Ever since we moved away from family we missed one thing (other than family) more than any other: music. Not recorded music, which is in abundance, but live music. And not so much the ability to go out and here some live music (as we can from time to time) but the ability to produce it ourselves. One of our specific goals as parents is to have an environment of art surround our children. Our son is reaping those benefits as much as possible at the moment. A couple of years ago we purchased a relatively nice keyboard.
It isn’t top of the line or anything, but it does the job formidably. While we wish it produced the natural sound that occurs when a hammer hits and vibrates a string, we’re willing to settle for the ease of transportation and cost reduction that a keyboard brings with it. Since we’ve finally moved it into our living room it has seen a lot more action. We’ve been playing with greater frequency and our son has been all the more curious because of it. He knows, of course, what a piano is. Both of his grandparents have a compact piano in their homes. The problem with this electrified one is, of course, that it has to be “turned on” in order to make a sound when the keys are depressed. Often he’ll walk up to the piano and press the keys yet hear nothing.
This isn’t all bad, though. Our son gets one of us and says “moo-ic” (music), and we place him in his high chair to play some tunes. The truly unfortunate part (or, maybe this is a good thing) is that there is a “demo” button that plays prerecorded tunes with all of the various sounds the keyboard can create (over hundreds of different sounds). While we’d prefer he hears the sounds he creates with his fingers… he tends to play over the pulsating beats and sounds of predetermined styles of music meant for selling the keyboard to prospective buyers. At any rate… we’re happy to have him interested in playing — even if that means playing some keys to the background of some smooth jazz (or whatever else he randomly selects by pressing buttons randomly).