"...All About Melody."

I had my first banjo lesson this evening.

And the first thing my teacher did in my 30 minute session was pull out a nail clipper and proceed to trim each of the finger nails on my left hand.

Well, not all of them. He let me keep the thumb nail intact.

But that's the way life goes, you know? The moment you grow up and stop snapping and scraping at your nails out of a nervous fidgeting habit... Some banjo teacher tells you that you have to keep them short in order to hit the frets on your banjo.

He was a very kind teacher. He showed me how to pick the strings with just my right thumb, and how to play a scale.

Then he started to pull out sheet music...

He sat patiently while I stumbled my way very slowly through this "perfect for me" melody.

"The banjo is all about melody," he said.

I guess I now have to learn to be all about melody too.