Down the Rabbit Hole

Musical Notes

This morning I took my daughter to her first piano lesson. Actually, because she is still young, these are not formal lessons but rather a program for preschool aged children to give them exposure to the piano and music in general. In her typical fashion, Jaden remained very shy and withdrawn through the introductions, clinging to my skirt and hiding her face in my shoulder. The teacher is very patient however and she persisted despite the very limited responses from my daughter. The very friendly kitten managed to evoke more interest from my daughter than the teacher did. Eventually though, she invited Jaden to look at her piano, a big grand piano set in the corner of the room. Jaden's eyes lit up. With some prodding she slid onto the bench and balanced her toes on the edge of the footstool. Miss Linda began going through her "finger friends", cute kid-friendly animals that coincided to the fingers of her hands. She invited her to touch the keys with each of her finger friends. After a few long moments, she reached out one tentative pointer, and tapped the keys directly in front of her. Within seconds she was exploring the full range of keys, using all her fingers on both hands and smiling...broadly. She dropped her inhibitions and began responding to Miss Linda, not verbally yet, but with real attention. She was fully engaged and interested. She let the teacher trace her fingers onto a blank page and then connected each of her digits to the corresponding "finger friends". She played the hand games and exercises with Miss Linda and in between exercises, eagerly returned to the piano for more experimentation. At the end of our time we withdrew from the piano and Jaden seemed to retreat into her wall of shyness again. She did make eye contact with me and clearly nodded, "yes" when Miss Linda asked her if she wanted to come back next week.

I was encouraged that my child, who normally takes a long, long time to warm up to strangers, was reacting and engaged with this woman in less than ten minutes. I credit the piano, and music in general. Since a very early age, Jaden has responded to music...all kinds. I would like to believe that music will be key to unlocking her shyness. It would be wonderful if musical exposure and eventually, formal instruction, give her the tools to build her confidence and break out of her shell. This has to be her decision though. It would be far to easier for me to fall in love with the image of my beautiful little girl sitting at a piano, her face serenely glowing as she plays. As much as I would love it, it needs to be something she falls in love with. And most importantly, something that she enjoys enough to allow it open the door for her. Music very clearly opens her heart and we are willing to encourage anything that does that for her.