Music Lessons

Yesterday, Sword's music teacher made a house call. It was very kind of her to do this and goes way above and beyond the call of duty. Normally, I have a sitter with Bow when I take her to her piano lesson, which takes place every Wednesday afternoon. But this week Lawrence's wife is away at a conference, and he has to stay home and take care of the baby. So he can't sit with Bow while Sword has her piano lesson.

The music teacher came to the pen to say hi to me and Bow before she went off to teach Sword. She and Bow have already met, as I consulted with her once on a different musical matter. Then she and Sword started their lesson in the interior of the house, and Bow listened, entranced, to every note they played. (I could hardly hear the music myself, but Bow has much better hearing than I do.)

At dinner last night, Bow had this to say: "I'm mad at the music lady."

"Why?"

"Because she didn't teach Bow."

Sword said: "Oh, come on, Bow, you wouldn't have studied. You just wanted to play with her."

Bow agreed: "Yes."

It's not that I haven't tried to get him music lessons. Bow enjoys music, and he even claims that he can sing better than I can, which, of course, isn't saying much. Back when he was three, I tried to get him to learn how to play the recorder under the tutelage of a well known flautist, Bettine Clemen. I got him a cheap plastic recorder, and it was my hope that he would follow her instructions. "Blow! Blow!" we all encouraged him. He did seem to be blowing into the recorder, but no sound was coming out. Then we saw that he had already cracked open the whole back side of the recorder!

We tried other things. Kazoos, harmonicas, toy pianos ... Nothing really worked. Eventually, we switched to drums. There is even a video of Bow playing the drums while Bettine Clemen plays the flute.

But even drums can be destroyed. Nowadays, if Bow want to drum along with a musical piece, he can always bang in time on the grid of his pen.