Music Update

A couple of days ago, someone asked me how the kids were doing with their music. Thought I'd provide you all with an update.

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Peter is currently in rehearsals for Regional Band. As you may have read last spring, he had made All State Symphonic Band last year on alto sax, something unusual for a 5th grader. In the fall, there are 4 Regional Band concerts in the state, leading up to All State in the spring. So Peter participates in the Southern region. He did very well with the audition: he has the second chair out of 10 alto saxes; the first chair (that is, the one who had the best audition) is a friend from his school, an 8th grader. The fall concert is in a couple of weeks.

He really likes sax, and took to it very quickly. He's still playing piano, too, but sax seems to be winning his heart.

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John started clarinet this year. He's enjoying it a lot. He gets frustrated at times, but there really haven't been too many ear-splitting moments when he practices. (If you've ever heard a beginner play, say, "Jingle Bells" on the clarinet and have it not go well, you know what I mean. If you don't know, watch and listen. By the way, those aren't any kids that I know.)

John's dream, though, is to play oboe, and the band director told him the clarinet would be the best way to get there -- similar fingering, apparently. John is also still playing piano, and enjoying it.

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Catherine is also playing piano, and improving every week. She and I have our music lessons with the same teacher on Monday afternoons; she'll do her half hour on piano, then I'll have my half hour on guitar. I like it when Catherine goes first, so I can sneak in one more practice session before my lesson.

Catherine is also dancing. All the time. She has her class on Thursdays (ballet and tap), but we get nightly dance shows in the living room, often to a Miley Cyrus/Jonas Brothers/Cheetah Girls accompaniment. Yes, our house has become Disneyfied. If you don't know who those performers are, find your own darn videos. But do so at your own risk. You've been warned.

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And yes, I'm still playing guitar. And improving, I think. It's feeling more natural now, and I'm quite proud of myself for finally learning how to read music after 41 years. More importantly, I'm getting better at picking out notes without taking my eyes off of the sheet music. The chords are killing me, though. I love playing them -- they sound so cool -- but switching fingers in mid-song is really hard. I'm working on G, D7, C, G7, and the dreaded F, which requires unnatural finger positioning. But the best part is that Strudel likes to howl along with me when I play them.

(She also howls at the high notes on the sax and clarinet, plus the harmonica, should anyone play it in her presence. She's such a German -- not a peep when the kids are playing piano.)

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Finally, the kids' school announced on Friday that their annual play in the spring will be The Wizard of Oz. As a middle schooler (yikes! my child is a middle schooler!), Peter is eligible to audition. We watched the movie last night, and we asked Peter which part he thought he'd like to play. He said he'd go for the Tin Man, which I think would be fitting. The Tin Man has a tenderness about him (despite the lack of a heart) that Peter could pull off. But he'll be happy to play, saying, a tree that comes alive and throws apples at the Scarecrow.

It made me think of a job interview question that the VP at work was asked during his interview with what would eventually become his office staff: If you could be any character from the Wizard of Oz, which would you be? Frankly, I think it's a better personality test than the "Who is your Favorite Beatle?" stand-by.

So I asked the other two kids who they would want to be in the play (they're not eligible to be in it, but I thought I'd ask).

Miss Diva Catherine would want to be Dorothy, of course.

Animal Boy John? No, not the Cowardly Lion. John made fun of him through the whole movie. No, John chose something way more appropriate, and if you know him, you believe it.

John would be a Flying Monkey.