I’ve been trying to find a violin teacher, but the nearest one I've found is a good hour plus drive away and only teaches during the day when I’m at work.  So a new music school opened in my city.  It is a children’s music school, but they told me that they could certainly teach an adult, and finally worked me into their schedule.

I went in for my first, and only lesson there   It wasn’t the little red chairs that bothered me, or even the teddy bear musicians on the walls .... that I could have handled.

He said we will start the first 6 month learning to identify the notes in the music.  I told him I already could read music but he said I had to learn the names of the notes his way… with some funky little nursery type rhyme… (“B is on the belly line!”)

But the real kicker was the chart he brought out at the end.  I was to practice 30 minutes a day with a timer, then have an adult sign off each day to prove I’d practiced.  I couldn’t help it; I laughed out loud and asked, “so I can’t have my grandson sign off? It has to be an adult?”

I think my decision not to return was probably mutual!