I had a Russian music instructor who tried to teach me how to play the steel guitar. I still have the guitar, but a plain old flat t-p box guitar is more my speed. My aunt taught me to read notes on a piano, but I played by ear.

My voice was deeper than alto, and the school music teacher made a big deal of Soprano singers. Alto or tenor was where she classified me. It seemed like she was denigrating my voice so I learned to play my own accompanyment. My dad and my husband played back up for me later.