October 6 – “Musical flashbacks”

We had another interesting musical day at church yesterday.  We had quite a few visitors, but thankfully they were all really flexible and understanding of our need to sing along with music videos.  I have been praying that God would call out someone unexpectedly to lead in worship, but it hasn’t happened yet.  I have made some inquiries in other places, but I guess we need to get together and decide what, if anything, we can offer to pay someone to come in.  And while we’re at it, we can talk about that family minister to work with the kids and students as well.  Lots of praying to do around here.

I had some personal musical flashbacks on Saturday.  We went by the estate sale at Uncle Jerry’s house.  That was a tough one, by the way.  While there we bought a few things, and among them was an old soprano ukulele.  Therein lies the memories.  A little soprano uke was what I started on way back when I was scared away from the guitar because I couldn’t fit all my fingers on the proper strings at the same time.  And besides, the uke was, for want of a better word, unusual like me.  Now you have to understand, a guy named Tiny Tim was playing the uke on national TV around that time.  He was the most phenomenal uke player I had ever seen, the first I had seen to play something other than a Hawaiian hula dance.  He could play Bach and Beethoven on the silly thing.  Of course he was most known for his rendition of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips.”  Which brings us back to the connection with the unusual.  I learned enough chords to play “I’m a Nut” first, then branched out into some of the more basic youth group-type worship choruses.  It was only much later that I made the discovery that there was such a thing as a tenor uke.  The fingerings were the same as a guitar, but only the bottom four strings were used.  The sound was much like that of a guitar as well, so I switched over to that.  When my soprano uke was lost in Hurricane Ike, I just never replaced it.  So here I am, back with my first musical love.  Of course I have long forgotten the chord fingerings, and I now need a new case to keep it in, but that’ll just give me something else to do with all my spare time.  Can’t wait.

Psalms 81:1-2 says, “Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!  Begin the music, strike the tambourine, play the melodious harp and lyre.”

Father, thank you for fun ways to make music and praise you.  Amen.