Love Starts With One String

The sound resonates with one bounce off of the double metal strings stretched across my hammered dulcimer.  I love hearing that first sound, no matter which string I hit first.  I love that moment.  Then I get to pull in some of the sounds of the strings around that one as I hit them in the order that works with the first one.  But I really love that I can pull out this instrument and music flows from it.  It is music that I make.  And after forty-some years of not being able to play a single song all the way through and hearing the discouraging words, I love that I don't have to try and copy one single song that takes forever to try and learn note upon note in succession from someone else's inspiration.  I can play hours upon hours of music I haven't even heard before.  I think the beauty of music is the magic in the melody.  The beauty is in the resonance of sound and tempo.  There are the soft hits mixed in with the ones with a little more force.  There are the pauses and the spaces in-between this string or that.  There is the melody that flows into another completely different melody.  There is music made.  And there is the joy it imparts to the one who makes it.  I love playing my dulcimer.