Without music, life would be a mistake ...

Saturday night guitar party, 28/03/2020 (I'm top, 2nd left)
10 guitars, 15 friends, including a friend from Tokyo

"Without music, life would be a mistake." Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889

I've played guitar most of my life. I started with a ukulele at age 9 (which I still play), and graduated to a 6-string acoustic guitar at age 12. I've written quite a bit about my guitar life on this blog.

Read my guitar and music posts here.

Music has lifted me up my whole life. I've made lifelong friends, even met my husband one night almost 40 years ago, because of my love of the guitar.

Author at 17, playing at a
high school coffee house

This spring as humanity finds itself in the grip of a pandemic, each of us must find solace where we can. So last night I ventured boldly with my musical friends onto the internet!

I was skeptical when a friend suggested we try it but in the end, I found joy in the deep connection I have to my friends, and to the music we have played together for decades.

That's me with my husband, top row, third from left

It was so beautiful to see everyone, all together in one place. One of us joined the party while sitting in his basement in Tokyo. One of us held his newborn son, so in one family three generations were present on the screen. Some of us were in isolation alone, some of us had our partners or children with us.

But in the end, we were all together.

It wasn't perfect. The internet was slow. Sound was intermittent. Sometimes people dropped out and had to reconnect.

Click to hear BIRCHES
With Allister Thompson

But we sang. We played. We listened. We chatted. We kicked at the darkness, as our guitar hero Bruce Cockburn once sang. We found solace in each other, and in the music we've always shared. It reminded us of warm summer nights around a campfire, of beautiful harmonies, of the passage of time and the impermanence of everything except music and friendship.

I played 3 original tunes, including The Gargoyle Shuffle. 

So find solace where you can, everyone. For me right now, it's in friends, music and a wonky internet connection.

With love to you all.

PD