Music Appreciation for Little Girls

As a missionary who works out of his home, I have some unique opportunities when it comes to my children.  My schedule is flexible, especially as a language student: although I consistently work more than 40 hours/week, I put in a lot of time after the kids have gone to bed.

As a musician, I naturally want to give my children an education in music.  One of the things I love about my childhood was the wide variety of music I listened to.  My parents listened to everything from Bach to Keith Green.  My older brother and sisters started to listen to the popular Christian music of the day, and that was added to the mix.  Since before Anne was born, I have been intentional about giving my kids similar access to a variety of styles.

As a homeschool dad, I am, of course, the Principal, and I'm almost always in the office. ;)  However, I also have an occasional role as Music Teacher.  Kaylee always starts her school day with music, and through her the girls are learning the Sunday School and kids' songs that we all know and love.  My job, then, is to give them access to instruments and styles.

We are slowly accumulating child-friendly instruments.  On Saturday, I picked up a plastic ukelele for $5.  While I would prefer that they have access to real instruments, I figured it's a cheap way for them to learn to respect it and to gauge their interest.

This morning while Kaylee was at her language classes, the girls and I had a guitar appreciation lesson.  After talking about the various parts of the guitar and what they do, I showed them some videos on Youtube to show them how excellent guitarists use their hands to make music.

What better way to start than with Andres Segovia?

I wanted to show them a different style of classical, so we moved on to Paco de Lucia:

To break into the realm of electric guitars, I chose one of Carlos Santana's most melodic songs, focusing on his use of a pick:

To demonstrate a slightly harder style, we played my favorite Eric Clapton tune:

Finally, one of my favorite guitarists, to show a completely different technique - hammering:

(I should point out that this is NOT Nagasaki. . .the video has been mislabeled)

Then it was their turn to experiment!  We had already rounded up our other instruments, and they each took a turn:

Then to finish it all off, I showed them one last film, of one of the most widely-recognized guitar songs of the last century: