NOTE: This blog is written by a person who does not exist and is entirely fiction!
Each person in my house plays at least one musical instrument, including piano. Learning other instruments is so much easier if you already know the piano, I think. I play the piano and the violin, my oldest daughter Naomi plays the piano and cello, Deanna plays the piano and flute, Sarah plays piano and violin like Mommy :o), and for now all Elka plays is the piano. Correction, she is learning the piano. She is also beginning the violin. Now I said each person in our house, right? Well, sort of. Baby Katie likes to "sing" along! Does that count? :o) Our church has an "orchestra" which is comprised of my three oldest, plus four other children in the church. I play the piano, and my sister Michelle plays the organ.
Well, since we have a chamber orchestra in our own house, our family loves to do beautiful orchestral arrangement special music for church. So today I tell the girls to get out their instruments, and we'll start practicing something new. No sooner are we all set up than Sarah complains that her violin sounds too scratchy. "Go use some rosin," I tell her. I know that she has not rosined her bow in weeks. While she is taking care of that, the other girls tune their instruments and get warmed up a little. Just about the time that Sarah gets back, Elka announces that Katie has a mess in her diaper. "Okay, I'll take care of it soon," I say.
"Uh, Mom," Deanna says, "you might want to LOOK at her..." Oh no. I take one look at Katie, scoop her up and head for the bathroom. No, Elka, she did not just have a mess IN her diaper! "Try to run through it once without me," I tell the girls, who are by now growing a bit impatient. I get back to the girls in 7 minutes. "Okay," I say to the musicians. "Now let's start. We get all the way through the first line when one of Elka's violin strings snaps. She has never had this happen and thinks that her violin is broken! I don't notice that anything is wrong until I hear her sobbing her little heart out.
"What is WRONG?" I ask. I am a little tired of these interruptions by now but Elka sounds like she is really heart-broken. She sobs, "My violin is BROKEN!" I go to comfort her and assure her that everything is okay; it happens to strings players all the time. She feels a bit better but wants to know HOW she is going to play her violin now. Thankfully I have planned ahead and bought violin strings in bulk a few months ago for a super price. In a few minutes everything is back to normal.
We start over at the beginning of the song. This time we finish the first page before "GRRRRR! I HATE this part!! I CAN'T play it!!!" is heard from Sarah. Oh, dear. Maybe we should not do this today, I think. I am a little upset with Sarah. How many times have I told her that it is not nessesary to get mad because she can't play something. I pause a minute to get my temper under control. "Okay, Sarah, calm down. Ummmm, are you playing it the way it is written?" Sarah is known for playing the music wrong and complaining that it is too hard to play it that way.
Sarah frustrratedly looks at the music. "Yes, I was playing it right."
"Well, then just skip that part and practice it on your own later. Let's start on the second line on the second page." Finally we get through the song, though not without interruption. Katie goes to the piano (I am playing my violin) and starts banging. I tell her to stop. Deanna finds a hard spot in her music, too. But finally we get all the way through it.
"That's enough for today," I say. I'm not interested in any more interruptions. "Everyone practice it on your own tomorrow and then we'll try to play it together again." We really do have fun as a family playing music together. Today was just "one of those days," I guess. Hopefully tomorrow will go better.
