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Journalism of Courage
NEW YORK, JUNE 16: He knows he doesn’t have Billy Joel’s voice and admits that the first notes out of his saxophone were not pretty. But US President Bill Clinton says playing music helps re-energise him — even if he has to do it in a little room on the top floor of the White House.
Sharing the stage with music great Joel on Friday, Clinton told a group of schoolchildren and budding musicians that in between his presidential duties he still finds time to play the sax.
Clinton, who was at an East Harlem school to lend his support to a "Save the Music" programme for music education in schools, said he goes to the room often.
"I just go in there and I play. And no matter what else isgoing on, I can go in and play for 15 or 20 minutes and I’m Full of energy and ready to start again," he said.
And he gave some words of encouragement to those musicians who still are hitting more sour notes than they would like.
"I started playing an instrument when I was nine, I started singing in the school chorus when I was younger than that. And then when ageing took my voice from three octaves to about three notes … I just had to concentrate more on my saxophone," he said.
"The first music I made was not very nice to hear. But my mother tolerated it and I just kept on working at it."
Clinton said he might not have been President if it had not been for school music.
"What I learned was that if you’re willing to have patience and discipline and you practice, pretty soon you can make something really beautiful, and it can help you be a better member of the team, it can help you be a happier person, it can make you a better person and it can also be an awful lot of fun."
