Like Beck, only younger

Tonight was my son's viola recital.

He's a musician from waaaaaaay back in the day. Like, when he was three, nearly seven years ago (!!!), we bought him a miniature scale drum set. It's an exact replica of a "real" set, just sized down.

My boy's always had an amazing sense of rhythm and timing, even at that tender age. But I tell you what, it's something else to see a kid shy of his fourth birthday literally jamming with his dad (on guitar)...he would rock out, one hand doing one thing, the other another, one foot on kick drum, the other on high-hats. Each appendage doing it's own thing, and very well (come on, I rarely do the mama bragging thing here, so cut me some slack).

A couple of years later at his first Kindergarten parent-teacher meeting, it was suggested to us that we might consider enrolling him in piano lessons...his love for music combined with how much he liked learning about math and patterns made him a great candidate, we were told.

Five and a half years later, he still loves it.

Last fall he started fourth grade and was interested in starting the optional strings program; he could chose violin, viola, or cello. Viola it was!

Honestly, he's not as taken with this instrument as he is most others. He will pick up my husband's guitars and play with them for hours (and my husband is left-handed, my son isn't...he doesn't seem to care), plucking away and discovering how to play tunes that he either knows from another instrument, or has heard my hubby play. The viola, he practices once a week instead of the "suggested" *ahem* nightly. On his report card it said he did, "very well considering her rarely practiced." (Whatever. I'm not going to make music a chore for him).

On the Fourth of July, my husband's band had a gig. I brought the kids to hear him play & sing. As it turned out, they weren't the only band playing that evening; there was a surprise guest band as well; it was a trio of ten year-olds (one of them the son of the party host): two guitar players, and a drummer. They blew the crowd away...they even had a couple of original tunes.

They are looking for a bassist.

Guess what instrument my son has been begging for recently? Yup, a bass guitar. Drag is, I had one for years but wasn't really interested in learning it...I wanted to skip right to the part where I was the bassist for a chick band (because, seriously, who is cooler in a band than the bassist? No-one!). I ended up selling it when we moved here because I was sick of feeling guilty that I wasn't using it. My husband wasn't really using it either, so off it went.

Thus, I guess a bass guitar purchase is in our future.