Playing By Ear

Luann

Neely of

Marshall says music is her life.

“You know, music does make you smarter. It really does make your brain work better. I still love doing it and will keep on doing it until I can’t.”

Luann taught choir to junior high and high school students in Marshall, then retired to travel the world.

“On our first trip, my husband wanted to teach me how to travel light, so we traveled for weeks in Costa Rica with just a back pack. We traveled for about ten years to around 15 different countries, then I returned to Marshall High School and junior high coaching kids as the compete in singing competitions. We have a good thing going.”

Many of her students have been in the all-state choir. Luann is not a singer. She plays piano.

“I didn’t learn. We did not have a piano in my house growing up. I was at a family friend’s house who was baby-sitting me while my mother went to do errands. The woman was in the kitchen and I sat down at the piano and played Sentimental Journey. She came in there and asked me if the radio was on. I said no and she asked me if I played that song on the piano. I said yes and she made me play it again. I’ve been playing ever since. I was barely 3 years old when that happened. I could play anything I could hear. And I still can.”

When I visited with Luann she had just returned from a cruise that took her from Lisbon, Portugal to Barcelona, Spain.

“My son had won this cruise. He had donated money to a charity through a raffle and he won this cruise. I was down visiting him in Florida when he told me about this cruise he had won. He said, ‘I don’t know who I’m going to take with me.’ I said well here I stand. He said, ‘oh, Mom I didn’t even think of you. Of course we can go.’ So off we went.”

They traveled on the upscale cruise line, Silver Sea.

“We had our own suite with our own butler so it was quite something. I never dreamed I would get to experience something like that.”

She ended up entertaining passengers.

“My son and I were in one of the lounges having an after dinner drink when a jazz guitarist and singer from Portugal came in to entertain. They were going to be playing a song I knew so I asked if I could play with them. We ended up playing the whole evening. Some of the songs I had never heard before but I was able to follow along with them. They loved it. They said ‘where have you been?’ It was really fun.”

Luann has a master’s degree in piano and did learn to read music. She says playing by ear is a gift from God.