Sandra Dodd

-=-we (parents ) TRY very hard to refrain from comments
about not practicing piano .....but we mess up.-=-

-=-We remind the kids that practicing music is required because the
music lessons cost money and on and on.......-=-

-=-She is used to having choices offered to her instead of knowing
that she has
ALL the choices available. -=-



The full original post is here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
AlwaysLearning/message/29565

I'm letting the parent be anonymous because I had this by e-mail, and
am taking it down to component topics. Please respond!

Thanks,



Sandra






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

diana jenner

On 6/26/07, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> -=-we (parents ) TRY very hard to refrain from comments
> about not practicing piano .....but we mess up.-=-
>
> -=-We remind the kids that practicing music is required because the
> music lessons cost money and on and on.......-=-
>
> -=-She is used to having choices offered to her instead of knowing
> that she has
> ALL the choices available. -=-
>
> The full original post is here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
> AlwaysLearning/message/29565
>
>
>


~~~Just stop. From now on you don't mention piano as a manipulator for
practice. Play, if you play. Talk about it if it comes up organically. Just
don't mention a need for them to practice. Don't mention the cost. Breathe
deeply and know that if *you* had signed up for lessons you really didn't
like, no one would shame you into going anyway. Breathe some more.
Hannah was part of a couple of singing groups. One was a casual, summer
singers group which met 5x/week for an hour, for 6 weeks. They sang in
public a few times. It was ideal for us and our life. She wanted to continue
singing, so we hooked up with a Girls Chorale. They met over 9 months, once
weekly for a very intense rehearsal. Hannah's love of the piano was sparked
here. We didn't do lessons, we fingered and figured out the songs she liked
and we picked up fun-looking books. She didn't want to rehearse at home for
the Chorale; sometimes she didn't want to go to group rehearsals. When she
did participate, she loved it and it did spark something in *her* to want to
return. She loved the retreat they had with a local opera singer. She loved
playing the songs on the piano. She loved singing the songs. Not the same
experience other girls got from the groups. Definitely a Hannah experience.
A joyful one at that.
I know the expectations of the other grownups for the other kids were
different than mine. We met the core criteria and did the rest Hannah's way.
I smiled at a lot of "clucking" mothers. My kid was always happy to be
there. We were participating on a scholarship, which could make one feel
even *more* obligated to fully participate, so as to better appreciate the
gift or somesuch ;) I worked my way through. This gift is a gift of Joy. If
Singing is bringing Joy, then the scholarship has done it's job. To provide
Singing without the Joy by making it full of have-tos and musts, cannot be
the goal here... what'd be left to sing about? I found a way to best
appreciate all the gifts in the scenario, first being the gift of my
daughter and her love of music. We got Joy out of Singing and definitely got
someone else's money's worth!
--
~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Heather

My daughter takes violin lessons. She goes once a week, for a 30 minute
lesson. She is 8. She has taken them for a little over a year - off & on.

She decided she wanted to learn violin after watching a young woman play
with her teacher at our local homeschool music recital. I put off
finding a teacher for a bit, because I thought she just wanted to be able to
pick up the violin & play like they did. But she kept asking, so I
finally tracked down a teacher. And luckily, Rose is a wonderful teacher
for Sierra.
Sierra rarely practices. I sometimes ask if she wants to play. Usually for
someone else - her dad, her friends. She likes performing.
But she doesn't just pick the instrument up to "practice" her songs. And
sometimes she says she doesn't want to go to her lesson.
So we'll take some time off. I just call & cancel some lessons - maybe 2
weeks, maybe 4. Then when her next lesson is coming up again, I'll ask if
she's ready to go back. If she is, great. If she's not, I go with that.
She really likes Rose & they have a nice relationship. And Sierra is having
fun with her music.
Isn't that the goal?

heather

On 6/26/07, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> -=-we (parents ) TRY very hard to refrain from comments
> about not practicing piano .....but we mess up.-=-
>
> -=-We remind the kids that practicing music is required because the
> music lessons cost money and on and on.......-=-
>
> -=-She is used to having choices offered to her instead of knowing
> that she has
> ALL the choices available. -=-
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Cathy

-=-we (parents ) TRY very hard to refrain from comments
about not practicing piano .....but we mess up.-=-

-=-We remind the kids that practicing music is required because the
music lessons cost money and on and on.......-=-

-=-She is used to having choices offered to her instead of knowing
that she has
ALL the choices available. -=-



I think there is confusion about whether your daughter indeed has ALL the
choices available (as you put it) or whether she only has those choices that
you offer to her. There is a subtle but important distinction here. If your
daughter feels that she only has those choices that you offer to her, then
she will wait for you to give direction before she makes a choice. As in she
will wait for you to take the lead.

Does your child have the freedom to chuck the piano lessons?

Regards

Cathy



_,_._,___



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Krisula Moyer

Nothing draws interested piano players like hearing someone else in the
house play. I find my kids will play a lot more if I am enjoying myself
regularly at the piano. My two daughters also take violin lessons (the
piano is completely informal). They choose to practice because they want to
see what's next in the book and they figure their teacher will move to the
next thing quicker if they've really played last week's stuff a lot. They
don't practice every week but most weeks they do and I don't remind them.
It is true that if one plays, the other will usually play soon after.
Sometimes I try my my hand at playing something from their book and since
they get the lessons and I don't they will usually help me with what I'm
doing wrong. This is great for me (free lessons) and good for them -they
seem to really learn a lot for themselves when they help me. I hasten to
add that I don't make up fake ways for them to help me with violin. They
only help me when they want to and when they hear me and figure I need help.
It's an honest back and forth not a way to manipulate them into practicing
more.
Krisula


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

-=--=-we (parents ) TRY very hard to refrain from comments
about not practicing piano .....but we mess up.-=-

-=-We remind the kids that practicing music is required because the
music lessons cost money and on and on.......-=-
-=-

I think it's a "we mess up" moment to say "practicing music is
required because the
music lessons cost money."

Donuts cost money.
If you buy a dozen donuts and everyone is satisfied at one or two, do
you require them to finish the dozen because donuts cost money?

Medicine costs money.
If you have some medicine you really don't like or that's giving you
a bad reaction, will you finish the bottle because it cost money?

First you need to decide on the purpose of the piano lessons. The
purpose might be fulfilled without an hour of practice a day. The
teacher wants to "show progress." The teacher wants parents to "get
their money's worth." But maybe the student would rather binge and
play for two hours one day and none for a while, or practice one week
because it's raining outside and she's learning a new song she really
likes, and not practice for three weeks afterwards because she's on a
volleyball team and the sun is shining.

Instead of thinking of it as "practicing," changing the term to
"playing" might help too. I play the piano. I don't want to
"practice" the piano. I'm playing it, for my own enjoyment, for my
own purposes, when I feel like it.

Sandra



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Meredith

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...>
wrote:
>> Instead of thinking of it as "practicing," changing the term to
> "playing" might help too. I play the piano. I don't want to
> "practice" the piano. I'm playing it, for my own enjoyment, for
my
> own purposes, when I feel like it.

That's an important distinction.

When I first started learning to juggle, I didn't want to "practice
juggling" I just wanted to juggle. A friend of mine showed me a way
of learning that let me feel like I was juggling right from the
start, even though I was still dropping a lot of balls. I just got a
set of clubs, though, and find I'm wanting to "practice" specific
skills.

Someone - Holt, I think - noted that in adult life we learn things
by doing them. Its only kids who are expected to build a set of
skills *before* doing whatever those skills are "for". Adults will
often choose to practice skills once they can see a reason for doing
so, but often "practice" those skills by means of choosing a project
that relies heavily on the skills in question.

I've lost my train of thought, getting b'fast for Morgan... I think
its good to note there's a difference between doing something and
practicing a skill-set. Its not necessarily the sort of difference
between "learn" and "teach" but it is good to see our kids playing
music or dancing or doing karate etc as being different from
practicing a set of skills for any of those. Not that practice is
unhelpful, per se - but that suggesting a kid practice something
doesn't necessarily support his or her interest in *doing* that
something.

---Meredith (Mo 5.5, Ray 13)

Sandra Dodd

-=-Someone - Holt, I think - noted that in adult life we learn things
by doing them. Its only kids who are expected to build a set of
skills *before* doing whatever those skills are "for". Adults will
often choose to practice skills once they can see a reason for doing
so, but often "practice" those skills by means of choosing a project
that relies heavily on the skills in question.-=-

If I'm playing a sonata (just the movements I like, probably) I'm
just playing. If I try something new I've never tried before, I
might find something in there I like and I'll go through it the next
few times I come to the piano, and I'll either like it more or less
(just like anything--tv shows, restaurants, CDs, people) and if I
decide it's worth having in my life longterm, those passages that
aren't readable to me....



OOOOH! REMEMBER THIS TANGENT

...those passages that aren't readable to me, I'll work through over
and over (IF I'm in the mood, because I have no deadline of a lesson
or performance) until I "know them" in a way other than the way I'm
knowing the other parts that came easier.

Up above, in full word-flow, I wrote "aren't readable to me."

So this can tie in to my ever-ongoing thoughts about how reading
works and what it means "to read."

With apologies to those who will not know what I'm writing about, you
might just skip the next few paragraphs and go to this point ****

I most like Baroque music. In the music-reading area, it's very
visual to me. I don't count it out, I go by the patterns against
patterns of the left and right hands. Sometimes each hand is just
playing one note, each hand a stream of notes going in different or
parallel or some of each directions (contrapuntal/counterpoint). I
like that kind of vocal music too. I like harmonies like that in
folk and popular music too, though parallel thirds are more common.

Instead of reading horizontally left to right, though, I'm kinda
reading vertically, by half measures or whole measures, and I see the
relationship of the two parts, and I read them like whole phrases and
relationships. When one comes that I have to count out and that I
can't hear by seeing, as it were, then I revert to the counting and
thinking of note names that I was not using at all before.

****

When people read fluently they can look at a phrase like "look at a
phrase" and see it whole, or at least see it as a kind of passage of
music, or a section of a recipe, or like if you were reading
directions for building, you would see 2x4 stud and not think of
each number or letter, but see a picture of a 2x4 in your mind and
just have to look for the part that shows how long they want you to
cut it.

When anyone reads, no matter how good they are, they have a strategy
for words they don't know, that don't just flow into their mind
without analysis. Some sound it out. Some look it up. Some make
something up for it and skip it. Some just skip it. But I think, at
that moment, that the person was not "reading" but stopping, one way
or another, to use another strategy.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

marji

At 11:41 7/2/2007, you wrote:
>When anyone reads, no matter how good they are, they have a strategy
>for words they don't know, that don't just flow into their mind
>without analysis. Some sound it out. Some look it up. Some make
>something up for it and skip it. Some just skip it. But I think, at
>that moment, that the person was not "reading" but stopping, one way
>or another, to use another strategy.

I've noticed that Liam's strategy is context. If a word is stumping
him, rather than try to sound it out (although he *will* do this
sometimes), he's more likely to try to fit a word that works in the
context that may have the same starting letters as the stumper. I
think that's very cool because he's fulfilling his purpose for
reading, which is gathering information (not reading for reading's
sake, as he most probably would be doing in a school setting). I
gather from this guesswork that he's getting what he's reading.

I love being a witness to this fascinating way of learning!


Marji



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

jenstarc4

Not that practice is
> unhelpful, per se - but that suggesting a kid practice something
> doesn't necessarily support his or her interest in *doing* that
> something.
>
> ---Meredith (Mo 5.5, Ray 13)
>

This is what really turned me off of art classes, among other
things. When I did my art, even when I was young, I was working
towards a finished project. I wasn't practicing my brush strokes or
shading techniques. When there were assignments in art class that I
didn't feel like doing, I didn't do them, I would do something else.
I didn't feel the need for practicing how to draw a still life of
fake fruit. If I wanted to draw fake fruit, I would have just drawn
fake fruit.

I think that it's true that you are either doing something or not
doing something. Practicing isn't that helpful of a word. The more
you do something, the better you get at it. Practicing implies doing
something to achieve a certain level of proficiency with or without
the internal drive to be there. I never practice art, I just do it.
I did practice the violin a lot, and I never play it now, however I
did reach a certain level of proficiency at it.

Gold Standard

Max (17) has been playing guitar since he was 9. He told us one day he
wanted to learn to play guitar, so we checked out local music store/lessons,
bought a cheaper acoustic and signed him up.

I don't think I knew back then how fortunate we were to be living in a
laid-back, liberal college town (Athens, OH) with musicians who played music
for the love of it...on the sidewalks, in the little coffee shops, etc., and
how fortunate we were that Max's first teacher just asked Max what he wanted
to do and did it with him. It was the ultimate unschooling guitar learning
experience, and Max flew.

Fast-forward to today...Max is a consummate guitarist in a jazz band and in
a funk/blues band. He has learned with numerous amazing guitar teachers,
including Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane. According to Max, he
practices. He says, "I'm going in my room to practice" and he will play one
part of one song over and over again till he feels good about it, and then
he'll move on to something else. His teachers have given him assignments
along the way, and if they made sense to him and were meaningful to him, he
usually did them. But no one here ever told him to :o) Usually he
"practices" particular things that he wants to get better at. And maybe his
terminology of "practice" could just as easily be called "playing". His goal
is usually to play really well for whatever gig is next.

He always seems very content when playing guitar, whether he was playing for
the love of playing, or working on something in particular.

I think he's as good as he is today because:
*he loves playing and no one has squelched that...and he played and played
and played and continues to do so
*he hasn't been pushed into anything with guitar, including having to
"practice"
*he's lead his own course with this passion
*he's received lots of support

Max's guitar-playing has been such a beautiful and natural journey, and a
great example of where a child can go with freedom and support.

Jacki

Bob Collier

I loved playing soccer when I was a boy and would often play 'park
football' with friends for hours on end (that's where the goalposts
are piles of coats or sweaters).

My best position turned out to be goalkeeper. When I was 14, I joined
a proper soccer club. At the weekly practices, virtually all we did
was drill, either fitness drill or practising one specific tactic
over and over again. Sometimes we hardly ever touched a soccer ball
until our ten minute six a side game that usually closed the two hour
training session. I hated all that. I just wanted to play soccer.

Yet I would often spend long sessions alone in my back garden at home
kicking a ball against the wall of the house, leaping all over the
place as it came back to me at all sorts of unpredictable angles, so
that I would keep my goalkeeping reflexes sharp.

Perhaps it's as the saying goes: the only true motivation is self-
motivation and everything else is coercion.

btw, I was a fiddle player for many years back in my days as
a 'folkie' and how that started was I was 21 and working with a guy
who was seriously into folk music, dance and song. One day he invited
me to come along with him to the local folk club. At that time, I
thought 'folk' meant Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and stuff like that,
and, being more into T Rex and Led Zeppelin and stuff like that, I
declined. So the guy bribed me by offering to pay for all my beer -
who could refuse that? - and I reluctantly went along with him to
this quaint olde worlde pub tucked away down some English country
lane (the Black Horse, Nuthurst, Sussex, for any English people on
this list). So my friend and I walked in through the front door of
this pub into a bar that was absolutely jam packed except for a small
clear area in one corner where two fiddle players stood ramping out
Irish reels. And I'm looking at these two guys nonchalantly sawing
away and I'm listening to this alien music and I'm immediately
thinking "I wanna do that."

A week later I'd bought a violin and learned a couple of tunes and
that was the start of an 'amazing adventure' that lasted 15 years
until it took second place to my role as my daughter's stay-at-home
dad (I finally quit playing when she was five and haven't touched a
fiddle since). Included in the adventure, I got interested in the
fiddle music of the Shetland Islands (a group of islands off the
north coast of Scotland) and I went up there on a working holiday to
play in the pubs with the locals. And while I was there I met the 19
year old girl from Belfast I've now been married to for 33 years and
who's the mother of both of my children.

Today's ramble. :)

Bob






--- In [email protected], "jenstarc4" <jenstarc4@...>
wrote:
>
> Not that practice is
> > unhelpful, per se - but that suggesting a kid practice something
> > doesn't necessarily support his or her interest in *doing* that
> > something.
> >
> > ---Meredith (Mo 5.5, Ray 13)
> >
>
> This is what really turned me off of art classes, among other
> things. When I did my art, even when I was young, I was working
> towards a finished project. I wasn't practicing my brush strokes
or
> shading techniques. When there were assignments in art class that
I
> didn't feel like doing, I didn't do them, I would do something
else.
> I didn't feel the need for practicing how to draw a still life of
> fake fruit. If I wanted to draw fake fruit, I would have just
drawn
> fake fruit.
>
> I think that it's true that you are either doing something or not
> doing something. Practicing isn't that helpful of a word. The
more
> you do something, the better you get at it. Practicing implies
doing
> something to achieve a certain level of proficiency with or without
> the internal drive to be there. I never practice art, I just do
it.
> I did practice the violin a lot, and I never play it now, however I
> did reach a certain level of proficiency at it.
>

Sandra Dodd

-=-A week later I'd bought a violin and learned a couple of tunes and
that was the start of an 'amazing adventure' that lasted 15 years
until it took second place to my role as my daughter's stay-at-home
dad (I finally quit playing when she was five and haven't touched a
fiddle since). Included in the adventure, I got interested in the
fiddle music of the Shetland Islands (a group of islands off the
north coast of Scotland) and I went up there on a working holiday to
play in the pubs with the locals. And while I was there I met the 19
year old girl from Belfast I've now been married to for 33 years and
who's the mother of both of my children.
-=-

Very cool (all except the "haven't touched a fiddle" part)!

In ancient days (late 70's) I was in Cambridge for a month and went
to a couple of pubs where singing groups met, and to a pub doing
Irish music out in the open. I like vocal better than instrumental,
folkwise, but I perked way up at your stories!!

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bob Collier

My wife does still occasionally have a go at me about not playing the
fiddle any more. She tells me there are people who would love to play
the fiddle and can't and it's criminal that I can and won't.
Especially since I was very good. Well, I was good enough, but it's
been 16 years and it's no longer relevant to anything I'm doing with
my life these days ... although my daughter's grown up now and my
son's almost a teenager, so it's not as if I don't have opportunities
to return to former interests.

I must admit I do think about it from time to time, so you never
know. :)




--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> -=-A week later I'd bought a violin and learned a couple of tunes
and
> that was the start of an 'amazing adventure' that lasted 15 years
> until it took second place to my role as my daughter's stay-at-home
> dad (I finally quit playing when she was five and haven't touched a
> fiddle since). Included in the adventure, I got interested in the
> fiddle music of the Shetland Islands (a group of islands off the
> north coast of Scotland) and I went up there on a working holiday to
> play in the pubs with the locals. And while I was there I met the 19
> year old girl from Belfast I've now been married to for 33 years and
> who's the mother of both of my children.
> -=-
>
> Very cool (all except the "haven't touched a fiddle" part)!
>
> In ancient days (late 70's) I was in Cambridge for a month and
went
> to a couple of pubs where singing groups met, and to a pub doing
> Irish music out in the open. I like vocal better than
instrumental,
> folkwise, but I perked way up at your stories!!
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

jenstarc4

>
> A week later I'd bought a violin and learned a couple of tunes and
> that was the start of an 'amazing adventure' that lasted 15 years
> until it took second place to my role as my daughter's stay-at-home
> dad (I finally quit playing when she was five and haven't touched a
> fiddle since).

I started playing the violin when I was about 9. I played until I
was 15, quit, then restarted again when I was 18. I too met my
husband because of my violin. He played one too and always saw me
carrying mine around and thought he should talk to me.

About 2 yrs later, he got this great idea to learn how to repair
violins, so took mine apart, it was really old and needed some seam
repair, and I wanted a fiddle bridge and the neck adjusted
accordingly. It's been in pieces ever since. I sometimes played
his, but it just wasn't the same as mine. Mine was special and had a
unique sound and a beautiful painting on it (well the painting is
still there). So I stopped playing the violin. I would be very
rusty at this point in my life!

Sandra Dodd

-=-it was really old and needed some seam
repair, and I wanted a fiddle bridge and the neck adjusted
accordingly. It's been in pieces ever since. I sometimes played
his, but it just wasn't the same as mine. Mine was special and had a
unique sound and a beautiful painting on it (well the painting is
still there). So I stopped playing the violin. I would be very
rusty at this point in my life!-=-

Rust can be removed. <g>

Violins CAN be repaired...

But maybe get one of the Chinese-made-ones that are cheap and then
you can let your kids play with it too, and take it camping, and not
worry about it. And if it breaks, get another cheap one!

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Ed Wendell

We have hubby's great grandfather's fiddle/violin and no one plays it ;( Our son (13) had it out the other day and was playing around on it and was remarking about how it does not screech like they show on TV; when they are being silly about bad violin players.

The conversation it led to was it being our son's great, great grandfather's - and the linage that entailed. Our son thought great great grandfather meant always following the father's linage so we discussed and outlined how it could go in many directions. He thought it meant it was his dad's dad's dad's dad - but it is his dad's, mom's, mom's, dad's violin.

The item our son loves to pick around on is a lap harp - the cheap ones that you slide the music under the strings to pick out the tune. He also enjoys his tin whistle. The guitar and violin pretty much gather dust.

Lisa W.




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bob Collier

I'd love to play the tin whistle. It's got such a wonderful clear
sound - and you can stick it in your pocket. Very handy.

Not long after I took up the fiddle, I went through a phase of
interest in different instruments that other folk music enthusiasts
were playing. I got on alright with the mandolin (which is tuned the
same as a violin), but never played it much; and I did pretty well
with the melodeon, which I played off and on for morris dancing for
many years; but I couldn't figure out that tin whistle. Just couldn't
synchronise my lungs and my fingers! Perhaps it didn't help being a
heavy smoker in those days.

I learned one tune that I would sometimes wheel out as a party piece.
It's called Bold Benjamin. Sandra probably knows it. It's very slow
(plenty of time for me to think where to put my fingers next). My
wife has it on a Sinead O'Connor CD and whenever she plays it, which
is once in a while, she *always* remarks that Bold Benjamin is the
saddest tune in the world. I think it's She Moved Through The Fair,
which Sinead O'Connor sang in the movie Michael Collins when the
messenger came to tell his one true love of his death. I was blubbing
like a baby.

What kind of music does your son like to play? Is he self-taught on
the tin whistle or did he have lessons?

Bob




--- In [email protected], "Ed Wendell" <ewendell@...>
wrote:
>
> We have hubby's great grandfather's fiddle/violin and no one plays
it ;( Our son (13) had it out the other day and was playing around
on it and was remarking about how it does not screech like they show
on TV; when they are being silly about bad violin players.
>
> The conversation it led to was it being our son's great, great
grandfather's - and the linage that entailed. Our son thought great
great grandfather meant always following the father's linage so we
discussed and outlined how it could go in many directions. He
thought it meant it was his dad's dad's dad's dad - but it is his
dad's, mom's, mom's, dad's violin.
>
> The item our son loves to pick around on is a lap harp - the cheap
ones that you slide the music under the strings to pick out the tune.
He also enjoys his tin whistle. The guitar and violin pretty much
gather dust.
>
> Lisa W.
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Ed Wendell

Self taught - same as the lap harp.

He just plays it - plays around with it same as the guitar or violin - probably not music to anyone's ears except his own - LOL Though with the lap harp he does follow the sheet music and play songs others have written.

Our son loves to listen to a very wide variety of music - he loves the old hard rock - his favorite radio station is old hard rock from the 60's to the 80's; I just bought an ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) CD and he loves it; some country (he is into Johnny Cash right now for country); he loves the Anamie tracks from the TV shows and Movies; He also loves to get movie sound tracks to movies he really likes - such as Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean; He loves Scottish music (especially the pipes and fast paced dance/reel music) and African music. There is also an Irish band here in the USA called The Elders that we love it's more like Irish Rock and one of the dad's is in our homeschool group so we know them (him). He says he also likes music where they take classical music and make it with a more rock twist (his description).

What I need to do is have a conversation with him and let him know if he ever did want to take lessons we'd be open to that - we've had the conversation in the past but I know of a violin player that is great for open ended mentoring / lessons that I could explore the option of just playing and mentoring without the drill and hours of practice.

He likes to play basketball and volleyball - they had a homeschool group doing both but he went a few times and then asked to drop out because he did not like the drill, he just wanted to play and have fun - not be an expert. Then there was another group that did basketball and play is all they did and he loved it.

Lisa W.




What kind of music does your son like to play? Is he self-taught on
the tin whistle or did he have lessons?

Bob
.


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Sandra Dodd

-=-Though with the lap harp he does follow the sheet music and play
songs others have written.-=-

If you have any big paper, make several blanks, and let him write his
own music for that harp.

I notated a couple of things for mine. A string's broken now, but I
really liked it when it was whole and good. <g>

Sandra

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Ed Wendell

I never thought of that - That's why these groups are great for me (and thus my child) ! Actually I think a standard sheet 8.5x11 will work - thanks for the idea! it is one of those lap harps that is very simple - a triangle of wood with strings, and you can buy pre-made music sheets that are triangle shaped that slide under the strings and show where to strum/pick.


I think he would love this idea - in his own time of course. Maybe I'll write some for myself and then he'll be inspired - though musically inclined I'm not really (did the whole forced practice/lesson thing with organ and clarinet for 12 long years and the whole time I was being forced to sit there all I could think about was running through the back pastures free with nature and the many animals I collected - which is probably why I was not a "good" musician. ;) At least I knew enough to explain the types of notes to him - in other words how fast to play the notes or how long to stretch them out.

Thanks this will be great while I'm home with him for the summer.


Lisa W.




-=-Though with the lap harp he does follow the sheet music and play
songs others have written.-=-

If you have any big paper, make several blanks, and let him write his
own music for that harp.

I notated a couple of things for mine. A string's broken now, but I
really liked it when it was whole and good. <g>

Sandra
.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

-=-Actually I think a standard sheet 8.5x11 will work - thanks for
the idea! -=-

It needs to be just the size of the other ones the harp uses, and
it's wider than 11".

If the paper doesn't fit up in there tightly, it won't work.

What I did was play the song to make sure it would fit on the harp
(not too wide a range, not needing notes that weren't there). When
you find a good place for it, then get a pencil and just put dots.
Plan to make it fit in the width you have. Then you can pull it out
and finish the notation on a flat surface, putting it back in and
testing it once in a while to make sure you're getting it the way you
want to.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Ed Wendell

OK we're going errand running this afternoon and I'll get some bigger paper.

Thank you so very much for the details in how to get it done efficiently ;)

Lisa W.



It needs to be just the size of the other ones the harp uses, and
it's wider than 11".

If the paper doesn't fit up in there tightly, it won't work.

What I did was play the song to make sure it would fit on the harp
(not too wide a range, not needing notes that weren't there). When
you find a good place for it, then get a pencil and just put dots.
Plan to make it fit in the width you have. Then you can pull it out
and finish the notation on a flat surface, putting it back in and
testing it once in a while to make sure you're getting it the way you
want to.

Sandra
.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

huntmom1996

Slightly off topic, but given what you listed as musical interests, he
might like the soundtrack to "Master and Commander".

Peace~Jessica

Ed Wendell

That's true as he has that DVD and watches it a lot.

Lisa W.



Slightly off topic, but given what you listed as musical interests, he
might like the soundtrack to "Master and Commander".

Peace~Jessica
.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]