Metronome

Evan said he never had a metronome growing up. I grew up with a metronome. Do we really need one? Absolutely!

Since we got our piano, my kids have been busily plucking away at the notes and playing great beginning masterpieces. Taneal has already started learning Christmas songs which is so fun for me to listen to, until she quit counting and started playing the song at the pace that she wanted, no consistency throughout the song. I started to plug my ears because I could not stand having "O Come All Ye Faithful" playing to a different, unnatural beat.

What is my problem? I kept asking myself over and over. Why is this such a big deal? As long as she is playing, why not just be happy? And then I remembered my mom. I'm going to blame this one on her. She doesn't even play, but she would go crazy when we played a song without counting. I should have picked up on this annoyance of hers back then and used it against her, but I didn't. And now it has become one of mine. Oh, sometimes we are just like our parents regardless of how we resist. And I am resisting, trying to let her play without counting, but I can't get over it. As soon as I find the right metronome, I will require it's use as my children practice so my ears can feel happy and so I can allow some of that ingraining that is deep down inside me, caused by my mother, to have peace.