Wasabi Girl and I were sorting through some of our old piano music last weekend, including stacks of student workbooks and theory sheets. Look what I found carefully folded between the pages of one:
I had to smile. The one who wrote this? Spends a lot of time writing music now. Times change.
I'll stick to my guns and my opinion that every young person needs a basic knowledge of music. It's just another form of literacy and they'll use it their whole life. As parents we need to guide them through those less-than-enthusiastic periods.
Way Back When-esday is hosted by Cheryl at Twinfatuation.
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6 people stopped folding laundry to write:
Thanks for the smile.
"I'll stick to my guns and my opinion that every young person needs a basic knowledge of music. It's just another form of literacy and they'll use it their whole life. As parents we need to guide them through those less-than-enthusiastic periods."
Amen. My youngest is traveling through a less than enthusiastic period right now.
Ha, I love it! I remember both begging my mom to let me take piano, and begging her to let me stop. But I learned so much basic theory that I would not have gotten as easily just being a string player.
So, here's my question - when did you start your kids on instruments, what did you start with, did you give them a choice in the matter? Obviously, music is very important to me and I would really like to expose my kids to a degree of musical literacy. But I don't want to go overboard and force them into something they don't enjoy, nor do I want to be a crazy stage mom.
Your thoughts?
(My daughter randomly declares that she wants to play the clarinet, but I know most don't recommend starting a wind instrument until more like age 9, so we've got a while!)
I have to say AMEN to that. All three of my children took piano, learned the violin, with two of them branching out to viola and cello. They are grown now, and do not play the instruments anymore :-( HOWEVER, I never learned how to read music, and that was my main objective. One day they will use this knowledge, so I am glad we stuck with it through all their schooling years.
Oh ThreeUnder, this is WONDERFUL and so hope-fostering! :)
Today, it was like pulling teeth to et He-Twin decked out for taekwondo...and She-Twin is NOT dedicated to her clarinet (Goddess! We'll let you know how it progresses!) as she might be, but how I hope they find joy in it as your little former piano-hater has!
Thank you so much for playing along with Way Back When-esday!
I howled when I saw that note!
I taught my children the basics on the piano when they were about 6 or 7 and just let them have fun with it. Neither really wanted to dedicate themselves to the piano but my son picked up the saxophone and my daughter the trumpet when they were 12 - 13.
I found them both the best teachers I could and they both thrived with with their instruments.
I totally agree that all children should learn to read music but the big problem is that there are so many un-qualified private teachers out there that don't know what they are doing.
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