learning music

[mrsbrown]

I had a lovely play on the piano with Rose this evening.

It was late and we were both avoiding her bedtime.  We sat together at the piano and I played the songs she's up to in the book we've got out for her.  She showed me the pieces she already knows and then I watched the lightbulb go off when she worked out she could read the finger numbers to work out what notes to play.  She played the new song a few times, practising her newly discovered technique.

Then she asked me what the 2/4 numbers meant, and I played her new songs again, while counting out loud for each bar.

I'm really enjoying watching her learn to play.  She doesn't have a teacher or formal lessons, she just has 4 adults who'll variously play the piano themselves and will pay her a bit of attention when she's interested.  She'll also sit at the piano and play for herself - this afternoon she modified one of the pieces she's learned because it "sounds lovely" when she changes the last phrase.

I was keen for my other children to learn music.  I spent money and made them practise.  It was crap and they learned little until they decided to take it on for themselves.

Now the three children at home are having a lovely time playing around with music and teaching themselves.  They're even inspiring me to sit down occasionally.

Comments

[thelancrewitch]

We don't have a piano but the BatPup is learning recorder with me, and guitar with a teacher. I don't make her practise, ever, but you can't stop her playing some days, lol. She's so incredibly motivated. I also learned recorder from five years old or so with my mother (who, unlike me, was a professional musician and music teacher), but when I got to my mid teens and would have to get really serious about practising to go from intermediate to advanced I just stopped, and didn't pick up the recorder for twenty+ years. Now I'm getting into it again for pleasure and it makes such a difference to be playing for me, not anyone else. I never want my kids to feel that music is something they do because someone else think they ought to, I want them to play music because they can't imagine living life without it.