Music Man

Logan's love of music started on July 4^th, 2007 when we stopped at the farmer's market to pick up some basil and bread. A band called Red, White and Bluegrass was playing on a small stage, and he sat in his stroller and watched them for a good half-hour, utterly captivated. Will explained the names of the different instruments, and for at least a month afterwards, Logan would randomly say, "Remember the guitar? Remember the dobro? Remember the bluegrass? Remember the mandolin?" (Yes, I remember, if for no other reason than it was the first time I figured out what the heck a 'dobro' even is.)

Like Old Man River his love of music keeps rollin' along. His Christmas guitar from Aunt Connie and Uncle Bill has become the fifth member of our family. His Music book from Will is his new favorite, and one of his most engrossing pasttimes is looking at all the pictures and naming the instruments from harp to timpani to contrabassoon.

He's starting to learn the difference between string, woodwind and brass and he'll often point to a French horn or a harpsichord and ask, "Shall we talk about these instruments?" (I have no idea how he ended up all British with the "Shall we...?", but whatever. It's cute. The other day he asked, "Shall we make some chocolate chip cookies?" as if it were an everyday occurance around here).

He also recently has started asking to watch music videos on the computer in the most charming manner he can muster – "Mommy, shall we watch some bluegrass on the computer for a couple of few minutes?" – which is a veritable onslaught of child adorableness that is difficult to resist. So although he doesn't watch TV, we do on occasion let him watch YouTube videos of various musicians – and in the process discovered something called a contrabass saxophone, which, as Logan keeps reminding us, is quite large – "That contrabass saxophone is HUGE!"

So it continues. He plays drums with his spoon and bowl after he's done eating, and our friend Amanda gave him a Piano Horn that has alternately been his flute and his clarinet. What's so fascinating about watching Logan's interest in music develop is that it has been almost entirely instigated by him – all we did was take him to see a Bluegrass band, and he decided THAT was what he liked. He gets a lot of reinforcement from his preschool (they don't call it Preschool of the Arts for nothing), but he appears to be less interested in singing and dancing than he is in playing all the instruments they have available.

So we're listening. And learning – all of us, all the time.