I have been playing music of one sort or another as long as I can remember, so it was definitely something important I wanted to share with my baby O. All the literature points to classical music being beneficial to a developing fetus, but I have to admit, poor O didn't get a lot of exposure to that in the womb. I blame my car... As an older model my musical accompaniment on the drive to work was whatever I could find on the radio, and never could find a classical music station. At all. So we had to put up with classic rock (no great sacrifice for me!), which I can belt out with the best of the drivers out there. If this comes back to haunt him in later life, I do apologise.
I suppose it only follows naturally that he still prefers classic rock to all other music... When he was just a few weeks old, I tried putting him in his bassinet next to the TV, turned on the classical music channel, and thought that I might get the kitchen cleaned while the music lulled him off to sleep. No such luck, he screamed and screamed and screamed. Chopin, Mozart, Bizet, Beethoven, Strauss, Bach, none of those fine men appealed to my little man. Zeppelin, Beatles, AC/DC, Yes, Stones, BTO, now those were some bands he could groove to, sleep to, play to, nurse to... He did, however, seem to enjoy when I would play piano for him. We got into a routine of playing piano together every night before bed, and before long he was trying to play along with me, whether it was practising Chopin one handed, or playing children's song melodies. At 9 months, he now sits alone at the piano and bangs away at the keys. He's surprisingly rhythmic, and loves reaching as far as he can up and down the keyboard. He even sings along with his own compositions, which may be one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Discordant, yes. But the kid tries!
This weekend we had our almost-5-year-old nephew over for a sleepover. O followed his cousin around, copying everything he did. One of my nephew's favourite things to do when he comes over is "play downstairs", which means play with all the instruments in the basement studio. So down we all trooped during the intermission of the Gold Medal Hockey game (because, really, that's not exciting enough for an almost-5-year-old, no matter what us silly adults might think). My nephew took up his position on lead piano, told me I needed to "keep the beat", and O grabbed his drum sticks, crawled over to the snare I'd put on the floor for him, and started happily banging away, even getting in a couple drum rolls. My husband obligingly played a few chords on his guitar, and so baby jam session was born. What a way to spend a Sunday morning, all of us in our pjs, not harmonizing in the slightest!
I love watching kids explore instruments and music, especially if, like my nephew, it's not something they get to do very often. Does it hurt my ears? You bet. But it's always worth it.
I suppose it only follows naturally that he still prefers classic rock to all other music... When he was just a few weeks old, I tried putting him in his bassinet next to the TV, turned on the classical music channel, and thought that I might get the kitchen cleaned while the music lulled him off to sleep. No such luck, he screamed and screamed and screamed. Chopin, Mozart, Bizet, Beethoven, Strauss, Bach, none of those fine men appealed to my little man. Zeppelin, Beatles, AC/DC, Yes, Stones, BTO, now those were some bands he could groove to, sleep to, play to, nurse to... He did, however, seem to enjoy when I would play piano for him. We got into a routine of playing piano together every night before bed, and before long he was trying to play along with me, whether it was practising Chopin one handed, or playing children's song melodies. At 9 months, he now sits alone at the piano and bangs away at the keys. He's surprisingly rhythmic, and loves reaching as far as he can up and down the keyboard. He even sings along with his own compositions, which may be one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Discordant, yes. But the kid tries!
This weekend we had our almost-5-year-old nephew over for a sleepover. O followed his cousin around, copying everything he did. One of my nephew's favourite things to do when he comes over is "play downstairs", which means play with all the instruments in the basement studio. So down we all trooped during the intermission of the Gold Medal Hockey game (because, really, that's not exciting enough for an almost-5-year-old, no matter what us silly adults might think). My nephew took up his position on lead piano, told me I needed to "keep the beat", and O grabbed his drum sticks, crawled over to the snare I'd put on the floor for him, and started happily banging away, even getting in a couple drum rolls. My husband obligingly played a few chords on his guitar, and so baby jam session was born. What a way to spend a Sunday morning, all of us in our pjs, not harmonizing in the slightest!
I love watching kids explore instruments and music, especially if, like my nephew, it's not something they get to do very often. Does it hurt my ears? You bet. But it's always worth it.