Plays

by Woolley World

Year 5 or year 6

At school we learnt to play the recorder 

I loved learning an instrument

Loved learning to read music

Teaching myself out of a book

The logic of it making sense

The order of dots and lines

A kind of reading that translated into something heard

I wanted to play a “proper” instrument

Aware that the other kids had lessons

And instruments 

Later, year 8. 

Our music teacher took us into a room

Filled with instruments

Choose one 

She said 

I wasn’t drawn to percussion

Or strings 

(My sister had played violin

Popcorn and candy

The learnt sounds of experts

Betraying the difficulty of starting out) 

I could make a noise 

On all the wind instruments

I was worried about the reed instruments

They would require ongoing purchases 

You needed to prepare the reed so it didn’t crack

I felt it was a level of difficulty beyond me

But really

I chose the flute

Because it was the lightest instrument

Back then

I commuted to school

By bus and train

And was worried about schleping my instrument to school

Or being able to practise at home 

I hired the flute for six months 

Or a year

The way time and space merge

Become blurred in memory 

Then I moved schools

And my friend who also played the flute

Recommended her teacher 

And suddenly 

Some fourteen or fifteen years later 

I’m standing with three other flautists

And we’re playing a quartet 

Written by one of the players

And it feels strange 

And lovely

To be part of this

Shared knowledge

Understanding how the dots on the page

Correlate to the placement of fingertips 

To create synchronized sound

Started in another lifetime 

The end.