Music Lessons Near Me
I was looking for a photo of me playing with my children, but found these first. Both my kids loved singing. We didn’t do enough of that! They were always noticeably very happy when singing. Jenna grew up to use her music with her acting performances.
If you are looking for music lessons, come on in! Future blogs will often discuss music lessons that I have painted to express visually. I have listened to over 20 years of music lessons. I grew up taking flute lessons, and playing in my school band and orchestra. I taught music lessons at the local music store for a few years. My senior year of high school, I was proud to win the orchestra award. I played a little bit in an orchestra for a small opera company when I went to UC Berkeley for an engineering degree. I played duets with a friend in grad school when I went to Cornell for a Masters in Engineering. I loved bringing my flute on back packing trips into the mountains. And thru the years, I mostly played for myself. When I had two kids, I started them both on Suzuki music lessons at ages 3 (my daughter on violin) and 4 (my son on piano). Both my children were very good at music (and most everything actually). I eventually had both my kids also take jazz lessons on their instruments. Though, it was hard to find jazz lessons for violin, so my daughter’s jazz was late and short lived. I could go on about what worked and what didn’t and why, but that is for another day.
I would love to hear comments on this: Did your kids pick their own instrument, or did you pick one for them to start with? Was there any discussion at all if they wanted to play a different instrument?
Back to my music background. I grew up in a musical family. My younger brother is a musician based in Berlin, Germany. He became extremely creative with his career in order to make a living as a musician. As for me, several years after my younger child left home, I noticed a music club advertised in the newspaper. At first, I was put in with a group of musicians playing their 2nd instruments. Socially, it was great (but I didn’t actually start practicing again for number of more years). Then I was in a flute quartet. This didn’t get me practicing much, because flute quartet music generally isn’t so exciting. Again, I loved the new friendships. Then one day, someone that joined the music club invited me to be in a new community orchestra. “I said to the invitee, “Are you sure?!” This was the most exciting thing that happened to me since I had given birth. I had a leap in my step every single day. For a flute player to be in an orchestra is amazing, since they only let a few in. I had never even tried to be in one because flute players in orchestras rarely give up their places as they may never get the opportunity again. (And this is a university town with many flute degree graduates living locally.) This is when I started practicing again after all these years. I was told that I couldn’t be in an orchestra with my old student flute that I had for forty years, so my Mom, who was now in her late 80’s and living with me bought me a semi professional flute as a gift. I practiced long and hard, and started taking flute lessons again with an amazing teacher. (Again, more for another day!) I learned so many things that I had never been told before. I believe when I was growing up, and taking lessons, I was given music exercises and told to correct my counting or fix whatever needed improving, but never was I told methods of practicing. Or at least if I was, it was mostly unmemorable.
Meanwhile, my 88 year old mother wanted to take dance, then art classes at the local senior center. Actually, not so local - a 25 minute drive. So when I took her, I just stayed and danced and painted with her! It took me a while to warm up to wanting to paint, but once I did, people wanted to purchase much of my work! Soon I was in the local Hallmark store with my prints and note cards. Now my work is in the Nashville and San Francisco Symphony Gift Shops, Music Stores around the country… A large body of my work involves painting practice tips from music lessons, either new (to me) tips, or tips that I have heard over and over expressed in so many different ways by a number of fine music teachers. I like using bright happy colors and humor for my paintings. I have always been interested in children’s educational materials, so this endeavor “suits me to a T”! (I made and obtained a whole lot of children’s educational materials for my kids when they were young.)
