The Livin' Is Easy

Summertime

I was in graduate school when I decided I wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Way back in the late 60's. 

So I used my Rockefeller grad school book allowance and got myself a Lumanog.

Lumanog is synonymous with Philippine-made acoustic guitars. When someone wants an acoustic guitar, the advice is always, Get a Lumanog. It's the best.

I did.

The guitar I got had nylon strings. It had a spruce top and rosewood fingerboard. I strummed a tuneless chord when I first cradled it in my arms and thought, Hmmm, not bad. Not bad at all.  

But I had to learn chords. The first song I learned?

Summertime.

It was a random choice. The song is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. I didn't know then about its social implications. I just loved it for its slightly melancholy feel and the fact that it had only five chords.

Am

   Summertime,

E7                   Am

   And the livin' is easy

Dm

   Fish are jumpin'

F                    E7

   And the cotton is high

 Am

   Oh, Your daddy's rich

E7                        Am

   And your mamma's good lookin'

C

   So hush little baby

E7            Am

   Don't you cry.

A winner for me.

I must confess that it felt weird learning to play and your fingers were constantly messed up a handful.

Yet I persevered, practicing every night.

I loved my guitar's resonance. It wasn't twangy. I thought the tone was quite balanced.

And I played and sang to myself, Summertime, and the livin' is easy.

The fish had been jumping for a long time and the cotton was high before I really mastered my chords. 

Really.

But soon, I was crooning, rising up, singing in the mornings.

Celebrating the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.