tashi just started taking violin lessons at school. one of her first exercises was to pluck the notes of twinkle little star. she was practicing this the other night and getting super frustrated, to the point of complete resignation. i was trying to support with nuggets of wisdom about patience and perseverance and non-anger and how some of the greatest lessons we learn in life are the ones we have to work the hardest at and, and, and. i was beginning to sound like the dad in "little miss sunshine."
dan was doing a great job, of course, at working out the musical technicalities. at some point when she was about to give up because of the weird sounds that sometimes twanged out of her violin while she was trying to play the tune, i told her to just imagine that the sounds were farts. nothing like third grade humor to change the course of things. suddenly she had a sense of humor about it, and stopped losing her mind every time a weird sound emitted from the instrument. after several attemps, she pretty much had the tune down. and she squealed, "i want to play violin all night!!!"
the next morning she was up at 5:30am practicing. and now she is at the ready with bow in hand, playing the entire song. so when ever you're feeling really stuck about words of advice to offer your child, remember that sometimes humor is the wisest choice, even if it's potty humor.
1 comment:
Something that I only learned as an adult (too late for violin, which I gave up in frustration almost immediately in 3rd grade!) is that you can't care what you sound like when you practice music!
Hopefully she can "fart" along until its less frustrating! Once I gave up trying to sound good in my recent singing work, I started to sound really good... go figure.
Post a Comment