For our anniversary this year I gave Dave the gift of piano lessons. I signed him up for and paid for some lessons (so he couldn't "return" the gift) for his last few months of research time. It will be a long while or never when he has a chance to take time out of his day for something like this. He had been fiddling around a lot on the piano trying to learn a few songs and teaching himself some scales in some of his spare time. To be totally honest, he was sort of driving me nuts because every spare minute he had I would hear him pounding away at the piano! I decided to direct this energy towards real piano progress so I signed him up with Clare's teacher. He takes approximately two 45 minute lessons/month. Since his schedule is sporadic, his teacher has been kind enough to be flexible with setting times for him and being flexible if he has to cancel and reschedule. Dave has loved it and says it was a great gift. He is really enjoying himself. He is assigned classical music, scales and other finger exercises like hannon, and a couple of hymns each week. For the hymns, to test if they are singable his teacher makes him play while she conducts and sings along! Dave has not had much piano background so he is also learning a lot of theory and music language that he had not otherwise known.
Dave is really enjoying this musical world!
Every night when Dave is brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed he finds himself a concert pianist to listen to. One of his favorites is Beethoven Moonlight Sonata mov 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zucBfXpCA6s
He has also been reading about pianos and dreaming of the future grand piano he wants to have in our home.
He has also been reading about the history of piano and some of the composers he is interested in.
Ever since he started piano lessons and this increased interest in piano he has been more tolerant of classical music I play in the car, excitedly came to a Mozart symphony with me (previously would not have been excited about this).
It has been fun to have Dave taking lessons for Clare's sake too. She enjoys checking to make sure his fingers are curved and gets a kick out of the fact that he has lessons just like she does. He is a good example since he practices hard and likes to practice (whereas clare says she "hates piano" and doesn't always love practicing).
That is awesome!!! We're dreaming of a future grand piano here too.
ReplyDeleteTell Dave to keep up the good work. It's great that he's a good example for Clare. My David doesn't particularly like to practice either, but I can tell that watching me practice and my talking about working through hard things helps motivate him.