Piano Man

Today Sam had his second audition--okay audition is too strong a word--for his Suzuki class.

[To recap, a few weeks ago I got it in my head that Sam could do with some sort of activity, now that he is almost four years old. Northern City is not big on your traditional American activities--nary a t-ball league or junior soccer group around. However, what Northern City does have is a boatload of little educational schools. Want to take English or Japanese? You're in! Ditto for "mental math," nearly any musical instrument, dance, etc.]

Anyway, he's tried two teachers, which is their system. The first one, Teacher Tall, was very friendly. She put a sticker on each of his fingers and had him work on playing Twinkle, Twinkle, finger by finger. She was fairly friendly, and had some puppets she used also. The second teacher, Teacher Ball, did a little more. She showed Sam middle C, had him look at the black keys ("chopsticks" for double keys and "forks" for triple keys). Sam is supposed to pick one of the teachers, but I will probably just let them know we're flexible. He may start with just fifteen minute classes at first.

A funny thing was how Sam reacted. To put this in context, Sam talked pretty much continuously from the time I picked him up at preschool this afternoon until the lesson, and the from the lesson until we got home. But at the lesson, he acted almost autistic. I don't mean this to mock. He has a funny thing he does sometimes where he won't make eye contact and will only answer questions in a really quiet voice. I think he was just distracted by the environment (two baby grands in a room; a funny chair; etc.). Anyway, it was a funny meeting.

I also have been getting some piano advice. When I went the first time, one of the parents told me that it's important for parents to be energetic and not hands off. She said the great thing about Suzuki is that you can make "twice as much progress." When I talked to the first teacher, she asked me why we were doing this system now and I said something about like that Suzuki was more relaxed. She said that it's not relaxed and that study is very important. Today I found out that my language teacher's kid did two years of music classes followed by eight years of piano lessons. She said the important thing is that "you can't take any breaks." It's a lot more pushy than the "find your passion"/"follow the kid's interest" I grew up with.

Lest any of my few readers are excited at the prospect of a musical kid, I should really try to dampen your expectations now. Sam has trouble remember "Twinkle, Twinkle," and doesn't have such great pitch. But the hope is that maybe if he gets some exposure now he could the kids' choirs at our church in a couple of years, and I think this is our chance to get a feel for what's out there. There's a Yamaha school right near by also (they do the classes with keyboards). If I'd known they were around, I might have gone with them. On the other hand, I think Sam really thrives with some one on one, and he might do better with one regular teacher and some time just for him. The hope is that I can shift some of our evening time towards a little bit of practice. In the background I probably need to remember my non-success as a soccer/tball/baseball/kiddy French class/guitar/piano player, and just treat this as a fun experience. It's funny: I didn't take piano lessons for long, but I do remember some of the very simple songs I learned, and the class introduced me to the staff, treble, bass, etc. We'll see how this all turns out...