Every good boy deserves..
Although p-man and I spent months, nay years.. count 'em 14 years together and 9 years of marriage pre-baby available to talk out our plans and expectations of ourselves as parents, our offspring as people, etc. etc. so little was really covered.
A recent argument arose around music lessons, for example. Me, I will never pay for 'guitar lessons' -- anyone who wants them can pay for them on their own. I will not buy an amp for anyone EVER! And, I will not fork out for singing lessons, either. I come from slightly musical folk, but we are all choir and band people. I believe that music is a social activity, piano lessons count as potential sign up for a Wo-kid, all those programs and competitions and stuff, that's social! What I refuse to do is fund the lonely guitarist types. You won't get me to invest in vehicles for the brooding of my offspring which I expect to be considerable.
P-man has already gotten e started on his kit. He wants me to agree to a name change: Billy Cobham. No daughter of mine, I say, will be called Billy Cobham! What about Sheila e? he asks, ducking the knives.
Disclaimer
Perhaps, this is somewhat coloured by the fact one of our best friends is currently living the slacker utopia, crouched in a palatial family home, with popcorn, buds, and a Gibson hollow-body, playing the most delicate and taciturn scales a jazz guitarist can turn out right now. Allloooooone, so alooone.
posted by mo-wo at 12:01 a.m.
6 Comments:
Andres Segovia?
No, probably not.
heh, much as guitar-playing does make me nuts, I figure - having been the victim, er, recipient of enforced piano lessons after being yanked from ballet classes I loved - that Pumpkinpie will get some say in what lessons she takes. She can pick a couple, maybe one active and one artsy, or maybe something that combines the two.
Misterpie was also subjected to years of overprogramming and lessons he never wanted to the point that he started getting stomachaches before one much-hated session. I just can't do that to a kid. Ech. But I would like to give her the opportunity to pursue something she likes, so I hope to find a comfortable middle ground. We'll see!
My recent victory was steering my daughter away from her nascent interest in Irish dancing (...shudder...) into karate lessons.
We have the piano ready to go for when Chicky is old enough to do something other than bang on the keyboard (which we encourage. Can't stomp her flow.). However, we also have a couple of acoustic guitars and one (gasp) electric with a teensy, weensy amp. What can I say? Its a throw back from my youth. With that said, my parents didn't pay for lessons for me and, apparently, I was too much of a slacker to teach myself.
The moral of this story? I have no friggin' idea. Sheila E. snicker
I just read a funny David Sedaris essay on his guitar lessons. It's in the book "Me Talk Pretty One Day." Hilarious. Definitely stay away from them. Flute or piccolo all the way, they're the easiest one to carry in marching band.
Having been exposed to the angst of one too many tortured artist/musician friends (yes, all in Vancouver, a place that grows the type like mushrooms) I am totally with you on this. Husband, however, has a much more Kum-bay-yah (sp?) view of the guitar (many a campfire singalong in his outdoorsy past) and so hauls out the acoustic regularly to serenade WonderBaby, who (thankfully? unfortunately?) views it as a great big drum that is best enjoyed with a bang.
Flute, piccolo - much better.
Post a Comment
<< Home