Our Budding Musicians

Ariel has been taking violin for the past 2 years with a program offered through the Mobile Symphony. She has violin once a week while at school (which we love). This past weekend the Mobile Symphony held a workshop for all of students who participate in the program. There are about 4 other schools in Mobile County that participate and I believe 2 in Baldwin County. The workshop was provided for the students (grades 3-5) to perfect the skills they have been learning this year, but most of all, it provided the students with the real life experience of playing with other instruments and being able to come and play their parts (ie. the melody etc). It allowed them the feeling of what it might be like for them to play in the symphony. I am including a couple of clips. I think the children did great seeing as this was their first time playing all together like this and it was a new experience for most of them. Ariel's teacher is Ms. Eu, she is first chair in the Mobile Symphony. Ariel has learned a lot from her. We have also been blessed that a friend of ours, Jason Jordan, plays the violin and viola, and he voluntarily gives Ariel additional lessons each week for about an hour. She has really enjoyed doing that too. For a while, Ariel was less than thrilled about playing violin this year (I think it just isn't the coolest thing to be doing at her age) and Jason has helped her to become more excited about it, as did the workshop this weekend. I am including a couple of pieces they played from the recital. One is part of the Star Wars Theme and the Other was my favorite Pachelbel Canon. A few other songs Ariel enjoyed playing at the recital were: HarryPotter--Hedwig's Theme and The Boogie-Man Blues. Oh and don't try looking to see Ariel. She was in the back row, left side. If you still are trying to find her, if you look really hard you can only see the bottom of her skirt. When I chose my seat, I did not know where she would be on stage.

This was Ariel's favorite to play-- Star Wars she got to play the melody which is the part most people recognize.

Below is my favorite: Pachelbel Cannon. The video does not do it justice. I did not record the whole thing as I only had my camera and I was not sure how much space I had and I needed to save some space on my camera for Star Wars. (Sorry for so many videos, but I'm really posting these for Mike's mom, so she can hear). Perhaps I'll get Ariel to just play the melody and post it. I think it is so pretty. I love hearing Ariel practice this song.

Also, I can not leave out Cecily. She has been wanting to learn the piano for about a year now, and I have been too lazy to get it started. However, after getting tired of hearing the "sounds" posted on the video below (the first she learned from a member who came to our house to eat Thanksgiving Dinner, and the other is part of a favorite song of ours called, "Baby Be Mine" that is on our playlist. Ariel taught Cecily how to hen peck out the song. Ariel likes to go to the piano and try to pick out music by ear and she is really good at it too. She has taught herself several songs this way. I actually think I need to start her with piano lessons...But we've already talked about Ariel haven't? Let's get back to Cecily.




We love her, but do you see how this would be enough to drive anyone crazy day after day? We are now ready to start hearing anything but that. Because of this, Cecily had her first piano lesson with a member of our ward, Sis. Henderson. She is so sweet and Cecily loves her. Her first lesson was really sweet. Sis. Henderson asked Cecily if she could read and Cecily said yes and the Sis. Henderson opened up her scriptures that are in Mandarin Chinese (from where she served her mission) and asked Cecily to read it. Of course, Cecily could not. Sis. Henderson went on to explain that music is like learning a new language and that Cecily could master it, but first needed to learn some basics before they could just sit down and start playing music. Just like Cecily had to learn some basics before she started reading. So, Sis. Henderson went over all that with Cecily. And she asked Cecily to tell her why she wanted to learn to play the piano and Cecily said: "Because it is Fun". She wanted Cecily to remember why she wants to learn, if ever she doesn't want to practice. Amber gave Cecily some homework too. It is: to learn the location of the keys on the piano (specifically middle C and the Keys around it (Ie: ABCDE), where she needs to place her hands, and she has to learn the notes and where they are on the staff (ie: EGBDF and FACE) and a few other things. She told Cecily to practice 30 minutes each day and Cecily has taken that seriously. Thanks Annie for giving us the piano! Here are some pics of her practicing: