Sunday, July 31, 2011

Sing. Sing A Song.

I’ve started singing in church.  Now, I don’t mean singing in the choir or anything like that.  It’s just that when the congregation rises to worship in song, I actually open my mouth and make noise sing, rather than just standing there trying to look pleasant.  For me, that’s a big step.

I don’t consider myself particularly musical.   My history as a musician has consisted mostly of trying really, really hard to be adequate. 

I took piano lessons as a kid.  My mother took it upon herself to see that I practiced fifteen minutes to half-an-hour almost every day.  And through all that practice, I managed to become an adequate pianist.  There was no real inborn talent, just being taught how to play.  I did, however, take the initiative to take apart my metronome with a screwdriver.  I wanted to see how it worked.  The result of my experiment?  There were gears and stuff inside.  BRILLIANT!

I also played the flute for about five years.  Unlike piano, practicing was not a chore; I enjoyed playing the flute.  But again, any success I had was through lessons and hard work, not necessarily because of any inborn talent.  I never became an expert flautist, I simply managed to become a decent flautist.

So imagine my surprise to see how crazy about music Preschooler is.  She sings with abandon.  She pretends her Barbies are any type of wind or brass instruments.  She gathers a plethora of objects around her and uses them as a makeshift drum kit.

I showed my usual lack of parenting common sense, and bought her one of those toy instrument sets, with a drum, maracas, tambourine and jingle bells.  She hardly puts the thing down.  I even went insane for about ten minutes, and considered buying her a real child-sized drum kit.

The gift of song is uplifting.  And loud.  And sometimes grating. But mostly joyful.

8 comments:

Janie Jones said...

You must have the patience of a saint. Or you're a stark raving looney. I know my limits. In order to keep me safe from testing the boundaries of sainthood or defining the line of looniness, we have a hard and fast moratorium on battery operated &/or noise making toys. Those that are gifted mysteriously disappear...

Thankfully, the spud is happiest with a stack of coloring books, some crayons and a pair of scissors (she makes her own paper dolls). Amazing still how loud playing paper dolls can get....

Unknown said...

I know it's loud but she's having fun!! Right? I played the piano, too. I still have it. I need to play it some more and give my sons some lessons. I'll get it around to it one of these days...

Betty Fokker said...

My daughters are also music enthusiasts, like their daddy. They did not get any of it from me. No matter how much I like to lip-synch "greatest hits of the 80s", my understanding of music and singing is nada. In fact, the last time I tried to sing in church they performed an exorcism on me. Do you have any idea what it takes to get Episcopalians to do something so undignified and messy as an exorcism? Yeah. That's how bad I sing.

DB Stewart said...

Yes indeed, it mostly is (as I go reduce the volume on Eminem blasting from my teen son's bedroom).

Angela@BeggingTheAnswer said...

@Janie - Letting that first noisy toy in the house was like opening Pandora's box. Pretty soon I was up to my eyeballs in noise. Or something like that.

@Kelley - I agree! It's loud, but it keeps her occupied. I think the noise is a small price to pay.

@Betty - it seems like people in my family either have wonderful voices or terrible voices. Not much in-between. Here's to hoping my kids fall into the former, rather than the latter!

@dbs - Oh, dear, I haven't even started to contemplate where this whole noise thing will take us once they're teenagers!

Marianna Annadanna said...

I love this. Music can save a soul. I don't have a natural ability either, but I LOVE music. Luckily Hubby is a genius guitarist and he and his band will teach our kids. I'll just teach them how to sing out of key. But at least they'll know all the words.

Angela@BeggingTheAnswer said...

@Marianna - I'm in the same boat. I LOVE music, but have little talent. At least husband and I get to lots of concerts!

Ixy said...

Sasha LOVES music and tries to dance even though she just started standing. I took piano lessons up to Grade 10 Conservatory and it's quite depressing how much of it's gone - my fingers stagger around on the keys like they're drunk.

Sigh...I keep meaning to play more, but just like when I was 10, I'm always finding a reason not to practise. Then again, when I was 10, I didn't have a husband, child or full-time job. Does that count as enough of an excuse?

Singing in church is a good place to start - no one can hear you anyway (unless you're my mother, who I used to wish came with a volume control button).