Every fall I visit the 3rd grade class of a friend who teaches elementary music. I play some guitar music and talk about it, but mostly I answer their questions. They ask the most amazing questions.
A sampling from my last few visits:
“Why is the guitar shaped like that?”
“Why does the guitar have six strings? Could it have more?”
“Are there guitars that are really big or really small?”
“Why does it sound that way?”
“Who invented the guitar?”
“Who invented music?”
“Why do different instruments sound different ways?”
“What’s your favorite thing about the guitar?”
“How long does it take to get really good at the guitar?”
“How do you make it sound like two instruments at the same time?”
Not yet burdened with the imaginary shame of not knowing things, they ask these with utter sincerity because they want to know the answer. We would do well to follow their example.