In
the past I’ve posted on Matthew’s learning to play the piano.He was so cute at his first recital when he
was six years old.And then when he was learning on his own I
posted his playing of Für Elise.Since the summer however he has been taking lessons and has gotten good.
His
piano teacher recorded him playing this piece, “Sleeping Louts” by a Dutch
composer, Joep Beving.Here is Matthew playing, but you will catch
his piano teacher’s voice at the beginning and end.
Not
bad! The piece has such a contemplative feel to it. Matthew selected it himself to learn. He seems drawn to contemplative music. This is going to count as both a Matthew Monday and a Music Tuesday entry!
Ever
since Matthew could pick things up and play with musical toys, I seemed to see
musical talent in him. He always seemed
to love to sing. I gave him musical toys
which he seemed to enjoy making coordinated sounds. I gave him my harmonica, which he seemed make
songs with. I gave him a recorder, and
though he hasn’t learned the notes yet, he seems to play like he knows what he’s
doing. I bought him a ukulele from a yard sale, and he loves strumming it. Of course I got him a key board
and we tried learning on our own, but that’s rather difficult, mostly because I
can’t play. However, he loved to make
believe he was a pianist and playing concerts for me. With all that I was intent to get him into a
music class.
I
finally found a music lesson place for children, a class where children and
parents interact as the child learns. It’s
at the local JCC, but the unfortunate thing was that a beginner’s class ran
after school when I was at work. There
was one that I could just make but it was for a stage above beginners, and they
allowed Matthew to join since he seemed to be bright.
After
six months, the children had a mini recital.
Besides singing and dancing for the guests, they had to play a song on
the piano. Here is Matthew playing a song
out of his music book called “Dinosaur Dreams.”
The woman is Leah (I don’t know her last name) his music teacher, who I
have to say is remarkable in her patience with the children.
The
thing of it is that he played it flawlessly at home earlier that
afternoon. Still considering he’s
playing with both hands and shifting chords, it’s not bad for just six months
of lessons.
