Page 22 - Voices-2021-10

FROM THE WINGS

Makin’ Music

PJ Kleffner, DTM
Immediate Past District Director

Many of us are in Toastmasters because My meager

it is fun and provides a social network for us. mi l i ta r y
However, it is an educational organization, so the paycheck didn’t
goal is that we actually learn something. Even go very far, but I found
after 20 years, I find that I still learn something a nearby country

new at each meeting, webinar, TLI, or conference and western bar
that I attend. Toastmasters is the epitome of with a sympathetic
continuous, life-long learning. bartender who let
I am a naturally curious person, so I always me bang out some old

peruse the Community Education catalog from country classics on their piano
Portland Community College that appears in when I was off duty. People would
my mailbox every quarter. I haven’t taken one buy me a beer and/or drop a
of their classes for many years, but two classes buck or two in a hat, so I could

caught my attention this quarter: Music Theory quench my thirst for free and
and the Travis Picking Method for Guitar. make a little pocket money
Other than a (fairly unproductive) year of to boot. That gig didn’t
piano lessons in 4th grade, I am mostly self- last too long, because I

taught. I could play a melody on the piano by was transferred to an
ear from a very young age, but knew nothing isolated duty station in
about scales, chords, and all the rest. I learned Alaska. There wasn’t
about chords when a friend in the Coast Guard even a town, let alone

taught me the basics of playing a guitar. I just a bar or piano. I did
strummed the chords, but didn’t pick, or play take my guitar, though, so it
individual notes. wasn’t a total bust.
However, it occurred to me that I could then That new level of musical understanding

apply what I knew about chords to the piano and turned out to be a plateau that lasted for the
add them to whatever melody I was playing with next 45 years. Being self-taught, I had a lot
the right hand. That took my understanding of of practical knowledge, but not the theory or
music to a whole new level. names for the musical concepts. Country music

22 ONE COMMUNITY