A Musical Life

Growing up, I was always drawn to music. I sung all the time (and still do, actually), and I've always paid a lot of attention to lyrics. But I didn't grow up in a household that encouraged me to play or explore the idea of creating my own music. I never played an instrument. I never even sung in a chorus.

I'm trying very hard to remedy that situation when it comes to my children. I don't intend to be the sort of parent who forces them to learn an instrument, or to endure hours of lessons designed specifically to thwart their love of music and kill their creativity. But it is a goal of mine to create a musical household that will encourage them to explore different instruments and lets us see what comes about organically.

Already Isabel has shown an impressive aptitude for music. She knows the full lyrics to tons of different songs, and plays* the little guitar we gave them for their birthday every day. She begged us to buy her a capo, so after a few days of extra-good behaviour, she got her wish. The other day, I woke up to her singing and playing a song of her own composition. It's pretty freakin' adorable!

*note: when I say "playing" I generally mean making noise with the guitar, strumming and moving her fingers around. I think she's still a bit young to be trying to learn actual chords, but Jon's tried teaching her a few...

Here's a video of her first cover song (Sky, by Josh Radin):



A couple of months ago, we took the kids to a children's talent show, just so that they could see other kids onstage creating music. It was very cool to see young people so passionate about making music (and some of them were incredibly talented!). The experience inspired us to go buy a keyboard to add to our collection of instruments. I've been trying to learn how to play, and both twins love to press the notes and explore the different sounds that they can create.