Ted's Music - A Baltimore Story

Back in the 1980's and 90's I lived in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore is home to The Peabody Institute of Music, so naturally there is a music store right around the corner, on Centre Street. It's been there for years. This photo is from InfoUSA. It is how the shop appears today.

I had a Fender F-15 Acoustic guitar at the time in need of a repair. This was back in 1993 or so. There were two Portuguese brothers that ran the place. They fixed my guitar and the older guy played some amazing riffs on it plus a bit of flamenco. He then handed the guitar back to me and said, "Here, you play."

Now, I am an amatuer player at best, so I made an excuse about my car being double parked, paid a very fair price for the work, and left. I got to my car, which wasn't double parked, and began to strum Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere", which is like 4 simple major chords. I was sitting in the car strumming, with the neck sticking out the driver's side window. Someone must have seen me and told Ted. That's when he came out laughing. I was embarrassed by my comparitive lack of expertise on the instrument, until he smiled and said, "Hey, all music is beautiful. You play very nice." And then he went back inside.

I haven't gotten that much better at really playing guitar over the years, although I do enjoy it immensely, and whenever I feel discouraged, I think back to that day and Ted's word's "Hey, all music is beautiful." And then I keep playing. Thanks to Ted.