We live near a music school which constantly puts on recitals to seduce parents who harbour fantasies of raising little Mozarts whenever their kid starts plonking on piano keys.
I am afraid that I am one of those suckers!!!
I can’t quite recall how I got sucked into paying for piano lessons (RMB80/hour) for the kid, which lasted for only a month because I got such a heavy load that I couldn’t accompany him for the lessons. He would be too tired also at the end of a school day to practise at the music school.
In the end, the little rascal said that he couldn’t understand what the Chinese teacher was saying and he said that I should take the piano lessons instead so that I could be his piano teacher!
Well, I did take a few piano lessons and TOTALLY enjoyed them that I even bought myself a book on piano theory (in English) but I’ve been too busy lately that I have not called up my piano teacher. 
Recently, I asked if he’d like to pick up the piano lessons again but he said no. He told me that he wanted to learn the drums (definitely not!!!), the violin or the trombone. Aha!
When I told him that nobody could teach the trombone, he said, “Ok, violin.” as I’d asked him if he wanted fish or meat!
The painful part about private music lessons is that it’s now RMB100/hour (Ouch!!! I am paying for them ok) and I’ve had to buy him his own violin, a spare set of violin strings and 2 music books which cost me RMB791.
You can imagine the lecture I gave him all the way back home, “Hey, the violin is very expensive, ok? You must concentrate and listen to what the violin teacher says and you CANNOT change and tell me, Mummy, I want to learn the piano.”
“Ok, ok, you told me that already. How many times do you want to tell me? I know I cannot change.”
I was breathing out $$$ because he learned the following in the 45 minute class:
a) how to stand
b) how to hold the violin, the parts of the violin
c) how place his fingers correctly on the bow (thumb and middle finger directly opposite each other)
d) the notes / keys of the 4 strings
d) how to sing do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do and do, ti, la, so, fa, mi, re, do
I think the first lesson went quite well although he was quite un-cooperative during the earlier part, leaving the violin teacher to think that he’s a stubborn and spoilt brat.
He would also make SO MANY comments during the lesson e.g. telling me that if you changed “W” to “NE”, you’ll spell “BONE”, his arm was tired, his jaw hurt and whether he could take the violin home.
To assure the violin teacher that he wasn’t an idiot, I told her that he loves drawing (he insisted on drawing the 5 lines and God knows what other things she was teaching since they had their backs turned to me) and that his Maths was great.
She was suitably impressed with the monkey.
Then, she asked him to sing the Do, Re, Mi as she struck the notes on the piano but he refused. Grrr….I’d just paid RMB800 for the violin!!!
She decided to try singing the notes together and then he’d do it alone. BOTH of us had to clap when he finally did it.
She left the room to take something and he rushed over to me, asking me where is “Do” on the piano? I showed him and he used his index finger to strike all the 7 notes AND sing them loudly AND then in reverse order. He did it again and again until the violin teacher returned and she was happy.
We have hope!
Then, she showed him how to store the violin in its case and how he could wear the violin like a backpack.
He couldn’t wait to “play” with the violin again but I warned him that he must NOT touch the horse tail hairs on the bow and that he MUST close the room door whenever he wanted to take the violin out because our little Destroyer will definitely damage the musical instrument.
He seemed to enjoy the music lesson and I was thankful that one of my American colleagues who played the guitar at the Christmas party chatted with him about the guitar and making music.
Isn’t it great? So different from meeting the typical kiasu person who’d only know how to bombard a kid with stupid questions / comments like:
a) How many songs can you play?
b) You can’t play any songs yet? I thought you’re learning the violin! You know, my boy could already play 10 songs after he started his first violin class yadda yadda yadda
Now that we’re on to violin lessons (although I suspect that he’s still attracted to the piano), maybe I should get a report engine. That way, I’d be able to keep track of his progress and help him if needed.
I just pray that he’ll love the violin and stick to it. Anyway, I hear that this violin teacher is good with kids so I hope that she’ll be able to work her magic on my talkative tornado!!!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
it#s nice that you are staying near a music school .. ah.. my girl wants to learn violin too, influenced from little einsteins, I think .. but her papa kind of disapproves her playing violin, he said, not good wo … so she will stick with piano … perhaps when she is older and still interested in violin, we will just let her learn it ..
Chew Lee – I wish that he’d learn the piano too but he seems to prefer the violin. So far, so good…
Yiu Yiu actually asked for violin but due to her size, her music teacher advised that it’s best that she starts on violin when she’s a bit older and taller. She’s learning piano now, and seems to be enjoying it so we’ll see if she’s still interested in violin in future.
A Mom’s Diary – Having endured a month’s lessons, I think that girls would find either the violin or the piano enjoyable.
Learning to play the violin is more difficult than the piano because he needs to maintain a “correct” posture and position that it feels feels so much like ballet!
I’m very much a Tiger Mother when it comes to practice (lots of threats and rewards) but he is quite pleased when he does it right and the sound comes out nice.
Will keep this up as long as BOTH of us want to do it. :S