E is for . . .

[velvetpage]

We went to my dad's for dinner tonight. Amidst revelations of the political sort (my dad planning to vote NDP, for example, which nearly knocked my whole world askew) Dad and Elizabeth started playing a funny-sound game. It involved buzzing the lips. Aunty Heather and Uncle Jon got involved too, everyone happily buzzing their lips.

After five minutes of this, during which all conversation pretty much stopped, my dad looked at me with delight and said, "You know, that was a perfect buzz. She's got a great embrasure."

I haven't heard or used the word "embrasure" since my last music camp fourteen years ago, but I know what it means. It's the muscle in your lips - the one that allows for buzzing, and raspberries - and playing a brass instrument.

Elizabeth loudly announced at this point that she was "all done," so we got up from the table and Dad hurried off to find a cornet mouthpiece or two - one for him, one for Elizabeth. On an old B5 mouthpiece originally bought for my brother to learn on and used by all four of us, Elizabeth buzzed happily away, making a pretty good humming sound with just the mouthpiece. Dad buzzed right back on his lovely $200-soprano mouthpiece, thrilled.

Then he got out his cornet.

This is a beautiful instrument. It was bought as a graduation present by Dad's family when he finished training college, and it's a silver-plated gem in excellent condition. He fitted his mouthpiece into it and played a simple scale. Elizabeth watched enthralled for a moment, then said, "I do, Grandad!"

He took his mouthpiece out, put hers in, and held it to her lips.

I have never heard a child under three produce a consistent sound on a brass instrument. I've heard them do it by accident, one time out of five or six tries. I was expecting that.

What I got was a nearly-consistent, surprisingly clear tone. It wavered a bit between a C and a G, because there were no valves pressed; she was using her lip to produce the different sounds. With a few rough buzzing sounds scattered between the notes, she managed to play C, then G, and made it clear that she heard the difference. She tried again, and experimented with going up and down between them. Grandad showed her how to hold it. Her hands weren't big enough to encircle the valves, nor her fingers big enough to press them, but she was getting notes clear enough, if I hadn't known better I'd have assumed she was six years old and had been playing for several days.

Dad dug up something less expensive than the B5 - it's a $75 mouthpiece in good condition in spite of the wear and tear four learners put it through - and she wandered around for the next twenty minutes, happily buzzing away on her little antique cornet mouthpiece.

My child has just proven herself to be a worthy six-generation Salvationist. She's also clearly a descendant of my grandfather, who used to be a fine cornet soloist. She's going to be a cornet player.

Comments

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

That's fantastic! If she's got some talent (which she certainly seems to), the sooner she explores, the better!

I should have been a third generation accordion player, but my mother's is antique and somewhat fragile, so I've never touched one :)

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

(which I'm sure is for the best of everyone involved :D )

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

We're going to let her explore when she's over at Grandad's, and next fall I'm signing her up for Music for Young Children. I may put her in piano then, or the following year, and I'll start her on cornet when she's old enough to learn at church.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Oh my, that'd be too cute!
Maybe if I took up music at the same time I'd be able to keep up with her. Nah, probably not :D

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

The Salvation Army is the cheapest way to learn a brass instrument. :) Music for Young Children is supposed to give her a good grounding in the basics before she moves on to other things, so I'm starting with that, but she has to be three so it's going to be next fall.

[ymf.livejournal.com]

whoa yay for elizabeth! you must have been grinning from ear to ear eh?

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

Awesome! It's great to have a kiddo exhibit a talent that clearly so early. And Elizabeth is lucky to have you and Piet for parents, since you'll encourage her without forcing her, so she can grow up enjoying it without pressure.

Neatsquee!

[kianir.livejournal.com]

You think she'd dig a harmonium? I have a spare that ought to go to a musically inclined child.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Is that like a small acordion/concertina?

[kianir.livejournal.com]

It's a toy electric organ of sorts. Same principle as a harmonica, except you press keys to uncover the holes inside the unit (and a motor supplies the air.) This one's two octaves and has six major chord buttons off to the side

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Wow. That sounds cool. Do you know how to play it?

[kianir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's just a keyboard. :) It'd be good for a kid plunking out melodies in her own room or something. It's not *fantastic* sounding but it is an acoustic instrument and it also has some hidden strengths with chords. And it's in pretty good tune, and will be such forever..

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Cool. Next time you get up here, or one of us is passing through there, we'd love to have it.

[kianir.livejournal.com]

Certainly. It's just holding up an endtable here. :)

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

That is so sweet!
(says the person who had a music teacher great granpa, has a cornet herself, but no formal training)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Wow. I don't know many people who even know what a cornet is outside of Britain or the Salvation Army. I usually have to explain that it's like a slightly-squished trumpet. :)

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Is it that rare?
Mine is quite old, and battered. The case is falling apart. But I love it. Such a pretty sound. But I am biased towards horn instruments.

And chatting happily with Paka about this, you know you deserve a lot of credit for making it possible for her to express herself this way? I've read about you allowing her to sound keys on a piano. I know parents that won't let children play on 'valuable instruments'. So she has an awareness of the musical scale. And she feels comfortable reaching out an experimenting, not just because of the piano but a thousand other small moments of exploration. Practising the forward mouth umm buzz with pursed breath control that I use on the cornet while in the car with Paka, managing to get several notes out of blowing my hand like a shofar, I realized part of why I could do that so easily but Paka could not is that I was taught (it didn't stick, but I was taught) french at least from 4 years old forward, and actually informally earlier, so I had the moue umm moue isn't the right expression - anyhow. French makes the right mouth shape! And this is right after a 16 hour car trip so I am babbling.

Just though you could use the compliment about excellent parenting after all the bedtime frustration. She sounds liek the kind of kid that would enjoy (and wear out) a furbie or other plushie that talks back.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Thank you. The fact is, parents who won't let their kids experiment on instruments are forgetting two things: a) you can't ruin a piano by playing on it, which is true of most instruments, and b) they can't learn how to take care of it properly unless someone shows them. Most of the time, parents who curtail that kind of exploration are protecting their own ears rather than their instruments. That's okay sometimes, but not as a matter of course.

I love her adventurous spirit - she's always willing to try something new. Since that is a crucial learning skill, I don't want to discourage it.