Personal memories: I did recorder in primary school, then went to piano lessons for a year or few, which is entirely not the same thing as learning the piano. (Had there been any music theory in there, or if I'd been bothered remembered to practice, I might have progressed better.) After that I taught myself to play the banjo, then the guitar, both of which I can play tolerably well.

My piano teacher got dischuffed that I played by ear; OTOH my godmother said that when she played four verses for a hymn at school assembly, she had to sight-read it four times. Each of us was in awe of the other's skill.

> Atarah Ben-Tovim

I know that name: she took over the teatime music education slot on Radio 3 when David Munro (of early-music fame) committed suicide. That's the first time in Simply Ages that I've even heard her mentioned.