Some days I'm a troubadour

I grew up in a musical household and while I did take years of piano lessons, I've never really considered myself much of a musician.

My musical debut is actually a bit of a funny family story. My mom is a singer/songwriter/worship-leader. My Sunday-school teachers knew this and so when they put all of us 5-year-olds on stage to sing a song for the church, they put the mic directly in front of me. Being the little ham that I am I sang as loudly as I could directly into the mic so that everyone could hear me. One problem: I didn't know what a "key" was, or what "singing on key" might possibly mean...so I did an impressive job of singing completely out of key. Thankfully I did accomplish the task of singing loud enough that everyone could hear me.

Apparently my mom was the recipient of many looks of shock and awe that her daughter could be such a bad singer.

Thanks to piano lessons my ears got tuned into the concept of a "key" and I eventually learned how to sing (at least most of the time) in key.

Since being in Tanzania I have been teaching myself how to play the guitar, which is a much more mobile instrument than a piano. I would borrow a guitar until someone needed it back, and then find someone else's guitar to borrow. A bonus of learning the guitar was that I could volunteer to lead worship every so often for a monthly gathering of local missionaries for worship, a sermon (in English!!!) and a potluck*.

The first time I led worship at one of these fellowships the worship song theme was "songs that only use G, D, A, C and Em". I've broadened my chord selection, and thankfully my song selection has also broadened.

While I was in the States last year a friend gave me his guitar and my house-mate Crystal gave me her awesome multi-fabric "backpack" guitar-case. I now regularly get to lead worship at our missionary fellowships, and it is pretty fun walking through Musoma with a guitar strapped to my back.

So, somedays I feel like a troubadour. Maybe I'll even start writing songs someday...maybe.


*I have learned that the Dutch call a potluck an "American style meal"...and we call splitting everything up on a tab "going Dutch". I find that interesting.