Posted
on May 18, 2016
When
a con man convinces parents that the new pool table in the town's
billiard parlor means Trouble (which starts with “T” - which
rhymes with “P” - which stands for “Pool”!), what is his
solution?
He
offers to start a boy's marching band. He asks the parents to buy
some musical instruments, and he promises to train the youths to
play.
Of
course, being a con man, he's not planning to actually produce the
musical instruments or teach the boys anything; if you've ever seen
the movie or show The
Music Man, you know that
Harold Hill plans to take all the money and skip town. Of course,
that's not exactly how it goes down...
The
creator of The Music Man,
Meredith Willson, was born on this date in 1902. And in tribute to
his story of how a con man accidentally infects an entire town with a
love of music, his birthday has been proclaimed Buy a Musical
Instrument Day!
Which
is, in my opinion, pretty apt yet funny!
But
as I checked multiple sources, I saw that many, many “holiday”
and special-day listings claim that May 22 is Buy a Musical
Instrument Day – no explanation given why that day, of all days.
I
think I prefer the Willson-Music Man connection!
A
bit about Willson...
The
Music Man was set in a
fictional town in Iowa. Well, Willson was born in a real town in
Iowa. He learned to play piccolo and flute in high school, and he
attended Frank Damrosch's Institute of Musical Art – which later
became the Julliard School. He was a member of John Philip Sousa's
band, the New York City Philharmonic Orchestra, and other musical
groups, before moving to California and becoming known as a composer
and songwriter.
In
addition to The Music
Man, Willson wrote three
other musicals and popular songs, film scores, even symphonies! One
of the songs he wrote is “It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like
Christmas.”
A
bit about musical instruments...
Musical
instruments can be pricey. You might think about renting an
instrument to make sure it really suits you, and then buying. A quick
Google search can reveal overstock, closeout, wholesale, and discount
sites for musical instruments, but I appreciate a local store in
which you can hold, try out, and listen to musical instruments.
My
favorite musical instrument store ever is the Folk Music Center in
Claremont, California. It is part store, part repair shop, part
museum, part music school, part performing art center. There are lots
of cool instruments from around the world, and there are “tours”
for kids in which we travel in our imagination from Australia,
listening to the eerie sounds of the didgeridoo; to China, listening
to the pleasing plinks of hammered dulcimer; to Scotland, listening
to the haunting wail of bagpipes; to Mexico, listening to the
percussive intricacies of turtle shells, drums, and Hueceros
de Fraile anklets.
 |
| My kids were lucky enough to take a "tour" with store co-founder Charles Chase. |
Maybe
you have a local treasure of a music store, too? Ask around!
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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