Music Day!!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE living here!!!! I know I complain about the weather, but really other than that, this place is heaven!!!! We are having such a blast. The other day Oldest Peep said to me that this is home now. That is incredible!

Today, Papa Peep and I played host to our new friends in what they call Music Day. Basically a few of them get together and play their instruments. There is an electric guitar section, a ukulele section, an acostic guitar section, a banjo, a bass, a mandolin, and a harmonica! They have a selection of songs and they go at it. There are many beautiful voices in the group and they all play beautifully. They really great part is that they are all patient with each other and help each other sound nicely. Papa Peep joined them and he really had a great time.

Since I have no musical talent other than playing my Ipod, I happily provided food to sustain those hard working musicians. Overall it was a fabulous time. I hope to be able to play host soon again. I wish I had video but Oldest Peep left my camera at a friends house and the SLR was all I had to work with. Enjoy a peek into our afternoon.

Clarinet Player, Violin Player, Keyboard AND Guitar!

Oldest Peep has been taking clarinet lessons for almost 2 months now. Sometimes she truly amazes me with her abilities. She has taken to this clarinet very well. I worried about her ability to juggle both instruments (she plays violin also) but hoped she could do it. She has not let me down. She practices everyday both violin and clarinet.

Now she is using her violin sheet music to play the piano. How did she do that????? Amazing!

Now the guitar. She is also teaching herself to play this. One day she opened Middle Peep's book and just started playing. She plucks the strings well and reads the music and uses the charts in the book to figure out which strings produce which notes.

The amazing thing is that I made the child that can do all those things. There is not one ounce of music know how in this body. Thank you Papa Peep. You can take full credit there.

Music Rx Concert

I should have taken a picture of them with all their instruments but I totally flaked. Well, here is Oldest Peep with all her Ensemble Mates. They did very well considering they practiced for less than 8 weeks. I am a proud Mama Peep.

Music

Oldest peep and middle peep are both taking music lesson at a great local music store. The owners are simply fabulous. They are a true mom and pop store with a huge love of music and a strong desire to share that with everyone.

The lady owner is teaching oldest peep clarinet. She began about 4 weeks ago now. According to oldest peep , she has always wanted to learn clarinet but I made her take violin. (I think made is a very strong words here since she begged for violin when we talked about lessons.) Oldest Peep is also taking private violin lessons. The home school band we joined last school year did not work too well so we went looking for private lessons. We were lucky to find the violin teacher we have. She is a great musician and a great teacher. They do not always go hand and hand as we have discovered.

Middle peep is taking guitar lessons from a great man. He is stressing the note reading middle peep has always fought me on. Despite having to be reminded to practice and practice exactly as the teacher tells him too, middle peep is making progress. He would rather just rely on his ear to play but now is starting to understand that note reading is necessary.

Today was their lessons. After the lesson, the violin teacher tells me that oldest peep needs to work on her intonation. She is reading notes very well. She can figure out how to play pieces easily. She is doing things the teacher has not exactly taught her yet. She remembers how to do something easily. However, because she feels she knows it she doesn't bother to play it with great tone. She stops at making it sound beautiful. She promised to practice intonation this week.

A few minutes later the guitar teacher comes out and tells me middle peep is doing great but we still really need to work on reading. He has a great instinct for the sounds. He is still relying on his ear. He can hear something played once, remembers the sounds and stops reading the notes on the page. He promised to read notes this week.

As I was going to the car and explaining to Papa peep what the teachers said, something hit me like a ton of bricks. My children are true to their learning styles. I have pegged them right on. Middle peep is 110% auditory. He simply needs to hear it and it is ingrained forever. Oldest peep is visual and kinesthetic . She must see it, imprint the picture in her brain and then manipulate it. She is 0% auditory. If I talk talk talk at her she stares at me blankly. It only goes in if she reads it herself or experiences it herself.

Way to go kids......

(i will soon post a pic of them with their instruments)