I started Suzuki violin lessons this week. Again...
When our oldest,Madigan, was 3 she heard her teacher play special music in church for the first time and asked if she could play the violin. At the time Holly was in the high school girls Sunday School class I taught. She was and is a beautiful and graceful young lady whose objective is to glorify the Lord in all she does. At the time I was pleased as punch she would want to emulate Holly, but chalked up the request as a flight of fancy. What 3 year old really knows what they want long term? My first clue about how doggedly persistent this one would be should have been that she fought me for 5 weeks as I struggled to get her to breast feed! Even though I "won" in the long run I would have done well to clue in to this aspect of her personality. For 2 1/2 years she continued to express her musical desire. Why not the French horn or even the trumpet. In something brass I could instruct her. I had never even held a violin before. My college ensemble didn't even include strings.
About this time Holly became a Suzuki instructor and my excuses were nullified. She lived close, she was the example of the lady I wanted my little girl to grow to be, and she didn't care that I drug all my littles along with to the lesson. Then, as now, we had lessons every two weeks. There are two reasons for this. We need this much time to master the material and I don't want to run around more than that.
I remember the excitement of going to purchase that first little 1/4 size violin. It felt like we were so upper crust so classy. Our little girl was going to play the violin! We even went to a symphony concert beforehand -where the baby had a blowout diaper. Then the kids chose root beer when we let them pick out a special treat and they proceeded to spill its brown sticky sweetness all over the truck. The Lord has given me 6 kids for a reason. Apparently I need much humbling...
Holly's sister Carlee plays the piano. The girls decided Maliah must also play the piano to accompany Madigan just like Holly and Carlee. Our kids are required to practice their instruments daily without prompting. I don't have the energy to remind them to do something they had to beg to get me to let them do in the first place. All the same, I was unfamiliar with how much of my time the girls practicing would take. But it was all worth it to see my little girl achieve her personal goal of playing the violin during the worship service at church. The Sunday of their first duet made me grin so hard I almost laughed out loud with joyful glee!
Max has been working on us for some time now to get the little violin back out of the closet. He turned 6 last month and we decided to let him have a go at it lest we douse the flame of his musical desire. When I informed him the night before about his coming lesson he actually jumped in the air doing a fist pump with a war yelp for good measure. I have never see him as focused as last Tuesday when for a full half hour he struggled to master the bow hold. It helped me to refocus seeing the newness of it all through his eyes. Is there anything more worthwhile into which I can pour my time and attention?
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" never sounded so sweet...
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