Music Lessons

While Grannie and Gramps were up this week i made sure to get Grannie to give a music lesson to someone. Mom was the one who got my sisters and I singing and playing instruments and she always had a way to make it fun. When we first learned harmonies, she used "rounds". Mom drew pictures on little pieces of paper to remind us of our parts. I still remember my piece of paper. It had a picture of "fish and chips and vinegar" on it. Steph's had "bottles of pop" with bubbles coming from them and Paige's had "junk in my backyard" on it. We learned the round "Fish and Chips and Vinegar" in the kitchen while passing the pieces of paper around the circle and switching parts. When i was learning to play the drums and needed to practice a solid "rock" beat, mom came downstairs and got on the piano next to me and hammered out the old hymn "Power in the Blood". Not exactly a "rock" song, but it made the monotonous practicing more fun to have another instrument join in and actually make a song out of the beat that I was perfecting. As mom settled into the couch this week for the impromptu lesson with Carrie and Darren... and her 4 string banjo (!!), I noticed the song she had chosen to type out: "Power in the Blood". :) Ahh! Good times! I'm sure it was just as fun with the banjo as it was with the drums. :) Grannie is gone home now but her memory was alive and well around here the past couple days as we celebrated the new banjo chords with "rousing" renditions of that old hymn.
p.s."Rousing" meaning that I paused at every chord change and waited for Carrie and Darren to find the fingering while holding the note out until said chord was found... one day it will be truly "rousing" I'm sure... and then i think i will set up the drums and call mom up to get on the piano. Something about the banjo makes me giggle. To me, a banjo is way more rebellious than an electric guitar...or any other instrument for that matter. It's an instrument that screams unashamedly "I'm havin' the best time of my life and I don't care who knows it." There are a few instruments like that... the accordion is another one... Just so crazy loud and distinctive. You know there's a party happening when the first note rings. Interestingly enough, my mother plays both of those instruments. I'm pretty sure that she is planning on finding a set of bagpipes to learn on next.