I love music. Classical, country, Christian, alternative, oldies - I listen to ‘em all. I sing (actually get paid for it at times), play piano, play flute, play guitar, write music, taught a choir. Like I said, big fan of music.

So, how come music is driving me to the edge of madness now?

Children learning instruments. Need I say more?

At this very moment, my eldest child is pounding the piano in a frantic way, reviewing his piano book. Bang bang BAAANNG bang bang BAANG. I have 2 choices as I see it:

  1. Tell him to stop and go play, thereby perhaps destroying a budding vocation to music and depriving the world of its next great musical genius.
  2. Endure it for now, nurture his gifts and talents, and pray he refines them quickly.

I sat in our homeschool coop’s guitar class one day. It was all I could do to stifle my laughter as the kids practiced “Blue Suede Shoes”. It sounded like a group of (not very intelligent) monkeys had been let loose in a music shop. The instructor, God bless him, encouraged them along, saying, “Look at that! You guys sound so good”! He actually meant it.

It made me appreciate my mother’s patient tolerance of my early music years and all the beginning band concerts she sat through (of course, she can’t hear real well….).

Sometimes we see people with amazing gifts and talents. What we do not see is all the practice and work it took to get there.

Behind every accomplished child is a very tired parent.

So for now, I am writing to the accompaniement of some piece from Star Wars: Bang baaang, bang, bang #%…whoops…..bang, baaaang, baang, bang, %&, whoops….

Eat your heart out, Mozart!