Music Lessons

Music lessons have been up and down the last several years. Zion started playing piano with Sis. Joanna P. when he was 6. He played for a few years with her (I don’t remember exactly how many) and then she quit because she was going to have a baby. So he went without a teacher for a couple of years. Then we decided to try “Learn and Master Piano” DVD series. That worked for a few months but then we quit that because of the choice of songs that were required to play. Then in 2012 we finally got going again. Sis Rachel C. started teaching Zion, Glorianna and Azariah. Glorianna decided she didn’t like it and that it was too hard after a few months, so I pulled her out. Azariah continued for about 2 years then he switched to Guitar. He’d been wanting to do guitar for a while anyway but we just never went with it. Well Sis Rachel’s husband, Levi, started teaching guitar so we let Azariah take lessons with Levi while Zion was taking with Rachel. This worked out very well. Two at the same time sure saved me an extra trip to town. Zion really took off under Rachel’s teaching. He learned to play songs that we could actually sing to, so thus our “Specials Piano Player” was born. Rachel and Levi taught for about 2 years, then guess what….yup…Rachel had to quit because she was getting ready to have a baby. Sigh…. So Levi also stopped teaching. My kids were once again without a teacher.

About a year ago, Glorianna decided she really wanted to learn to play mandolin. One of the young sisters in our church started giving lessons, so we signed Glorianna up. Glorianna has really picked it up well. She’s been doing lessons about a year now and does very well.

We also learned about 6 months ago that a young brother from Georgia (Timothy R.) gives piano lessons via facetime. So we contacted him and he started teaching Zion. He has really challenged Zion with some tough songs, but it has been very good for him. So that is going very well. We aren’t sure if Timothy will be able to keep teaching too much longer. He has just finished collage and will be getting a job soon. So if he can’t make his job and teaching work, he’ll have to stop teaching. If that happens, I think we are done with teachers for Zion. He’s been playing a total of 9 years and he’s learned a lot.

Zion also decided he would like to start teaching piano himself. So we talked to one of the families whose son was also one of Sis Rachel’s students, and she now bring him over once a week for Zion to work with. This seems to be going well. It’s been a month and both Zion and Ben seem to be enjoying themselves. This is very good for Zion. It makes him think and teaches him patience. Things that have always been easy for him aren’t necessarily easy for someone else.

I told Zion if he wanted to practice on Glorianna, he could see if he liked teaching a beginner. Both of them are fine with this. Glorianna has shown interest in wanting to play piano again anyway. Her first lesson was today. We’ll see how things go. If Zion keeps this up, he’ll get a nice little savings built up. Which is good because he wants to buy a cello next and learn to play that. (It just keeps on going…)

We found another young sister in our church who just started giving guitar lessons. We talked to Azariah and her to make sure it wouldn’t be awkward for her to teach a boy only a couple years younger than her, then got those lessons set up. He’s had 4 lessons now. So we’ll see how this goes. I’m glad he has someone to show him what to do because he just wont venture out on his own to play. So having a teacher give him “homework” is very good for him.

Are you tired yet??

Recap??

Zion plays piano and just started teaching it as well. His next goal is to learn and master the cello.

Azariah is learning guitar.

Glorianna is learning mandolin and piano.

And there you have it.