MUSIC TO MY EARS...

I watched a great movie this weekend, "August Rush". If you haven't seen it, you should. Juan and I both really enjoyed it and someday my kids will too. It is about this boy who hears the music all around us, and how we are all connected through the thread of sounds. It was brilliantly scored, the way they entwined all the different kinds of music into one. I was completly taken in, and it led me to thinking....

Something has been off in our home for a few months now. I couldn't pin it down until recently,
and then, a few days ago, I knew. The kids were at the kitchen counter working on their homework
and I noticed how quiet it was. Quiet is good (especially during homework) but this was too quiet.
And then I knew. The music, it was missing. I walked over and pushed the power button to the stereo
and just loud enough to make it out, came the sounds of soft jazz. It was a song we all recognized instantly and Niko smiled and said, "Oh cool, soft jazz." (and then like a DJ) " 94.7!" " We haven't heard this since the 3rd grade, mom. I'm glad you turned it back on." I knew he meant it and he was right. Summer came, homework went, and so did the sounds of the saxophone and clarinet. We always listened to this station during homework. Why then, when 4th grade started did we not notice this part of the routine was missing? The absence of sound wasn't noticed until the silence was screaming at us.

We all love music in our family. For Juan, it is the sounds of the 80's. For me, it is the 70's, although
I love mostly all music and I wanted our kids to not necessarily love all of it, but at least recognize the differences and respect them. I started them off early by changing the CD's in the car out every so often for new ones with everything from Tony Bennett to Barney. By the time they were two we were knee deep in Barney's "I love you" songs, when I noticed one day as I strolled them through the mall, that Niko was rocking back and forth in his stroller. I looked around, saw nothing but then I heard it, there was a song playing on the overhead and Niko was rocking in perfect rhythm. He could HEAR the music before anyone eles. When he was three, he asked for a drum set he saw at Target. We are convinced this was God because nobody had even shown him what he could do with drums. By the age of six, he was playing like he was a rock star! He was developing his own taste as well. I had Garth Brooks on in the car and we were about the fourth song into the CD when Niko said out of the mouths of babes, "Mommy, um, I don't know why but, when we listen to this kind of music, it makes me feel stupid." I cracked up and said, "Well, that's okay. What you need to do is write your own songs and fill the radio with something that makes you and me, and everyone else, feel smart!" "I can do that?" "Yes! You CAN do that!" (and he does!)

Lauren's love for music is true but she doesn't like the discipline of it all. She blew her teacher away last year with an entire booklet of songs she had written herself for the piano. But ask her to sit down and nail a piece for a recital and she will resist like a cat to a bath. She CAN nail it, but only when she feels inspired to--which is crazy-making for her teacher (and her mother!). But, I must say, I love hearing her tinker around with her keyboard when she is truly lost in the moment. Her real love though is singing. She can hear any song once and know the lyrics forver after that. She sang with our cities children's choir and was filled with happiness. She sings while she's putting the dishes away, and then solos in the school musical while those around us are moved to tears--all with humble joy. Then yesterday, someone asked what she would like for her birthday. She smiled and said, "Music. Always music."

So where did all the sound go in our home over the past few months? Well, Niko's drum teacher went off to Japan on tour for the summer, and when he came back we kinda procrastinated this time on getting him a spot again on Freddie's roster--then realized we couldn't work out a time that worked for all of us. Lauren
dropped piano after a few years because she decided she wanted to study guitar this year. Then, the teacher we had planned on, in the end, couldn't take on any new students right now. So, no tickling of the ivorys
while I am making dinner, and no base drum and top hat sounds to listen to while I empty the
dryer, and I can FEEL the void, and that is not okay.

Being the problem solver I am, I must find this thread, this golden lyrical thread, that binds this family of mine and begin weaving us, once again, a song. The jazz will go on again during homework, we will find new music teachers for drums and guitar, I need to ask Daddy to share his Ipod downloads with us this weekend (he has some really cool songs on there), and I think I will put my Patsy Cline CD in the car and introduce the kids to an old country great (maybe Niko will come around after all!). Oh--and the tryouts list came home today for the new Christmas musical, and Lauren is already giddy about auditions! But most of all, I need to remember the words of August Rush, "The music is out there, EVERYWHERE. We just have to listen..."