In 2nd Grade I started playing the little plastic flutes called Tonettes in class and actually learned to read the music from it. In 4th Grade we were tested on musical ability/knowledge and I tested very well. The teacher wanted to know where I had taken private lessons, but I had only learned from the plastic flute and my own personal interest to learn more. She didn't believe me when I said I had never had any lessons except the Tonette. She wanted me to be in the band, but we were pretty poor at the time since we were fairly isolated where we lived up on the side of a mountain and my father was out of work, so instead of renting me an instrument they gave me one to use. I chose the saxophone.

About a month or two after starting in the band my father came home with a $20 dollar Mexican made classical guitar he bought with money from some odd jobs he had picked up. He came into the house with it and my eyes got big, but he told my brother and me not to touch his guitar. Naturally, the next time he left the house I picked it up along with a fake book of folk songs someone gave him. The first day I taught myself the song I Gave My Love A Cherry. After about two weeks of practicing on his guitar every day while he was gone, he walked in on me while I was playing and I did not see him. He stood there quietly listening to me for a minute, then walked past me into his bedroom and never said a word about it. He realized I could already play better than him, so he did not even pick the guitar up for another six months. When he did he came to me and asked me to teach him how to play a Leadbelly song that I had been playing.

Jack
http://www.myspace.com/jackswainsongs