We have just won a secondhand duet stool on ebay. This means I will be able to finally get around to teaching my son piano.
I have to first get back the incredibly good but very strict piano tuner who last tuned it 18 months ago. He left with prophecies of doom should we not tune it again within two months. Eek. But he knew what he was talking about.
Since we moved house the piano has been located in a far more accessible place than where it used to languish in an unused dining room.
The results have been interesting. It does sound a bit better. Very pub up the top end, but the tuner will sort that, after muttering more about neglect and very sensitive instruments and all that stuff.
My son has taught himself an entire Keane song and the entire James Bond theme, no music, no prompting. I have chosen to let him get on with it, no interfering. It's how my parents got me convinced I wanted to learn.
My theory is, let kids really enjoy working out an instrument before you pile on in with lessons.
I laughed out loud in the bath the other night as our neighbour, a bit partial to some gentle electric guitar twanging of an evening, started playing the Bond theme.
It was either subliminal or deliberate, but whatever, it really did make me laugh.
My son's rhythm is impeccable (much better than twangey man)his phrasing intuitive and so I'm really looking forward to introducing him to using all his fingers, two thumbs, and seeing what happens when I join in. And if the neighbour joins in too it'll be a right session.
3 comments:
'Pub' - what a perfect description. My parents have one (not a pub but a pub piano) and no amount of tuning ever rendered it pleasing to the ear.
To have a son possessed of a sense of rhythm is a fine thing indeed. My housemate is a piano teacher in a tiddlers school and she gets truly weighed down by the inability of some to simply count or feel a pulse.
What a lovely 'win'. I hope you both have fun.
Fluttertongue and cusp thanks. Still need to get hold of the piano tuner, but am putting it off as I know he's going to be displeased. Wish I could do it myself, but think that would be a bit ambitious...
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