This note is a particularly introspective one about why I spend so much time playing music, because in the last three or so years I’ve been involved in an extraordinary number of things, and certainly more than most other amateur players I know.
The main reason is quite ‘normal’ – some blokes spend their spare time on a golf course, others in front of a TV, in the Shed, or fishing. My favourite time-waster for ages was squash: playing squash, practicing squash, or getting fitter to play and practice squash. But bones being what they are I gave that up ten years ago, and the spare time flipped over to music.
On top of that though, a major event happened about four years ago: I suddenly lost a lot of my hearing in my right ear due to a torn eardrum. This appeared to be a consequence of a sporting injury I received 20 years earlier from a flipper slap in underwater hockey (which, you guessed it, was to get fitter for squash). I went to a couple of EN&T specialists, who said that a procedure to fix it would be quite risky, ie I could totally lose my hearing in that ear, so I decided to give it a miss.
But time went on, and I became quite despondent about my hearing, because it greatly affected my ability to play and enjoy listening to music. So, back to the specialist, Doctor Paul Varley, who took on the task, with me in full knowledge of the risk. What was supposed to be a half hour operation extended to three hours, because he discovered that my eardrum had grown back into my inner ear over the years in its attempt to seal the earlier tear, and it took ages to get rid of it all. Afterwards, he told me that I had been in danger of a serious brain invasion and it was a close call that he managed to get rid of it all. On top of that, the patch on the eardrum was successful. Thank you Doctor Varley!
Nowadays I have quite good hearing in that ear, and as a consequence I have this continuing feeling of gratitude for that, and also a strong sense of indebtedness to my love of music which made me decide to have it fixed. End result: play music like there’s no tomorrow!
Controversy alert, and near non sequitur: Moral of the story, from the viewpoint of a middle-aged ex sport fanatic: elite sport isn’t worth it. Olympics, football etc are grossly overrated. People should engage in less damaging ways to keep healthy. There – I’ve said it!