The was always a piano in my parent's house and I've no real memory of when I first managed to get a tune of some sort out of it but the first memory that sticks in my mind was being given a harmonica as a present when I was about 9 years old. I woke up early in the morning (say 5 oclock) and opened the present and tried to work out how to play it. I can't remember what the tunes were but by the time my parents got up, I was proudly able to play them a few.

The next one I remember came just before I was to start secondary school. My brother had been given a toy ukelele which somebody tuned and lent me a book on how to play it. Within a couple of days I had learned all the chords in the book so my parents bought me a guitar for my birthday.

I wish I still could pick things up that quickly but it seems to get harder as you get older. I also wish that I'd have known of jig's, reels etc at that time as I spent too many years just playing chords to songs like the Wild Rover. I had to wait until I was 27 to start playing the tenor banjo which is now my main instrument (I rarely play anything else) but one way or other music has given me pleasure for as long as I can remember.

Jon