Okieinexile's Blog

By Bobby Neal Winters

I am working on learning “What a Wonderful World” on the recorder. It was made famous by Louis Armstrong but it was written by George David Weiss and Bob Thiele.

I admire musicians for being able to get in front of a group and perform. But it is more than just performing, isn’t it?  

I have stood and spoken in front of large groups and not just in front of people whose grade depended upon their reaction. I will have some sort of texts or notes for a text with me, but it is usually something I can talk off the cuff about. If I stutter or use the wrong word, I can fix it by a joke if I bother to even fix it at all.

A musician who is playing a piece of music that everybody knows is exposed. One wrong note and everybody knows it.  And everybody who hears it will tut-tut-tut even if they can’t play a note of music themselves.

At least in the mind of the performer.

The folks who can overcome that barrier have a certain type of courage. (I am reminded at this point that Willie Nelson used to perform at a place where they put chicken wire around the stage to protect musicians from thrown beer bottles. That’s a different type of courage, but it still deserves to be noted.)

There are those who say it wasn’t always this way.  They say this was caused by the advent of recorded music.  The story goes that before music could be recorded almost every family had musicians in it.  This was the only way to have music.

Many could play instruments and most played them pretty badly, for varying degrees of badly.  This took the stink off of making mistakes.

This changed with records because everyone got to hear the best players in the world and those best players became the basis for comparison.

At least that’s the story, and I don’t know enough to say different.

For my part, I am learning to play for the discipline of it, for the movement it gives my hands, and just because I like it.

I don’t plan to ever play in front of an audience because I don’t have the kind of courage musicians have.

But I do have some benchmarks I measure myself against.  When my family can recognize the song without being told, that’s a win.  “Love Me Tender” is still getting mistaken for “Aura Lee.” 

Needs more work.

After they can recognize the tune, they will still sometimes vacate the house.  I usually arrange my practice time to more or less align with the time to walk the dog as a means of protecting my ego.

But I’ve passed a positive benchmark with “What a Wonderful World.”  My youngest grandson who is taking piano lessons was over to practice on our piano while I was practicing “What a Wonderful World.”  I am not sure whether he had ever heard the song before, but he came in to hear more.  I loaned him the book long enough for him to try it out, but we will let his teacher decide when he’s ready for it. In any case, I only have the melody for it.

But that is a new threshold. Playing music that my grandchildren find interesting.

It has made me work harder on that song.

One of my faults in practicing is that I don’t use a metronome. I may–eventually—try to use a metronome, but, to use modern psych-babble, they trigger me. Instead of the metronome, I sing along with it as I go. Because I am playing the recorder, the singing is all in my head, which is better for everybody as well, because singing is another way I can clear a house.

It has helped my mental attitude tremendously that the words of “What a Wonderful World” are so simple, beautiful, and positive.

The last verse fits so well with this period of my life that it helps the whole process:

I hear babies cry

I watch them grow

They’ll learn much more

Than I’ll ever know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Bobby Winters grew up near Harden City, Oklahoma.  He teaches mathematics and computer science, does woodworking, and blogs at okieinexile.com. He invites you to visit the blog and to subscribe.