Guitar Lessons, Terre Roche and September 11th, 2001.

Every Wednesday evening, I join a group of people in a classroom at the Guitar Study Center on W. 13th Street. I didn’t think I would be able to afford classes, at this place affiliated with the expensive New School, but the lessons are reasonably priced and there are certain deals if you take two classes – for example, an instrument and a theory class. I have always wanted to study the guitar and the opportunity is exciting for me. But there is more than that.

My guitar teacher is a woman named Terre Roche. When Terre walked into the room on the first day of class, I felt like I knew her, but I couldn’t figure out why. Of course I did know her – I knew some of her most intimate thoughts and musical changes as one of the Roche sisters “once you get on you will never get off of the commuter train...