thoughts on excellence, music, little boys, being WEIRD and stuff like that

I'm back after a rest. I'm still on Agathon's musings, evidently, because this entry is a response to his post about excellence as exemplified in a You Tube clip of the trumpeter, Rafael Mendez (you gotta go to Scenes from a Broken Hand blog to check it out, and for now you gotta do it the hard way because on this old borrowed Mac I can't insert links: http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2007/09/excellence.html)

[editor's note: here's a more precise link, but you gotta read A's blog anyway. Well, you COULD, and you would be glad you did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUij8FCg0z8&eurl=http://agathon-sbh.blogspot.com/2007/09/excellence.html

That clip led to another of the guitarist Jose Feliciano and his rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee, which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOs1HC29zh4

Then, you can watch Luis Moreno do the Rimsky-Korsakov tune on electric guitar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muqflDqEEp8

As I write this, my Sweetheart is down the hall in his music studeo with a teen guitar student. I hear the low voices: the patient deep voice of the teacher offering corrections and praise, an occasional questioning tone from the kiddo. I hear the hesitant chords, the teacher's proficient demonstration, another halting attempt, then another, less halting, more smooth...

They work on measures from Guns and Roses or Depeche Mode or whatever modern hip tunage floats the kids' boats as they learn to play. I'm not sure where the Flight of the Bumblebee fits into these kids' agendas. In any case, they Show Up. Most of them seem to have practiced between lessons. They are in pursuit of something with this music thing. There's a reason for the effort from student, parents, teacher. Even in these half hour lessons, I hear progress.

After lessons, the boys can be seen ambling about the driveway while they await their rides home. They carry the guitar cases with some reverence. Some of them are still counting out the music as I hobble by... I can see them frowning in concentration, playing music in their heads. Mostly they don't look up, even if they offer a polite "Whassup" to acknowledge my presence as I pass by.

I try not to look too closely (or too obviously) at these boys with artfully scruffy clothes and hair long enough to have to twitch their heads to get the hair out of their eyes, but I can't help looking for clues, premonitions about my little guys. Especially my Big'un, with his guitar obsession that started before he could walk with much confidence. Now he's six, so soon it will be time to start LESSONS. Soon I'll hear the painful, redundant strumming and muttered frustration, but that will smooth out little by little as he takes it to the next level.

Now when I ask him about lessons, he says with a wave of his hand, "Mom, I already KNOW how to play guitar." And he does, on some strange level. We have about seven guitars around the house, of various sizes and in various states of disrepair. But when one of them is dragged out, there is indeed some proficiency in the playing. I don't argue, and I don't interfere. This little boy enthusiasm is where that music thing starts, I think. God forbid that I should squelch that with too much formality, too soon.

I know Agathon's Thing 1. I've been there to "supervise" his learning sessions, including his scheduled time on the trumpet. He picks it up out of the case and puts it together and toodles around for a bit with his own little boy joy in making some noise. Then he gets serious about the Formal Practice thing for a while. He enjoys telling me all about it as he practices. I'm a new grown up with fresh questions and genuine interest. I think the playful parts before and after the scales and the little song are the best parts of his efforts.

I'm charmed by this smart little boy and his earnestness and stick-to-it-iveness. He's a little older than my Big'un but he's of the same make: smarter and/or quirkier than his peers, with a different slant on his perspective, more often doing his solitary thing even in the company of other kids. Thing 1 and Big'un may grow up to be friends in that casual but enduring way of kids whose parents share long friendships. They may be skulking teenagers together. They'll most likely have music to help them through those hard times that are inevitable in any adolescence, especially for the Weird Ones (she says with the greatest affection, as one of the Weird Ones, herself). Maybe they'll have a boy band together.

Certainly Agathon and The Wife and I share a certain Intention for our kids, informed by education, culture, spirit, social influence, some genetic drive, some innate and cultivated intellectualism--whatever qualities that led us to be Who We Are.

I ramble along with no clear idea of where I'm going... just glad to be writing, glad to be well enough to reflect on these matters even fleetingly. As I've pecked out these words, the teenaged kid has left and an adult student has come in. He's doing something from ZZ Top, I think, and there's a lot more talking... two men conversing with their deep voices and their guitars... some laughter, some little musical riffs and inside jokes from the Beatles, a little Hendrix... a whole different quality of teaching and learning is going on now. Age, experience and exposure inform this man in his early attempts to learn to play. But you know what? There's still the same flavor of little boy joy in it. Amazing.

That's enough for now, even if I didn't make any real point. Thanks for putting something out there to think/write/talk about, A. Let's get the boys together sooner than later. Let's set 'em loose on our collection of musical instruments and see what happens. And let there be mojitos or margaritas for the Big Kids.