I often look at my kids and wonder how they got so old already! OK, so they’re still only little kids, but really, wasn’t it just yesterday that they were crawling around the floor?
How does the time disappear so quickly? I admit that there are days when they’re both tired and cranky and I think, “If only they were older!”
But then I remember how fast their childhood will disappear, and soon that day will come when they won’t need mom to fix everything because they can fix it themselves.
I think that’s one of the things that has my heart set on sharing my love of music with my children. The chance to make some great memories that I’ll remember when they’re off living their own lives and raising their own kids.
Mommy Moments
I was looking at a website for my sister on how to learn the piano online and my youngest pointed at the computer. “Pano” he said as he jumped up and down. He took my hand and pulled me out of the family room where the computer is located, and into the dining room where we have the piano. He clambered up onto the piano stool, and patted the space next to him indicating that he wanted me to sit beside him. “Pay pano mommy” he said.
I smiled at him, said “OK baby” and was just about to begin playing when he pushed my hands impatiently out of the way and said “NO! Me pay pano mommy” and he put his hands up onto the keys and started not crashing them down, but instead gently but firmly pressing one after another in a slow, stately, slightly off-key, scale.
When he was done he looked up at me. I was so proud of him. He had played his first piece on the piano. OK, so it wasn’t something anyone would recognize, but that didn’t matter. He had that look of achievement shining in his eyes. I took his first finger of his right hand and placed it at middle C. “C” I told him. “That key is called C. Every key in that same position on the piano is called C.” He pressed it down.
“C” he said. “C”, I nodded. He then looked at the piano keys and pressed down another key. “C” he said again. Again I nodded, although this time my eyes were a bit teary. He got it. He had found the right pattern and was able to make the connection. My baby has my music genes. He gets it. Of course, it’s going to take quite some time before he’s even playing from a songs on the piano for beginners book, but he does get it.
The Emotion of Music
My eldest isn’t quite as naturally gifted in the music department. Although attracted to the piano, she isn’t quite at the stage where she’s willing to fearlessly press down keys to create sound. She sits silently beside me on the piano stool as I play, her fingers moving across her lap in time with mine, but still she resists actually trying to play herself.
What I love about this time with her is the look on her face, she absorbs each cadence, delighting in how the chords are resolved. It reminds me of a quote by Leo Tolstoy. He said, “Music is the shorthand of emotion.” As I watch the various emotions raised by the music pass across my young daughter’s face, I know that this is true. I also know that she will have the courage to play one day, but the moment she’s happy to get lost in the music and that’s OK with me.
While the piano isn’t calling her to play it, the clarinet is. She saw a street performer playing clarinet at the shopping mall the other day, and I had to almost drag her away. She was fascinated at how the player was able to make so many sounds from the instrument. She kept asking me if I could hear the tones, and telling me how good they felt in her ears. That was how I felt when I first heard a piano, so I have a feeling we could be seeking a clarinet tutor in the near future!
Music is such a special thing to share with my kids. They come at it from different angles, one of them gung-ho and fearless, the other appreciative and serene, but they both are creating music memories with me that I will cherish forever.
About the author: Melissa Cameron lives in Austin, Texas with her family, where she enjoys surfing for the best deals on the Internet. She is a 30-something wife, mother and freelance writer and her husband calls her a “walking infomercial”. She is teaching her kids to play the piano with the help of the great tutorials at PlayPiano.com.
Photo credit: Michel Marin