Summertime Country Music Lessons

I'm 57 now ... okay, hey! It's not that old but old enough, apparently, to begin talking about things I remember when I was growing up. Definitely a warning sign for you, my dear readers.


In elementary school, our "music class" was far more about singing than it ever was about learning music theory. I can assure you that very little musical knowledge was actually absorbed by us 7-to-12 year olds ~ nothing about instruments or notes or the intricacies of music theory.


Looking back on those classes now, I realize those lessons were not meant to teach music theory as they were a way to teach us children our musical heritage. Tradition. Family. Home. Heart. Country.


I have to wonder if those tenets and that heritage is still being taught in our lower grades today or are they actually teaching music now?


Tomorrow is the 4th of July. And with my advancing years I mentioned earlier, I seem to be becoming more patriotic. And, for me, 'patriotic' has nothing to do with political party or ideological positioning.


Politics? blech.


Heritage. Family. Tradition. Home. Heart. Country. These are no longer PC words, I fear, and I am sorry if I offend anyone. Well, I should explain that last sentence: I'm not sorry if I actually *have* offended ~ but I *am* sorry if feeling and expressing such love does actually offend. Maybe one just needs to chalk up 57 years before understanding is possible. 


Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July tomorrow, everyone ♥ 

The Star Spangled Banner 
Lyrics By Francis Scott Key

1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:

'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!