One of the regrets I have from high school is giving up playing clarinet and then trumpet after my second year. I got into playing a lot of sport. Music was the casualty. That was a mistake.
I corrected that by taking music lessons again after I retired, that is after a 50-year coffee break. It was then I realized what I had been missing.
Learning to play music teaches three important life skills.
The first is the pursuit of perfection through practise and guidance. Wind instrument players really do want to sound like Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong. To get to Carnegie Hall Jascha Heifetz said you have to practise, practise, practise.
The second is learning to connect with other people in a very positive way. In the last few years I connected with neighbours through driveway concerts during the pandemic. And I have also shared great old songs with residents of longterm care centres in Parksville and Qualicum Beach.
Finally playing music is a strong thinking exercise. How do I get the clarinet to sound like the play of Aker Bilk?
I learned the basics like reading, writing and arithmetic really well at high school. But learning to think and problem solve was not one of them. For me that had to wait until university.
Maybe my thinking habits could have started earlier if I had kept going then with clarinet and trumpet.
And these days with AI on the loose just maybe clear thinking is the most important skill you can have.
Ed Dunnett
Qualicum Beach
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