Music in the House

... music coming from the blue tent ...

Bonnie keeps pulling out her guitar for a music lesson.

I am really enjoying giving them.

I am curious as to what it is she wants to play on her guitar and about what kind of musical background she has that we can bring forward to the task.

I want her to skip learning how to pick out melodies and go right to chording, but the book she bought is meticulous about learning to read music and know which string to pluck to play a melody. 

She likes that.

So the form of our lessons continues page after page, learning the notes on every string.

There as been more music in the house: Duncan, Ceilidh, David, Gavin, Meighan and Amanda are all musicians.

And they have brought their instruments with them on their holiday.

Some of it is recorded and then comes from the tent where Ceilidh is staying.

That is a lot of fun.

... Meighan on the keyboard and Amanda with the ukulele ...

Meighan and her friend Amanda love music as well and have their own recording studio set up in their bedroom – Meighan on the guitar and Amanda is comfortable on a guitar and a bass ukulele.

... Duncan totally relaxed at his first lesson ...

Duncan told me that he would prefer to have lessons on the keyboard because he has a nice piano at home, so we were planning on starting those lessons tomorrow.

In the meantime, Bonnie put her guitar in his hands and he and I began to look at a few of the first easy guitar lessons.

Duncan took to the guitar strings like a duck to water.

He just gets it.

“They saying learning your second musical instrument is easier than the first,” he said, imitating in the air that he was playing a scale on the saxophone.

... no guitar teacher should be having this much fun ...
or
The Studio with a View

I think it is more than that.

He has always had this gift of hearing a tune one, or maybe twice and he has the shape of the song down pat.

At one point when I was doing lessons with him, Amanda and Meighan were in the room behind us, doing their own music and Ceilidh was singing full volume from the tent.

I turned to Duncan and said, “For some reason this just feels like a music studio with paper thin walls. Our job is to concentrate just like other committed musicians do.

Later in the day, Bonnie was asking me if someone has ever brought a full drum set to the house for David has one for the summer.

LtoR: Arta, Duncan, Ceilidh, Amanda, Meighan

.. Duncan hands Bonnie's guitar over to Meighan ...

I didn’t have a chance to answer her, but I do remember Sean Bates using his sticks to practise either on a pad or on the bottom of a cooking pot.

Ta dum, ta dee.

Music – good for the soul.

Arta