My love for the saxophone started in the middle years of my life. Again, it was an experience with people that awakened the passion in me. On one of my bicyle trips in Southern Europe, I visited in Spain the concert of a young teachers' saxophone quartet. They played tunes from Johann Sebastian Bach via Isaac Albéniz to Dizzy Gillespie and others. And like at my first encounter with the cello, I was thrilled by the deep, resonate sound of the baritone sax. That's what I needed to learn!
 

Studying the banjo and its history brought me in contact with Edward Dick, a luthier in Colorado. Since the late 90s he under the name Banjola is developing a kind of banjo with a mandolin body, sometimes adding a 6th string. Edward built me a gorgeous 6-string banjola with nylon strings and a spruce top from Bergün in the Swiss mountains (Graubünden). It is a wonderful instrument with a - despite its comparably small body - full, complex sound and a relaxing, even meditative character. You can see me play Banjola here.

 

Thanks to the banjo and the banjola I found my way back to the guitar. After a bicycle accident, I believed that I would never be able to play a guitar again due to a remaining limitation in my left ellbow and hand. But these two instruments, held quite vertically for that reason, proved to be a kind of physiotherapy, and things improved. Changing to a classical guitar posture, I was able to reactivate my guitar playing to a certain extent.

The positive thing is that all these string instruments, from the violoncello to the banjola, the banjo and the guitar (and several others) are related with each other and have similar tunings. Thus, interchanging between them is not that difficult - if one sets the expectations at a realistic level. A critical audience of course cannot be made happy with that kind of music philosophy and level of mastering (i.e. not really mastering) the instruments. But standing ovations are not the goal of my musical explorations. I simply want to enjoy sounds, music and instruments.
 

Studying various American roots music styles and re-activating my guitars, mainly fingerstyle and Travis picking, I also discovered the various styles and instruments of traditional Hawaiian music:
 

	There is the small and often underrated Ukulule, a Hawaiian development inspired by the Portuguese Braguinha, brought to the Islands by Portuguese immigrants in the late 19th century. It at present is experiencing a great renaissance (cf. e.g. Iz /Over the Rainbow and its impact). I like the beautiful ukulele music of Herb Ohta jr. and Daniel Ho.
	There are the Hawaiian Steel Guitars (lap steel und pedal steel). They immediately evoke images of Hawaii or of Country and Blues music in probably most of us.
	And there is my favorite: The melodious Ki Ho'alu style (Slack Key Guitar). It is played  "nahenahe" (soft and sweet) with a lot of "Aloha" (love and feelings). In Slack Key you lower (slack) one or several guitar strings compared with standard tuning. You play in open tunings (e.g. Taro-Patch = open G) or in a big number of other tunings. These were often kept secret and passed down only within the own 'Ohana (extended family).  I'm admire Ozzie Kotani, Ray Kane, Keola Beamer, and among the younger musicians Jeff Peterson. I also make use of their teaching material and financially support the production of videos in order to document the artistry of old slack key masters as long as they still live among us.
	At the occasion of my retirement, my church presented me with a wonderful guitarlele, custom made by Kristen and Joe Souza (Kanilea). That's a ukulele with six strings in standard guitar tuning raised by a forth.

What do you do musically, when you come back late in the evening, too tired for a concentration demanding musical instrument or even the need for sheet music? - But feeling inside yourself a longing for your own, healing and harmonious music?

My answer: Native American Flute, the flute of the native North American peoples, in Lakota called siyotanka (prayer, love flute) or hokagapi (to make a voice). It's an instrument tuned mostly in minor pentatonic scales. But you can also play chromatically on it. Available are these flutes in all kinds of keys, from contrabass to soprano. Made with simple to extremely precious kinds of wood, enhanced by simple ornamentation up to artistical master works. My favorite sound comes from cedar, tuned to middle-low F#-minor or low F- or E-minor. Such a flute can be played quite easily, but it's so expressive!
 

For me, playing a Native American Flute is something very different from playing other instruments. Of course, you can interpret all kinds of compositions or traditional Native American tunes on it. But this flute really starts to live when you turn off the lights, shut down your thinking and improvise, expressing your feelings. Or when you go out into nature and start to speak with the birds and with mother nature. The Native American flute is more than only a means for producing sounds. Like no other instrument it has a soul of its own. The music of the flute is seeking you, you only need to lend her your breath. Also, her soulfull and healing tones always express something of the beauty, the wisdom and the enormous tragedy of the Indian peoples (read "To Make A Voice" by John Two-Hawks). This experience stimulated me to study anew and in more depth Native Americans' lives, religion and history, deepening the knowledge I had from intensive reading in young years and during my University studies.

If I let play Native American Flute music on CD in my sleeping room for some minutes, I wake up some hours later, and the flute is still playing. Musical magic, and a door opener for spiritual experiences.

 

After retirement, it is a great privilege to enjoy the fruits of professional life and the new freedom as a "privatier". In addition to more sporting movement, this means for me ample time for music and for my collection of diverse musical instruments. In doing so, I reconnected with different instrumental phases of my life. Among others with the accordeon, which has been a wallflower daze since my student years. Travelling to the Accordeon-Mekka Castelfidardo, Italy, I discovered the fascination of diatonic instruments and their music: the Italian Organetto and following from this the Styrian Harmonica and the very special Bandoneon. Besides literature and audiovisual material, travel, visits, workshops, seminars and private lessons help me to follow this path of discovery.
 

I also had some inspiring encounters with barrel organs of and at the Raffin Drehorgelbau in Überlingen, Deutschland. This small craft business builds beautiful and exceptionally well-sounding mechanical-acoustic barrel organs and music rolls. A quite special and musically very appealing world!
 

My good old Yamaha Electone Home Organ from the early Eighties is today replaced by an awesome Yamaha Clavinova CVP-809. Its keyboard quality and its piano voices hardly lag behind those of my acoustic piano anymore; not to speak about the multitude of the very impressive other instrument voices and styles in this master piece. The technological progress during this period of time is simply enormous!
 

My old friend of my youth, the cello, also received new attention. This  instrument is characterized by a sound and resonance experience that vibrates the whole body in a special way. I play with an Arcus bow on a beautiful Montagnana cello copy by Edgar Russ, Cremona, Italy.
 

On my exploration of folk musical Instruments, I also encountered the Celtic or Folk Lever Harp. These are smaller or middle sized diatonic harps, usually tuned in Eb, F or C. The semitones of the big pedal harps, which are used in classical music, are operated by the feet and need complicated mechanics. On the smaller Lever Harps, levers on the top of the single strings increase these by a semitone. They are operated by a hand. This way chromatic playing in several keys is possible on these harps, too.

I own a 37-string Walnut Arios in Walnuss made by Pepe Weissgerber in Germany, a 27-string Cherry Nightingale Therapy Harp made by Jeff Lewis, USA, and a Cherry Blevinsong 20, USA. All are wonderfully sounding instruments.
 

As to the mouth harmonicas, I today mostly play chromatic harmonicas, made by Hohner, Seydel und Suzuki. They mean great pleasure and relaxation for me.