Love Thursday is Music

Music touches each of our lives. We may not share the same love of styles or instruments but music itself is universal.

Mr. Husband started playing violin when he was 6 years old. It is such a large part of his life that I can't imagine who he would be without music. He has a musical gift and can play almost any instrument that you give.

It can be very frustrating when you are a person that does not have this natural ability. There have been many times that I am irrationally angry at him for picking up an instrument that I've been slaving over but having little effect and he can produce music. Not just make sounds but music. (I don't let him touch my saxophone. It's just not worth the fight.)

I played the clarinet and saxophone in elementary school and my mom says that I played it almost long enough to have actually owned it. I don't really remember playing either of them. I was too young and had quit before I even got to junior high. I always wanted to be able to play but never put the time or energy into it.

In college I had to take keyboard as part of my music program. I was amazed at how easily I learned to read music. I'm far from great but do well for the little training and even smaller amount of practice that I put into it.

I remember being in a practice room while I was taking those classes. We had a art building that had these really great but tiny rehearsal rooms. I was in one with a piano and after I had practiced for class, I started experimenting with what I could do. It sounded good and was very freeing but after the class ended I didn't go back and never practiced. I've had an electric keyboard for years but it's hard to have out when the kids are awake because they just pound on it and drive me crazy. It mostly stays in a box in my closet.

There was always music in the apartment that Mr. Husband and I share during college. We would often just sit on the couch and talk while I knitted and he played the guitar. This is something that we continued to do when we moved to Old City and #1 son was born but now there was less time to sit and do this.

We had a small area of toys for #1 that were only instruments. Now I saw toys because they were children's instruments but they were never really the cheap ones that you would pay a dollar for. He had maracas, bongos, bells, cymbals and many more loud and easy to play instruments. I loved going to the guitar center with him and finding something small, inexpensive but real. This was one of this favorite things to do.

We had even less time when the twins were born. I returned to work when they were only six weeks old. #1 son was in a half day school program at my elementary school. Mr. Husband would drop him off in the morning, go home take care of the twins and return to the elementary school with the kids and a lunch that he had packed. We would eat together in my classroom and I would nurse the babies. He would take the children home and take care of them until I returned from work. He would than make dinner and we would eat. Afterward it was bathtime and then the kids were off to bed. It was an exhausting time. I'm tired reading thinking about our schedule again. Needless to say, music was still enjoyed at this time but more by CD and less often by our own creation.

Time did go on and things got a little less crazy and we started making music again. I would take the kids on the porch and we would beat away on the drums, #1 on his bongos and the twins and I on my conga. Sometimes our neighbors would come down and "jam" with us. It was freeing and you could feel the peacefulness that came from the sharing.

Now we are in New City. Things are starting to settle down and we are starting to make music again. I have a new attitude about it now. I'm trying hard to produce it instead of just being happy enjoying what Mr. Husband makes. Don't get me wrong. I love to hear him play but now I want to do more of the creating.

I've been thrilled with the Ukulele and I'm so excited about my pink violin. The kids are loving it and I'm glad that we are getting back to a place where we are creating these loving memories through music.

I have a T-shirt from the band They Might Be Giants. It reads on the back, "Music self played is happiness self made." I truly believe that to be true.


This is a picture of our violin all hanging out together. Mr. Husbands is on the left. You can see that it's been well loved for years. #1 Son's violin is in the middle. You can see the size difference when compared to ours. Then on the right you have my lovely pink violin. I'd like to think that if the three little bears had violins, they would be just like this.