This & That

LO has been practicing her piano, hard, for the past 1 hour and a half. At some point in the past couple of years, we stopped having to ask her to practice. She generally finds her way to the piano at some point in the day and plays for an hour or so.

She started with a very expensive piano teacher who thought she was the best in town. We thought so, too, at the time. Now we think "best" depends on the personality match between student and teacher, coupled with the teacher's credentials. Alas, that first teacher had an illness and we did not have lessons for about a year. At some point, an older lady in our church called otu of the blue and asked if she might give LO lessons. She had just moved to town, was bored, and needed some scheduled times to give her days purpose. She wanted to teach LO for free but after a few weeks, we felt uncomfortable with the arrangement and began giving her monthly checks.

She was a dear, but the relationship did not click. DH, being a musician himself, saw it and rose to the task. He called a fellow who owns the local music school. He is young, hip, and an excellent musician. Plays professionally around the state. It was left to me to call our sweet church lady and say that LO was "taking a break."

Finally, a teacher with whom she totally clicked. She looks forward to piano lessons and laughs and talks with Piano Teacher throughout the lesson. He is personable and oh, so knowledgeable. She works hard on the piano, partly b/c she enjoys it so much, and partly, I suspect, b/c she wants to please PT. Which is fine.

Her piano playing has progressed from here to here (picture lowered hands then higher hands) in the span of just a couple of years. She loves her scales, plays songs she learned on her flute for band, pretty much plays what is on her mind. She often composes and her music is beautiful.

She and I have discovered a website that offers sheet music downloads for just a few dollars, with instant gratification. I got her a binder at the office supply store that has lovely designs on the cover. Once a month or so we study the offerings on the website and download 2 or 3 new songs. We print them off and insert them into page protectors (got a big box of them) and put them in her binder. We typically download a recent pop song, a broadway tune, a Disney song, hip hop, or country. She loves all kinds of music and I encourage her to keep discovering. My heart twinges every time she says she "hates" classical but I figure with her interest level, it's just a matter of time until that changes. After we download new songs, it takes her just a day or two to get them going, and masters them within a week or two. Her reportoire is constantly growing.

Oh, now, she is improvising on her "Pink Panther" and DH has picked up his violin and is playing harmony. Or descant. Geez, I don't know anything. But they are jamming and it fills my heart.

She plays flute in the concert band at school and last year played keyboard for jazz band. She shared keyboard with another girl. When it was the other girl's turn to play a song, LO was relegated to her flute, in jazz band. She hated this. 'Flutes don't belong in jazz band, and besides, no one can hear it.'

She came home from band camp this summer in love with the baritone sax. She begged me to call the Band Director and ask if she could learn "bari sax" for jazz band this year to get out of the flute-in-jazz-band issue.

I did. The Band Director demurred, saying he had to look at his players and "play chess with it a little." I reminded him when we cleaned the band room, and again when we painted the mural. (Heck, all this parent involvement has got to be good for something.) This week on Open House day, we stopped into the band room and asked once more. Geez, school starts day-after-tomorrow; LO needs to know what she is going to play. This BD had good news: she could choose between tenor sax and bari sax. He cautioned her that bari sax does not play in every selection, and never has a solo. He likes her to solo. He shared that he would much rather see her in tenor sax, but they could talk later.

As we left, she was walking on air. Sax. She was really going to learn sax.

She got up this morning and began organizing her school supplies. Did her homework for the tutoring school she attends, then practiced the piano. At this point she is closing in on 2 hours.

When I think of the many ways she could be spending her time, I am very grateful.