I’ll just keep on humming. 
With his rare gift of perfect pitch, Yang would often just snort “out of tune” from under his breath. I have long come to accept the truth about my musical nature; me = nothing very musical actually. Given that music is not in my blood, I’m deeply grateful to my mother who forked out her hard-earned money to support me through 8 years of piano tuition during my school days. I did enjoy playing the piano despite the fact that my parents’ ancestors did not have the ‘tao (3) gei (2)’ (musical notes) genes. It was no wonder that I often did badly in the aural section of my piano exams. Anyway, just playing at the piano has given me years of pleasure (& years of frustration to my family members who had to bear with the repetition of pieces and countless mistakes). Thank you, ma.
The piano at our place now is my very first piano bought with the collective savings of us three siblings – my 2 brothers and I. It was about 1.6k then. A cheap Yamaha piano which went through a major repair a few years ago, it is a pity that I seldom touch it now. One of these days when darling dearest is not around (for he will surely criticise my inferior playing technique), I shall while my time away hitting at the keys once more and sing myself silly. 
Music can be very up-lifting to the soul.
Besides piano, I had the privilege to pick up the guitar-playing too – and that during my JC (Junior College) years. Playing in an ensemble was a great experience. Just a bunch of like-minded, amateur musicians making music together – what joy! Those were treasured moments I recall with fondness. Dad bought me a guitar and I liked it very much. Whenever I lugged the guitar to school for afternoon practices, I felt like some sort of an expert musician – wah, cool siah (hee, some childish notion in my head then).
I used to teach some general music (ya, even though I was supposed to be “out of tune”) before I became a full-time science teacher. I attended a guitar course for teachers to brush up my playing skills and quite out of the blue, got a prize for being the ‘best student’ at the course. I had serious doubts about my guitar trainers’ judgement but still, the prize thrilled me nonetheless. It was a brand-new guitar! But really, what use do I have for 2 guitars? There’s only one of me.
My sister in-law suggested something wonderful recently during one of our get-together sessions. Instead of exchanging Christmas gifts, you know, the normal thing people do during the Christmas season, she suggested that we contribute our gifts for a missionary’s outreach work to the poor children in Asia. I was excited because 1) it was a super-meaningful gesture to the poor, 2) my 2nd guitar could finally be a blessing to others. It is my hope that this gift will make sweet and joyful music with the little ones.
Matt, I hope that you won’t mind me giving away the extra D-string you bought for the guitar while you were here. I’m sure it will come in handy for the missionary. Once again, I thank you for thoughtfulness of buying the back-up string!