The Happy Pod: Learning to play the guitar one handed
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What is The Happy Pod about in this episode?
I'm Alex Ritson and in this edition... Even if things seem almost impossible, we can do it. We can do anything we want. If it's something that important to you, just go. Don't stop until you get somewhere you want to be.
The man trying to get his music career back after a life-changing stroke...
You can be beautiful and wear lipstick. I wear lipstick when I play rugby because I just feel like I don't have to sacrifice one or the other. Like I can be a beast in the field, but also feel beautiful and wear lipstick.
The young female athlete trying to inspire the next generation to follow in her footsteps. Plus, we find out why dozens of people have been queuing outside a funeral home in China.
And... I think when I went to bed, because I can remember I was up at half past two, talking, yapping away. LAUGHTER Meet the woman raving on her 105th birthday.
How did Tony Romaine learn to play guitar with one hand?
We start with one man's remarkable journey back to doing what he loves. Tony Romaine is a musician from Inverness in Scotland. At the age of 49, he suffered a stroke which left him unable to speak or walk. Two and a half years into his recovery, Tony has resumed his music career by teaching himself how to play the guitar with one arm. He wants to use his music as a way to raise awareness for other people on a similar journey. He spoke to The Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs.
I mean, at first I couldn't move hardly at all. I mean, it seemed pretty obvious I wouldn't play guitar again. Now I can move a lot better, but my left arm is still, well, pretty much useless. But things have come on a lot and I hope they continue to.
How did you inspire yourself to relearn how to play the guitar and how to sing again?
I never really think that I didn't think I would, if that makes sense. Just even when I was lying in the ICU, I couldn't move. I was still thinking about when I get better, I'm going to do this. I remember one of the people in the ICU, one of the nurses saying it'd take months or possibly years for me to recover enough to just get home. And in my mind, that just said things will get better. So that was it. I had no doubt at all that I wouldn't play music. I really just couldn't imagine life without it.
That must have been incredibly difficult when you were told that you were going to have to relearn how to speak and walk again.
Yes, it was. And I think at the time as well, because of the brain injury, my emotions were all over the place. And not even my emotions, just my... reactions to things I would start crying for no reason even when I wasn't sad or I would start laughing just at anything at all for no reason quite often quite inappropriate moments but when I realised everything I had to do it was hard to think about but I wasn't gonna let anything get in the way
How did you even begin to teach yourself how to play the guitar one-handed?
First of all, I laid it on a bench in front of me and I tried to use one hand to do it. That didn't work. But I just kept trying everything I could. Eventually, I've got it sat in my wheelchair, so it's supported by the armrests. And I'll basically use, obviously, just the one hand. I'll use a couple of fingers to press down on the strings... and the other two fingers I'll use to pluck or strum the strings.
Why is Ilona Maher an influential figure in women's rugby?
How did it feel to be sat with your guitar again playing music?
It made me very sad but very happy at the same time. It was just things I couldn't do which I used to be able to do and then things I could do which I never thought I would be able to do at the same point.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is The Happy Pod about in this episode?
0:46–1:54
2
How did Tony Romaine learn to play guitar with one hand?
1:54–4:46
3
Why is Ilona Maher an influential figure in women's rugby?
4:46–8:18
4
Why are people queuing outside a funeral home in China?
8:18–10:20
5
What is quadrobics and why is it controversial in Russia?
10:20–30:09
Speakers
11 identifiedMore from Global News Podcast
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