Piano Lessons and the Family Band

Elias began taking piano lessons this summer just before he started 1st grade. I contacted his teacher in August to see if she had any spots open for the fall, and she asked if I wanted to start right away. Why not? He was interested and I wanted to capitalize on that interest. I probably could have taught him myself. While I am no professional musician, I have to say that I’m quite an accomplished pianist. However, sometimes it is just better to have a different person teach your child if you can spare the cash. The clash of personalities is sometimes too great. Now, I get to practice with him almost every day and share in the joy of his growing love for piano, and instead of arguing with him myself, I can say, “remember when your teacher said…x?” It’s quite wonderful.

In his 5 months of piano, Elias has really taken off. He wants to practice every day, and enjoys himself, and it shows. He had his first recital in mid December. He played an English folk song called Oranges and Lemons. The audience was filled with all of the students in his teacher’s studio as well as their families. Elias even got to have all four of his grandparents there along with his parents and brothers. I was amazed that he didn’t seem nervous at all. He even played his song memorized. Great job, Elias!

Here he is before the recital. He was excited!

After the recital I made him sit at the piano again so we could take some posed pictures.

And we got some with his grandparents as well. (Of course I forgot to get one of the five of us. Oh well).

Now that Elias can read music, and has a basic understanding of how things work for piano, he has also showed interest in other instruments. Nathan and I got him a ukulele for Christmas. It came with an electronic tuner, a carrying case, and small booklets with a few instructions for how to play basic chords. He was thrilled, and has gotten it out every day to tune and strum.

A few nights ago, Elias made Nathan’s dreams come true when he asked if I would play the piano while he played his ukulele. Then he asked Nathan to play a guitar. For as long as I can remember Nathan has joked (except he’s kind of not joking) about wanting to form a family band some day when the boys are big enough. Elias knows a minor and c major chords pretty well on the ukulele so we mostly used those to play around. When I got up to take the picture, Simon and Caleb hurriedly took their place tapping away on the piano, and Nathan’s dreams were fulfilled…for one night anyway. So you saw it here first: The Smith Family Band.