As you all know, during this past month Troy and I have been exploring Mozart’s music together. One month ago he still loved uncatchy music. However, now he is into catchy tunes. His most recent favorite is Non piu andrai. Yay, finally!!!!
Who could blame him for liking the happy dynamic music of this aria. Recently I noticed that closer to its end, he does the make-believe “conducting”. He waves his arm, making a pointing gesture and yells out the “big notes” right before they come.
Besides it just being a cute little thing that he does, I think it would be safe to assume that he knows that music well enough to tell when those notes are coming.
He is fascinated by Andre Rieu! The way Andre Rieu plays the violin is really magic for him. He loves pretending to play the violin and does so very often. Two days ago, we stopped by at my mom’s house while she had company. One of her guests happened to be a music teacher. We started talking and I mentioned that Troy loves music, especially Gluck, Handel and Mozart.
Then I asked him to show how he plays the violin. I did not have much hope to see him doing it in front of strangers, because he is usually pretty shy to do that, (us being a lucky exception). However, the music teacher must have done something right to earn his trust!
Troy walked to the middle of the living room, lifted his left arm as if holding the violin, lifted and bent his right arm as if holding the bow and started moving it.
The music teacher was shocked, said that she never saw a 20-month-old doing things like that and praised him from the bottom of her heart.
I could tell Troy felt really happy and proud! The minute we came home, he demonstrated the same thing to his Daddy. He almost felt like he performed and was pretty excited and happy about that.
It’s been a week since Troy showed a lot of interest in the piano. He has always been interested, but recently his interest has become more focused and more mature so to speak.
He comes up to the piano and asks to open it. Once he has access to the
keybord, he pushes the keys gently, one at a time, listens to the sound that the key makes, looks at me and asks : Ah?
To which I reply by singing the note to him. Over and over again. C…D…E…He starts doing it too, by pushing the key and singing eeeeeeeeeeeeee. I know I am simplifying it. I am aware that a key is not a note. However, those are the basics: you can’t teach a toddler sharps and flats yet, right? Anyway, he loves it. He thinks it’s such a fun game! He might memorize his CDE, before his ABC.
He is fascinated by Andre Rieu! The way Andre Rieu plays the violin is really magic for him. He loves pretending to play the violin and does so very often. Two days ago, we stopped by at my mom’s house while she had company. One of her guests happened to be a music teacher. We started talking and I mentioned that Troy loves music, especially Gluck, Handel and Mozart.
Then I asked him to show how he plays the violin. I did not have much hope to see him doing it in front of strangers, because he is usually pretty shy to do that, (us being a lucky exception). However, the music teacher must have done something right to earn his trust!
Troy walked to the middle of the living room, lifted his left arm as if holding the violin, lifted and bent his right arm as if holding the bow and started moving it.
The music teacher was shocked, said that she never saw a 20-month-old doing things like that and praised him from the bottom of her heart.
I could tell Troy felt really happy and proud! The minute we came home, he demonstrated the same thing to his Daddy. He almost felt like he performed and was pretty excited and happy about that.
It’s been a week since Troy showed a lot of interest in the piano. He has always been interested, but recently his interest has become more focused and more mature so to speak.
He comes up to the piano and asks to open it. Once he has access to the
keybord, he pushes the keys gently, one at a time, listens to the sound that the key makes, looks at me and asks : Ah?To which I reply by singing the note to him. Over and over again. C…D…E…He starts doing it too, by pushing the key and singing eeeeeeeeeeeeee. I know I am simplifying it. I am aware that a key is not a note. However, those are the basics: you can’t teach a toddler sharps and flats yet, right? Anyway, he loves it. He thinks it’s such a fun game! He might memorize his CDE, before his ABC.
There is also another piano game that I made up myself and think it is pretty nice. Let’s say that every octave, going left to right, is the voice of an animal. The lowest one is the Bear. And from the Bear we travel all the way up to the Wolf, the Fox, the Bunny, the Mouse, the Baby Mouse… Once associations kick in, you can rest assured – the learning process is on!
1 comment:
You are doing incredible things with your son!
Sounds like he is very advanced for his age, but he wouldn't be if it weren't for your patience, intuition, understanding of his age and needs, creativity and passion to bring music into his life. Brava!
Beth
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