music lessons

Well, I had a teleconference with our OHVA teacher yesterday. She got on the computer with each girl solo to see how their skills are going in math as well. Anyway, she asked me how we like things and how its all working out, especially with music (I've done ONE lesson of their curriculum, I don't care for it much as a professionally-trained musician) She listened to my thoughts on it, and then said that she thought it may benefit my family better to have music as an attendance-only subject instead of a curriculum subject (she offered to do art that way too but honestly if I don't have curriculum for art we'll never do it lol) So now I'm free to teach music lessons how *I* want to do them. So here's my take, remember I'm approaching with a very strong musical training background.

The girls are going to listen to some of the greatest classical works of our history, as exposure and to try and create a soothing background to our lessons time. We'll enjoy works like Moonlight Sonata and Beethoven's 5th, great vocals like Ave Maria and the Hallelujah Chorus. The girls will hopefully gain a beginning of a deep appreciation for these works, and others similar to it (trust me, I have quite the collection of classical music, I think I have over 100 CDs and can play many of them as well) We'll attend outdoor concerts when weather permits, to further this exposure. We will also learn tidbits here and there on different composers, just basics at this point since they are young still. Also, if our budget allows it, we may include violin lessons when soccer season is over for the fall for Melissa. I started piano at only 2 years old, so I'm a firm believer in starting to play an instrument at a young age if they are interested. Melissa wants to learn the violin, she knows I can play it fairly well and has taken quite an interest in the group Celtic Woman, particularly the solo violinist. Lydia will tag along with appreciation at this point, perhaps taking her own lessons if we can swing that as well (mommy's going to teach the violin lessons at first until soccer is over, we're going to learn the names of each part before getting the instrument and then we'll go from there with learning to hold it and make sound and then working on rhythm, I'll let the teacher we hire teach her how to play notes and she'll learn to read music later probably just because she can't read books yet, let alone music)

So, looks like this weekend Scott and I will be taking Melissa up to Martin Music here in Newark for her very first violin. They are so cute when they are the size she needs................ lol I guess I better start looking for a teacher for her, I think I'd prefer one trained in Suzuki method but any training will work if she can scratch out a squeaky "Twinkle Twinkle" after a year of lessons (that's the problem with starting young, it takes longer to learn the basics)