The point of music

Interesting comment that on cello not being suitable for playing as a solo instrument.  As a 'cellist' who regularly attends cello recitals for solo cello and who delves into Bach's Cello Suite in order to come back to calm and normality, I'd have to disagree.  But be that as it may, I would say that the whole point of music is that it is a communal expression of something.  Scientists, musicologists, anthropologists, researchers of every ilk from time to time try to throw up something "peer reviewed" with lots of ginormous words to tell us just why music exists.  Heavens above - just listen to a beautiful piece of music, or better still play or sing it with a group of fellow enthusiasts and you'll understand in your soul, a part where the brain is stilled for a few nano-seconds.

Even Whales get it.  So why must we over-analyse it all?

Back to the question of the cello.  And viola for that matter.  In our home it is not really treated as a solo instrument.  Sure they play their own pieces, and practise along their progression.  But Suzuki definitely encourages group classes and performances from the word go.  At home my kids love to play duets with each other - especially handy when the enthusiasm and motivation for playing along is lagging, I play piano or cello with them, or the 3 of us do a trio.  My daughter plays in an ensemble at Suzuki and in the school orchestra.

The reason that I've always actively and passively discouraged playing the piano in our home although we have a beautiful 120 year old piano with a gorgeous sound, is exactly that I want them to actively participate in music making WITH other people with instruments that easily and naturally lend themselves to that.

Why don't they sing in choirs?  Well, my daughter's voice is fair to ok, but she's never taken much of an interest. My son has the most gorgeous voice with an incredible range, but it is the failing of his current music teacher that she can't get over the fact that he's not able to read the songs in chinese without pinyin (something he told me in tears as we went through his report and I asked him why she said he couldn't sing in tune), and she can't get over his behaviour to find the wonderfully musical child underneath it all. Her failing.  If we were elsewhere he'd be a boy soprano in a choir.  I can't fight all battles at the same time.

Oh, and another wonderful thing about music - they also get the chance to use it expressively.  My son's favourite part of practise is when I say he can play his own songs that he thought up all by himself.  They're beautiful.  My daughter recently composed a rather pretty little piece about the planet mercury.  Music is such fun.

Learning the cello

I received this email and thought more people may be interested:


Dear Gweipo,

From reading your blog, I learned that your daughter is taking cello lesson and have become quite proficient in it.  My daughter has expressed interest in taking lesson.  My husband and I are clueless in music so we have a few questions:

1) Where does your daughter take lesson and at what age did she start? Did she have experience with other instrument before?
2) Did you buy or rent the instrument in the beginning?
3) What are the levels in Cello?  I saw that your daughter had a cello graduation a few weeks ago.  What does that mean and how long does it take her to get there?
4) How long does it take to produce relatively good sounds? String instrument is rather difficult in the beginning. Unlike the piano, string takes longer time to produce relatively tolerable sounds :-)

Sorry for so many questions.  Thank you very much in advanced.


Here goes


1) She started aged about 5 1/2 with a private teacher as there was no suzuki cello in HK at that point.  In September she switched to Suzuki music school in Wanchai.  She had no experience before, but we regularly listen to classical music and took her to concerts.  I play the piano and cello, so she decided on cello based on that.
2) We've always rented the instrument from HK Strings.  They have very nice instruments at a reasonable cost. I'm against kids playing with cheap horrid instruments as it puts them off and sounds terrible.
3) We've never gone for grades and exams, but Suzuki has a book method, there is book 1-8, and each time you finish a book you invite your family and friends to hear you play through the book and then you "graduate" from that book
4) There are some rather nice graphs on how long it takes to make a nice sound (I'm about to catch a plane so I'll dig them out when I get back) ... it boils down to regular practise. By that I mean every day.  Every single day.  Even if you just pick up the instrument to play one song.  I'd say it took about a year to play some simple songs so it was tolerable for the audience.


The cello is a wonderful instrument and I'd recommend it to anyone! Child or adult.


Anyone able to add anything to this?

assessment

We're off to Singapore tomorrow so R can be assessed for his suitability for his potential new school in Singapore.  His sister was accepted unconditionally.  They're worried about his ability to read / write / spell / comprehend in English with the interference of two other languages.  I guess when they look at his school report and look at her school report, it looks like he's largely failing.  Which isn't strictly true, since besides Chinese and Wushu, he's actually just sliding in there slightly on or under grade level.  Whereas she's just way beyond anything and everything expected.  Something that was yet again highlighted when I suddenly realised today that their school reports had been issued last week and I'd neglected to have a look at them (one of the advantages of the paperless school).

Except in art, he's an average student.  In art he's excellent.  Except in Chinese, he's an average student.  In Chinese he's a disaster.

And here is a picture by my little Pollock, who spent a rainy Sunday with us at Art Jamming, throwing and dribbling and getting intimate with paint and canvas.  ( Just in case you're wondering, yes he does know about Pollock, who he's been learning about at school, so this was a deliberate attempt at imitating him rather than just a 7 year old throwing paint randomly!)

you didn't flunk - don't bash yourself up about it

The other day I was approached by a lady who, when hearing my kids went to ISF, unloaded her burden.  Her son hadn't been accepted at ISF and it was all the fault of her husband and herself.  He'd done just fine, so fine in fact that they'd got around to the 'final round' the parent interview.  And then she just wasn't prepared enough and she'd not properly answered how they'd support his Chinese at home, and she'd neglected to emphasize the fact that she spoke the language and and and ...

I listened to all this, and the fact that she was taking him to Taiwan for an intensive language camp and that she'd supplement his schooling with extra Chinese all of the coming school year and then try again for grade 1.  There was another chap standing close by.  He admitted that his son had in fact been admitted, but they'd turned the place down.  He and his wife had decided that it wasn't the best place for his son and had opted for a more relaxed environment, and would give his child the Chinese at a more relaxed pace.

I pleaded with her.  Please don't beat yourself up about this.  It's not your fault and you haven't ruined your son's life.  In fact this could be the best thing that's happened to him.  From what I can tell the admissions process at any school is rather a ridiculous process and hardly what one could call scientific.  All I can say is that some good kids don't get accepted, so mediocre kids do, but who the hell honestly can tell how a 4 or 5 year old will turn out after a 20 minute observation?  I then told how we'd gone through the assessment twice and had been finally admitted, and now, 2 years later, somewhat regret that we'd tried to change fate.  That all that we hold dear comes at a cost, but that cost is not stamped onto the object of our desire up front like in a supermarket.  Rather that it's insidious and creeps up on you and slowly can strangle you like an out of control creeper.

Yes, bilingualism is a wonderful thing.  It's a noble goal and an admirable quest.  Yes it should be possible, probably, attainable.  But it's not a race.  And it should destroy everything in its path.

Yes, ISF is a wonderful school and it's doing something very special, and it's pretty unique.  But its also very tough and relentless.  And it's not for every child in its current form and version.  That doesn't mean your child is any less of a wonderful person, that you're not great parents and that the future is doomed.  Even if it feels like it right now.

My last comment to her, which I hope she took in the spirit it was said, is that if I've learnt anything from the last two years, it is this "be careful of what you wish for, as you may get it"

So, if there are any others of you out there who want consolation on your rejection, please drop a comment.  And I'll tell you too that it will be fine.  It really will.  It may even be better than fine.