We are beginning to wade into the world of musical instruments and lessons, with just a little trepidation. Okay, that's a lie, with lots of trepidation.
You see, J got to sign up for some after-school activities this year, and he decided to go for two: baseball and ukulele. But then baseball turned out to be just too hot for him (it was still really, really warm when the activities began and he was just not interested in being that hot, which I completely understand). And he has really, really enjoyed ukulele. J loves music, actually; he likes to sing and has really good pitch and he can sing back any tune he hears. But he doesn't know how to read music yet, of course, and we do want him to play something in the near future, but I'm not sure he's quite ready for piano, nor do we have a convenient piano teacher friend around as we have often had in the past.
So we got J an ukulele for Christmas. And he really likes it! He and the husband have even played a few impromptu duets with the husband's guitar. I think they are going to put together a number for a little musical get-together at our neighbor's house next month. I got him an instructional song book as well, and he has already taught himself several more chords than the three he learned at school. We also went and got a cute little stand for him (a fun trip that required us to track down an obscure music store in the middle of the city that turned out to be a musical paradise). The ukulele itself was a boot sale find here, virtually untouched, the exact model I was looking at on Amazon, owned by a tween who couldn't wait to unload it for next to nothing even while he was trying to convince his mom that these very well used video game figurines were worth way more than I thought any one would ever pay. His loss, my and J's gain! It's even green!
But we are still on the fence about piano lessons. J likes to teach himself things and really, really doesn't like to get things very quickly, so I worry that the piano will be too frustrating for him right now. So I think we will wait for a bit, for all our sakes!
You see, J got to sign up for some after-school activities this year, and he decided to go for two: baseball and ukulele. But then baseball turned out to be just too hot for him (it was still really, really warm when the activities began and he was just not interested in being that hot, which I completely understand). And he has really, really enjoyed ukulele. J loves music, actually; he likes to sing and has really good pitch and he can sing back any tune he hears. But he doesn't know how to read music yet, of course, and we do want him to play something in the near future, but I'm not sure he's quite ready for piano, nor do we have a convenient piano teacher friend around as we have often had in the past.
So we got J an ukulele for Christmas. And he really likes it! He and the husband have even played a few impromptu duets with the husband's guitar. I think they are going to put together a number for a little musical get-together at our neighbor's house next month. I got him an instructional song book as well, and he has already taught himself several more chords than the three he learned at school. We also went and got a cute little stand for him (a fun trip that required us to track down an obscure music store in the middle of the city that turned out to be a musical paradise). The ukulele itself was a boot sale find here, virtually untouched, the exact model I was looking at on Amazon, owned by a tween who couldn't wait to unload it for next to nothing even while he was trying to convince his mom that these very well used video game figurines were worth way more than I thought any one would ever pay. His loss, my and J's gain! It's even green!
But we are still on the fence about piano lessons. J likes to teach himself things and really, really doesn't like to get things very quickly, so I worry that the piano will be too frustrating for him right now. So I think we will wait for a bit, for all our sakes!
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