A Little Music Anyone?

We decided not to renew the rental for our daughter's clarinet - and we thought the buy-out price for a used clarinet was pretty high (used when she got it, not used because she's been using it - we're not that picky).

But, she still wants to take clarinet lessons, so we headed over to our local Sam Ash store and started looking at the clarinets. We didn't want to get a very expensive one, and so started out looking at their cheapest model, which was $200. That was okay, and the next one up was okay - but the one that she really liked was the same brand as her old one - and it was another price step up. So, now we weren't so cheap anymore. But it will be worth it in the long run, and they have a buy back program if she changes her mind about what instrument she likes and all that.

And since we were getting her something, it seemed only fair to get Harry something too - so we found him a book of easy guitar Beatles songs. Perfect.

Then they asked if we wanted to look at the clarinet music. So we picked out a book for Pippi too. I tried not to flinch when the total came to over $400.

But, then a bit of serendipity. A man came into the woodwind room with a guitar in a box. "Is that a free guitar?" someone asked him.

No, he was paying for it, he said.

However it turned out that Sam Ash was running a special and if you spent more than $400 you got a free guitar.

Hello! Now that total over $400 didn't seem so bad.

The cashier turned to me. "Do you want a free guitar?"

"Well, yeah."

They were out of the six-string models and only had 12-string models. So we got one. It's too big for Harry now, and we have no idea how to tune or play a 12-string model - but it will keep till Harry gets bigger. And these things can be figured out.

So home we went with a new instrument and music book for each of them - and tonight they even performed for us.

A good day.