Well, it's certainly worthwhile to hear all the possibilities about different kinds of guitars.

It's Sunday evening, now, and here's what happened.

I told Our Leader that I needed to play songs that I've already played. I submitted a list, and she picked 'Come thou fount (Nettleton)' 'Beautiful Savior' and 'Sent Forth (Ash Grove)'

As I mentioned, almost all songs in the hymnal are too high for our little band. So I worked on my C chords and lowered them from D to C. Apparently the pastor (80 years old) couldn't hear me playing, so he started songs at whatever tempo he felt like, and I struggled to match him. i felt like an idiot.

You wouldn't think anybody could mess up Ash Grove, would you? A simple AABA tune. Well, he sang the second verse ABAB while I tried to figure out where he was.

I had practiced the responses on a tenor recorder ("Let's just speak the responses today.") During the sign of peace I said to myself, "I packed this thing in here, and I'm going to play it." I quickly leafed through the hymnal and found a hymn using the melody Prospect from Southern Harmony. I had never seen it before, but I played it three times without any glitches. That spare, country sound filled our wood-lined church with a haunting resonance, and I felt great contentment and a feeling of oneness with all those 19th-century worshippers.

After church everybody told me how lovely it all was. Well, there was a woman who said, "Thanks for the music. I enjoyed your recorder playing." (For those of you not from the Midwest, this translates to "Gosh, you're a lousy guitarist.") But I forgive her. She's only 28 and has no idea what socks full of sand life keeps in store.

I'm happy to say that next week, when our pianist is still out of town, I'll be out of town too.