I got some fabulous advice recently from a homeschooling mum and had to share. I asked for a list of items I ought to buy before I quite work to homeschool my kids. One of the mums suggested buying instruments. LOTS of instruments and just having them on hand, around the house so the kids can play with them. At first the idea baffled me but I thought this through some.
To me learning an instrument is a BIG DEAL it’s lessons, expense and commitment. I realised I think that way because I was raised that way. My kids don’t think that way at all. They all pluck away at the piano making up tunes and memorising pieces. Not all of them take lessons and at times none of them do…but they all still play…just because it’s there!
So I decided to collect some instruments I was super excited about this but honesty had NO IDEA where to start. I didn’t know if I was going to be ripped off, buy a dud or what. But I was keen so I looked.
A month later we now have a piano, guitar (which I had restrung) a clarinet (picked up free! And costing me a service for a perfect instrument) and a trumpet which was very cheap and I have already been offered double my money for it 😀. Oh and a didgeridoo! We almost scored a flute too but I lucked out there.
As a bonus we all play them al just a bit here and there for fun. None of them are too precious to hand to our visiting 2 year old nephew for a play and all are being used. Because they were cheap I let the kids take them outside to play. Yes they were trumpeting in the trampoline! (Not that I recomend that!)
So if your kids are done with Little musician don’t underestimate them. Get them some instruments and see what happens.i would never have picked trumpet but two of my kids LOVE it and some lessons are on the cards soon. I am not all that musical myself but my kids can be if I don’t limit them. Off to find a drum kit, cello, flute and saxophone now!
My sister found quite a few instruments on e-bay. My parents would buy each of my brothers a “new” instrument every Christmas -all kinds. The boys only had sporadic piano lessons. I got a scholarship to pay for mine. We also got to know people who played and asked them, “Can you show me one thing?” We would work on that one thing and experiment until we found somebody else to show one more thing. We never had anybody turn us down. One demonstrated correct finger position, or tuning tips, or whatever. As teenagers we got together with others and played for hours. Being with other musicians was key, not lessons.
Oh that’s a great idea! I was thinking of paying for just a few lessons to get started. To get a grip on the basics of each instrumend. These days we also have YouTube! What a wealth of free lessons YouTube is!