The year was 1952 and a young family moving into their new home found a guitar in a closet. No one knew where it came from or who it belonged to. Their eight-year-old son James was enamored with the guitar and immediately claimed it. He soaked up all the Elvis songs he heard on the radio and began to teach himself to play. He started playing in a local band around town and soon became a talented session musician. Eventually he was asked to join a budding blues rock band that soon adopted the name Led Zeppelin. That eight-year-old boy of course, was Jimmy Page, one of the great guitarists of all time.

As a small child, The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards saw his grandfather’s guitar up on a high shelf in the living room. His grandfather told him that if he could manage to get it down he would teach him how to play it. Suffice it to say he was able to get the guitar down.

A young Jimi Hendrix was helping his father on a side job and found a ukulele in garbage they were removing from a woman’s home. The woman told Jimi he could have it and he brought it home. The ukulele only had one string, but he played it anyway, playing along with Elvis’ “Hound Dog”.

These are just a few of many stories of successful musicians who began their musical journeys by finding instruments lying around the house unused. They dusted them off and started making sounds. They had no idea how to play them, but they saw something special in these instruments.

Many people probably have an old guitar lying around somewhere. Under the bed, in the back of the closet or in grandma’s attic. The best thing to do with these instruments is to pick them up, and learn to play them. Perhaps you won’t be the world’s next guitar virtuoso, but that doesn’t matter. These artists found joy in whatever instruments they found lying around, and you can find that same joy.