Michael Peterson    Mon, 10 Jan 2000 19:31:00 -0800
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Dear Lute-net,

Couldn't resist adding my story- I am a 46 or 47 year old general surgeon
(something around there, it is too painful to remember) in the San Francisco
Bay Area, working for an HMO in a hospital-based practice.  I am married, have
two girls, ages 11 and 13, who think lute music is SO boring- puts them to
sleep.

I started classical guitar and popular guitar when I was in grammar school and
continued to take lessons, but really didn't learn that much technique or
music theory- I stopped taking lessons in high school, but continued to play
all of the top hits, and well into college, and medical school... it was good
for attracting women, and I played the same classicua guitar pieces.  It was
such a pain to read pitch notation.  In my second year of med school, one of
my classmates who played guitar challenged me to do a duet- My Lord Willowby's
Welcome Home- John Dowland, arranged by Frederick Noad.  We did that, and it
was fun, and there was lute tablature right next to it!  Cool!  Lute music!

After graduation from medical school and before my internship started, I went
on a skin-diving expedition up the northern California coast, and discovered
in a restaurant in the sleepy village of Mendocino, an instrument that looked
like a lute- I read the tag, "for sale," on consignment, a lute- Lark in the
Morning!  I put a deposit down on it (I was soon to have a real job, an intern
in a big hospital in Sacramento, and I could splurge!)  I later went back,
bought it, got strings from Lark in Morning, they put me in contact eventually
with someone from the LSA, and from there to Donna Curry for fretgut and
strings. It was this early helpfulness from Californians Peter Danner, Nancy
Carlin, Claudia Dart, and others, who counseled me by letter, and helped me
get started. Got the Stan Buetens lute method (this was 1980) and I taught
myself lute.

(Note- this is NOT a good way to purchase a lute!)

It was rough going- hard to tune, bad action, no technique to speak of. I
went to a few lute concerts in Berkeley (maybe Paul O'Dette?  Hopkinson
Smith??) and took two lute lessons from Kathy Liddell when she flew into the
Bay Area from back East.  I took good care of the lute, polished it, had a
case made, and worked on it- for years, with the guitar in competition.

Fast forward a few years- around 1992, I woke up- I had a wife, two children,
a demanding job, a mortgage, and..... life was passing me by.  Was this my
mid-life crisis???  I wrote to Caroline Usher and issued a flood of questions
(before email- do you remember the letters, Caroline??  I still kept them, you
answered all of my questions!), and got up enough courage to attend the 1993
LSA summer seminar for the first time.  I was an LSA member since 1980, but
never went to a seminar!  What a dummy!  (Actually, too busy- most of my
internship and residency I was on call every other night to every night- no
time!) What a revelation!  I was blown away!  Even though I got the flu and
was sick as a dog, and had to drop out several days early, I could not believe
my eyes.  This was what I wanted!  I did get strange looks from others when I
took my fumbling lute out, and I finally asked Pat O'Brien why....  The bad
news- I had a guitar-lute.  Heavy, could drop it, nothing would happen.

So, after I got back to California, I got rid of the galute, bought a Lundberg
10 course (and promptly dropped it, but that is another story), and I started
quickly down the path of "you can never have too many lutes!"  I have met lute
friends from all over, and have really made lute playing social as well as
spiritual.

Right now, my main function is local lute evangelist- there are an incredible
number of closet lute players here in the Bay Area, and it is my job to drag
them out of the closet, screaming and kicking, into our fold.  I am finding
new people, old lute players who had given up the lute, and people who played
that I didn't even know, all of the time.  I have an arrangement with the San
Francisco Early Music Society- they send people interested in lutes to me.  If
there is a visiting lute scholar or player coming to town- they are MINE!  I
am beating the local lute players into playing duets, ensembles, and taking
control of local Early Music activities for us.  I am hoping to appoint
"apostles" in other areas of the country to carry on my work.  But my work,
long hours, and family demands are getting in the way of playing- I hardly
have time to answer email any longer.

Playing with others, and sharing my enthusiasm of the lute and music has
really broadened my life, and given me something to keep me going when my day
goes bad.  I am just not another boring physician, and I have more than one
way to relate to others.  It just might even save my life.

Respectfully submitted,

Mike P
PS- I love my spell-checker