Let the Music Play

The Mud Puddle is a musical kind of guy. This has been true since I force fed him  Elvis and Bach in utero when he was still a mass of cells. Scott and I have always been music lovers (Assume that the Venn diagram for those tastes doesn’t have a ton of overlap).

You can tell when he is having a good day because he will walk around the house singing or humming to himself. And you never really know what he is going to come up with on that front: Rush one day, Cheryl Cole the next (and she may be fighting for “this love” but he is fighting for “this stuff”).

We have tried to expose him to all kinds of music and encourage his own taste in what he likes. He has an iPod filled with a variety of musical stylings.

So as a consumer of music he has lots of experience.

He has just recently gotten into the business of producing music and he has surprised me at how he has taken to it. A duck to water if you will.

Last year was his first exposure to playing music when he brought home his recorder from music class. Now, true confessions time: I was a MASSIVE recorder geek as a child. I had learned to play four varieties by the time I was in fifth grade. Everyone starts out on the soprano but I had an awesome music teacher who if we showed ½ an ounce of interest would let us learn the other versions.

So when the recorder came home I promptly dug out the one I had bought a few years ago and we would jam. I also am super nerdy about just coming up with songs on the spot. I composed “The Good Night” song for him and would have to play it on the recorder every night before he went to bed.  Smart on his part as it was way better than the version I sing.

He wasn’t gung-ho about the recorder and found learning to read music a little bit frustrating so I was surprised when he came home early on in fourth grade and said he wanted to learn how to play an instrument. I am not going to tell anyone ‘no’ if they want to try something new (well, unless it is drugs or lion taming) so I said sure.

We spent many hours deliberating which instrument he would play and it came down to either the trumpet or the saxophone. He actually didn’t pick until I was filling out the paperwork to pick up his instrument: saxophone it was.

Of course it was, the case was as big as him and the rental fee was the most of all the instruments. But that is fine; I can come up with a little extra scratch. I had no idea how it would go. We had agreed that he would have to commit to play it for a year, even if he hated it.

He had his first lesson and couldn’t wait to show me what he had learned. He picked it up fairly quickly and the early days of it sounding like a cat being squeezed were short.

He asks if he can practice – I don’t have to sit on him to get him to pick it up. He has even named his saxophone (Vanessa) but doesn’t talk to ‘her’. That would be a step too close to crazy I think.

I don’t think I have ever seen anyone pick up a skill so quickly or have so much fun playing music. He has written his own songs, learned to play the Good Night song and is constantly picking up new things to play. His site reading skills are MAD. He has started reading piano music and can pick up the tune and carry it well on its way upon first reading.

He had his first public performance at daycare in January. They do a winter concert for the little kids and they asked him to play. I downplayed it as much as I could so he wouldn’t be nervous. He came up with his set list (he wanted to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb” because it had the word ‘snow’ in it). He had three or four songs on the list. All about 30 seconds in length. Sounded good to me.

When I walked into the room where they were holding the concert there were 50 people and it was standing room only. I became very nervous on his behalf but tried to keep it cool when he came over. He was billed as the ‘special guest’ and was the finale.

One of his buddies introduced him and he got up and started playing his stuff. The first song he played superfast but once he bowed and the crowd applauded I saw him visibly relax. He played each song and bowed afterwards as much to let folks it was over as much as  it was recognition of the applause.

I have never been prouder of him than I was in that moment. He was fearless and doing something that made him happy. The teachers at daycare (who have known him since he was a year old and who get 33.33% of the credit for his upbringing) loved it. They all came up to me and Scott and told us how impressed they were with how he played and were so appreciative that he had performed.

I could not have scripted a better first performance for him. Since then he has continued to practice daily and is always looking for new music to try and scatting out his own tunes randomly.

I am not big on handing out overt parental advice (except one bit: Mothers, trust your gut. You know your kid better than anyone and you will make the right decision when faced with a choice) but I encourage any and all parents to give your kid the chance to like something new.

We have been through so many things: karate, gymnastics, soccer, t-ball, swimming and some he really enjoyed and others he didn’t but we tried it and finding the thing that brings him a joy that radiates off him like stink lines off Pig Pen makes us all so happy we could sing about it.