Today, after we brought in our Yule tree, I got out the psaltery (a.k.a. the Musicmaker) and started playing carols. We sang together for awhile and then the children started clamoring for their turns to play.
"Not yet. I want to play a few more songs."
So I played through my repertoire and then Morganne played through her repertoire and then my stepson Alex (age 14, public schooled) picked up the psaltery and started playing. He asked me a few questions about the musical notes and then continued on his own.
After a while, we started playing "Name that Tune". We would bid for the number of notes we could name that tune in and then Alex would challenge the bidder by playing that number of notes. We all had a good time.
Alex spent about 3 hours with the psaltery tonight. Towards the end of his practice session, he was really seeing results and starting to get a feel for reading music.
Morganne took the psaltery to her singing class and played Silent Night for the class.
A local homeschooling family does a monthly Music Night open house, where people of all skill levels are encouraged to come and play.
I liked the suggestion to practice 15 minutes a day. I'm going to get out my Wohlfahrt (viola exercise book) and start practicing my scales and arpeggios again. In January.
Learning all the time.
Copyright © 1996 by
Heather Madrone. All rights reserved.