I love music! I'm saddened that I never got to play in band when I was in school. I understand my parent's point of view, and I was given many opportunities to play instruments; guitar, keyboard, harmonica. I even marched with the band in high school with my drill team. It was my failures that kept me from becoming proficient in music.
Growing up, I had such a black and white view of the world. There was a right and a wrong way to do everything. Therefore, teaching myself to play guitar was a grueling affair. It never even occurred to me to try and communicate to my parents that I could use some help mastering this instrument. I was a smart girl, I should be able to figure it out on my own.
Flash forward almost 20 years, to a day when I have 2 children of my own. A friend had given us a piano. I would sit at the piano in my down time with a piece of simple sheet music that I knew, a blank piece of sheet music that I had made and the basic knowledge that I recalled from elementary school that 'every good boy does fine' and 'face' will take up the places on that blank music sheet. I was able to teach myself to read, and then to play simple songs on the piano.
Then I got cocky! There was a song that I wanted to learn. I can't recall which song at this point, but I got the music from the library (for you youngsters out there this was before you could find everything on the internet!) and sat down on my trusty piano bench, opened the booklet with excitement ready to play something that I had always wanted to... Maybe it was a Beatles Tune?... I don't know... Anyway. I started to play, and it did not sound right at all. It took me a few minutes to figure out that it was in bass clef. I had only ever learned treble clef! Two things became clear to me right then and there!
One: I hate BASS CLEF!
Two: I have to relearn to read the music before I can play this song! This song that I had so desperately wanted to play!
THREE! THREE THINGS! I REALIZED THREE THINGS THAT DAY! MUSIC IS A LANGUAGE UNTO ITSELF!
If I had approached learning it from that angle to begin with, I probably would have been overwhelmed and never started. However, as I did some research, many of my findings show that you are using the same parts of your brain when you are learning music as when you are learning another language.
And what a beautiful language it is! And if you look at it this way, many of our children have learned at least 3 languages in their lifetime! Their first language, the second that they take in school and for those that are lucky music.
I believe that if I would have started earlier in life with an understanding of music; reading it and applying it to at least one instrument, then I would have been fluent in reading from then on, and could teach myself to play any instrument. Not without some squeaks, honks and maybe even a hernia or two, but the knowledge needed would be there. I definitely would have been able to translate that basic knowledge into the skills needed to help my children with their pursuits in music.
Luckily, they both took French as their second language.
All of this leads to a question. Most school districts have had to cut back their funding, and ultimately the arts are the first thing to go. With that in mind:
Growing up, I had such a black and white view of the world. There was a right and a wrong way to do everything. Therefore, teaching myself to play guitar was a grueling affair. It never even occurred to me to try and communicate to my parents that I could use some help mastering this instrument. I was a smart girl, I should be able to figure it out on my own.
Flash forward almost 20 years, to a day when I have 2 children of my own. A friend had given us a piano. I would sit at the piano in my down time with a piece of simple sheet music that I knew, a blank piece of sheet music that I had made and the basic knowledge that I recalled from elementary school that 'every good boy does fine' and 'face' will take up the places on that blank music sheet. I was able to teach myself to read, and then to play simple songs on the piano.
Then I got cocky! There was a song that I wanted to learn. I can't recall which song at this point, but I got the music from the library (for you youngsters out there this was before you could find everything on the internet!) and sat down on my trusty piano bench, opened the booklet with excitement ready to play something that I had always wanted to... Maybe it was a Beatles Tune?... I don't know... Anyway. I started to play, and it did not sound right at all. It took me a few minutes to figure out that it was in bass clef. I had only ever learned treble clef! Two things became clear to me right then and there!
One: I hate BASS CLEF!
Two: I have to relearn to read the music before I can play this song! This song that I had so desperately wanted to play!
THREE! THREE THINGS! I REALIZED THREE THINGS THAT DAY! MUSIC IS A LANGUAGE UNTO ITSELF!
If I had approached learning it from that angle to begin with, I probably would have been overwhelmed and never started. However, as I did some research, many of my findings show that you are using the same parts of your brain when you are learning music as when you are learning another language.
And what a beautiful language it is! And if you look at it this way, many of our children have learned at least 3 languages in their lifetime! Their first language, the second that they take in school and for those that are lucky music.
I believe that if I would have started earlier in life with an understanding of music; reading it and applying it to at least one instrument, then I would have been fluent in reading from then on, and could teach myself to play any instrument. Not without some squeaks, honks and maybe even a hernia or two, but the knowledge needed would be there. I definitely would have been able to translate that basic knowledge into the skills needed to help my children with their pursuits in music.
Luckily, they both took French as their second language.
All of this leads to a question. Most school districts have had to cut back their funding, and ultimately the arts are the first thing to go. With that in mind: