What I never knew I always wanted

I did buy the banjo that week, if anyone was interested.

It wasn't on the weekend I had hoped, due to a lack of advertised opening hours, but I did have the banjo in my hands before the next weekend.

It fits.

I know that's a strange comment to make about a banjo, but it's true. Something about the thing just fits me - or I fit it, I don't know. The tuning for the Irish tenor banjo just sounds "right" to my ears, the neck fits in my hand comfortably, the chords are where my fingers happily fall on them, the fingers on my other hand just seem to find the strings without my having to think too much about them... the body is just a little bit too round for comfort, but I tend to forget that once I start playing.

The sound is a revelation to me. It's like it fills the whole space. I know that doesn't make much sense, but most of the other instruments I play carry the melody - they don't really have much "body" to the sound. The banjo has “body”. I have to say there's something in the sound of the strings that sings to me - a quality I wasn't expecting to find, but love.

It amazes me that this is the first time I've actually thought to try the banjo. Looking back on it, I think I've wanted this my whole life.

I remember once, when I was in school, seeing an advertisement on the wall of the school office offering guitar and banjo lessons. I distinctly remember, at the time, wondering about the banjo - wondering if it would be something for me.

This was a few years after the guitar lesson thing - and, I think, during the piano lesson thing.

I have a slight problem with musical instruments. I suppose, in the long run, it’s cheaper than drugs, but it still leaves me short of cash and in possession of several instruments I never play.

Part of my problem is I always seem to be searching for some quality, and I end up finding things that are close – but not quite right. I bought a melodeon, a piano accordion and a cornet* when what I really wanted was a concertina. I thought things that were close to a concertina would fulfill my desire for one, but they didn’t. When I finally bought the concertina, it’s like something inside me said, “Yep, that was it,” and my quest was kind of over. I wouldn’t mind owning a better concertina one day, but I don’t feel compelled to find anything that’s “not quite” a concertina.

I think all of the stringed instruments I’ve encountered over the years have been on a similar path. Something inside of me was looking for something in particular but, unlike the concertina, I didn’t actually know what it was. The guitar really didn’t fit. The ukulele didn’t really fit. The ukulele-guitar hybrid was closer, but I ended up breaking two of the strings and found that it fit much better when it was broken…

And then, it fit much better after I tuned the remaining four strings to Irish tenor banjo tuning…

And then I bought a banjo.

The banjo fits.

It’s like something inside me has said, “Yep, that’s it,” and part of the world has fallen into place.

*Yes, I know a cornet is nothing like a concertina. That was part of my “well, who needs a free reed instrument anyway?” reaction to the piano accordion, which really didn’t fit.