Summer Concert

 The much-hyped picnic at the shop.

 Some audience members were more enthusiastic than others. :)

 Summer orchestra this year was much more fun than last year.  Last year, Freestone was in way over his head and hated every minute of trying his bow like the other kids, forget playing music!  This year, the music was easier and Freestone has improved quite a bit.  He never even complained about going to rehearsal, which was so out of character that I found it quite unnerving.  I kept finding myself staring after him skeptically as he cheerfully hopped out of the car and willingly went to orchestra.  It was the kind of change you would expect if you had a kid with behavior problems and then you put him on medication and he was a different person.  Except the only drug Free was on was music.  Ha ha.  I bet Jimi Hendricks said the same thing.  Was Freestone wearing a bandana?...

Anyway, after two weeks of rehearsals, the groups were ready to perform.  I sortof tricked Jennie's kids into going with us to the concert by promising a picnic at the violin shop on the way.  That sounds pretty lame, I know, but I used an exciting tone of voice and, well, kids are gullible.  Aunt Tricia came, too, out of the goodness of her heart.  Scott, not so much.  He was in pain during the concert.  With every squawk or stray note, he would look at me like, "See?  Bad."  Meanwhile, I was beaming.  The kids worked so hard and sounded so good!  And Freestone somehow ended up in the concertmaster chair, and Ari was seated as principal cello, which just means that they wandered to those spots instead of other spots, but it still made me happy.

If I raised my kids without teaching them an instrument, I know I would be terribly disappointed in myself when it was all said and done.  It's not for everyone, I know.  In fact, sometimes when people ask me about staring their kids on an instrument, I inwardly groan.  Depending on how practicing has gone that day, I sometimes want to tell them it's not worth it.  But we persevere, even though Carnegie Hall is not in our future.  The process and goal is different for each kid.  Araceli is highly emotional and extremely right-brained.  Finding the balance point is difficult for her.  I know she is going to need cello in the future.  She is going to need to own it for herself and be able to use her abilities as an outlet.  She mostly practices herself, so it's sweet when she asks for my help, or accepts it without rancor.  I love the process of watching her fall in love with music. 

With Freestone, playing the violin is about our time together.  I usually help him practice and it forces me to dedicate that time to just him each day.  He says he doesn't like it, but he is doing well nonetheless.  At the end of the day, no matter what happens with the violin, Freestone and I will have logged hundreds of hours together.  That's going to be worth something.  Just today, he suggested we play something together just for fun.  Wow!  I may not be a mom who shoots baskets with her son, but we will have some neutral ground together when we need it, in the form of music.

Quite possibly, I had more fun than anyone at the concert.  But that's good.  I've put in the most work to get to this point, so it's nice to sit back and say, "Look!  It's working!"