I have been feeling so inspired by the live music performed in Ireland. On a nightly basis every pub on the street will have signs announcing their live music offerings. We happen to be in the right place at the right time last night and heard a really great couple perform. The woman performed violin and vocals and her husband played the accordion. For a taste of what I’m talking about, listen to the clips below- the first an upbeat jig, the second a ballad.

I love how so many people in Dingle, Ireland still know how to play an instrument. In the family we are staying with, all three children play the piano and the mother plays violin in a local orchestra. Reflecting on my own experience in the states, my only musical education (to my mother’s dismay) was playing the saxophone for one year as a middle school elective. Neither of my parents actively play an instrument, although both took lessons as children, and my sisters, who both took piano and guitar lessons growing up, chose not to continue with their practice. Very few of my friends play, though we all seem to have taken lessons of some sort as children. How come so few of us carry this practice through to adulthood? Whenever someone does bring a guitar to a group event everyone seems to enjoy it and joins in nodding their heads to the beat.

I think one contributing factor may have been the fact that electricity didn’t reach parts of the Dingle Peninsula until the late 1960s! Without television (which was adopted widely in the US in the 1950s) learning and playing music was a wonderful form of entertainment. And today, with a world of unlimited, personalized entertainment at our fingertips who takes the time or has the attention span to master an instrument. I applaud all of you who do!

So next time I go to turn on Netflix, I’ll need to stifle the internal guilt I feel for my lack of musical abilities, and maybe even browse for a good guitar teacher in the Bay Area while watching Orange is the New Black.