February 17, 2005 - Thursday
I spoke with the music school, the music store, and the cello teacher and no one said I was crazy to give a three year old cello lessons, at least so long as I wasn't expecting very fast progress. So yesterday we went back to the music store to pick up the 1/10th size cello and today Jeremy had his first cello lesson. He didn't actually play the cello in the lesson, but he did learn how to sit with it, hold it, and a hug. I think Jeremy really enjoyed it, although he said at bedtime that he "wanted to play the cello in the lesson." Still, it was all a lot of fun really, even if it was completely ridiculous and crazy to spend the money when his fingers aren't even strong enough to hold the bow properly or press down the strings. But he's just so darn cute with it and excited about playing the cello. How could I not be a sucker for that? The smallest chair we could find at the school (in the picture) was too big, so I'll have to find our make him a smaller one. The pin of the cello was stiff and didn't come out so I put his lunch box under it to make it tall enough. The yellow paper on the floor has an outline of Jeremy's feet in apart "cello feet" position and together "bowing feet" position. Jeremy picked that up right away (and later demonstrated a wonderfully deep, feet together bow for his mother who arrived for a picnic dinner between Jeremy's cello lesson and Harry's drum lesson).

And that might be our routine for the next several Thursday evenings. Harry, taking note of Jeremy's interest in music lessons and perhaps the fact that we might (and did) get to take home a cello, decided he did want to learn to play the drums after all. I've been saying for several months that if Harry really wanted to learn to play the drums and not just bang, I would get him a drum set. Now he's ready and he's taking lessons, too. Interestingly, while Jeremy's teacher seemed to encourage me being in the room with her and Jeremy (perhaps just as a translator), Harry's teacher, Abe, did not (I took this picture through the door window on my way back to the lobby) . That's fine and probably right for these two boys. Jeremy is less self-conscious than Harry and he thinks about me being there it's probably just an encouragement to do well. For Harry it would probably be a distraction.


Comments, Opinions?