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Pure Imagination
Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination
We'll begin
With a spin
Traveling in
The world of my creation
What we'll see
Will defy
Explanation
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it
There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing
To it
There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be
ARTIST: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [Gene Wilder]
Music and lyrics: Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley
I confess I’m attached to this song. I’m attached to the characters Willy Wonka & Charlie, not to mention authors Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton among others. Did you ever listen to the Global Lullaby CD by Freyda Epstein? What a priceless gift she gave to my children.
A La Puerta Del Cielo
I’m always reluctant to break one of my own cardinal rules: never tell a parent how to raise their children. Having been the victim of other’s gracious willingness to share the gospel of how you should raise your own children, I now openly violate this sacred rule and therefore advise all parents to proceed with caution.
What was the question again? Yes, should we force our dear little ones to practice the piano every day for thirty minutes starting at age four? Assuming, for a moment, that the objective of educating our children in music remains worthwhile, how does one go about this?
Some teachers use carrot and stick. My first music teacher (otherwise known as my mother) had a stick in one hand and a larger stick in the other. I think I fought her as much as I practiced the piano. I became a solid musician. I became even more skilled in the art of argument.
I recall one time when, returning from a lesson, I pursued the unusual path of practicing. For those knowledgeable, typically the child will begin the week-long procrastination immediately following the lesson, and will only commence the stress-induced cram a day or two prior to the next lesson. This time, however, I chose to practice after the lesson. Yet my mother wanted me to practice the Bach, not the Chopin. Of course now I prefer Bach to Chopin (most of the time anyway). At the time, by contrast, it was Chopin or turnip stew. After arguing for thirty minutes or so, I informed my dear teacher that I would not be practicing after all, and left, locking myself in my room with my self-installed dead-bolt lock. While she pounded on the door, I traversed the landing outside my window, scaled the bricks to return to ground level, and then proceeded to the TV room and enjoyed a refreshing episode of Gilligan’s Island – until my mother realized (much later) that I was no longer locked in my room.
Fast forward thirty years: I just performed a piano recital (on March 11th) which included all three movements of Schumann’s Fantasy in C op 17, several preludes from Debussy’s second book, some of my own compositions, and “The Alcotts” from Ive’s Concord sonata. I had Bach’s French Suite in E-flat prepared also, but given my mother attended the recital, I decided to defer performing that piece. I suppose you might argue that my mother had the winning formula after all. Who knows? I certainly don’t.
Straddling the fence as parent and music teacher seems a challenging exercise to me. We’ve opted to outsource this function thus far, in spite of the fact that I’m currently a PhD candidate in Music at Stanford, and my wife can play anything from Scarlatti’s sonatas to Chopin’s scherzi to Debussy’s “Jardins sous la pluie".
Strangely, my six-year-old son, Noah, enjoys playing the piano. His teacher, Mrs. Barth, has somehow tapped into his psyche and understands how to motivate him. She doesn’t seem to push. But she’s not a softy either. He’s smart enough to figure out if he is being manipulated. Perhaps it doesn’t hurt that he hears me practicing every day. Or that he gets a star each time he practices, and seven stars yield the coveted train ticket to ride on Cal-Train. He decided the other day to create a CD of his own recordings which included several determinate pieces (including Beethoven’s Ode to Joy), but also several of his own improvisations. I didn’t suggest he try to improvise. He just decided he wanted to do this. I’m not sure you would enjoy it, but I do, and he really loves it.
We started Noah with singing lessons with teacher Trudy when he was three. She was a gifted musician, but perhaps more importantly, a gifted teacher full of warmth and love of music. She would use hand gestures to express pitch, and taught the kids to do the same. She would give concerts so all the kids could perform. Who doesn’t like singing when they are a child? And why don’t more people in this country sing as adults? Do you know how many times I was invited to Karaoke in Tokyo by my business colleagues? There is something fundamental to our being about singing, something about speaking from the soul. We need to express ourselves. In this world, it seems there are few opportunities to do so.
I’m not claiming that we have succeeded with our son. I’d say the odds are 50/50 as to whether he will avoid formal incarceration before he hits 21. I remain hopeful. I can say that music seems to be enriching his life, as it has mine. I’m reluctant to endorse the ‘optimize your child’ / force-feeding agenda. I’m also completely opposed to the ‘let the child do whatever they want, home schooling, etc.’ nonsense. We live in a structured and competitive world that ain’t changing any time soon unfortunately.
The balance between encouragement and edict remains elusive. But finding the balance with music seems worthwhile for our family. Music can open so many new dimensions of the child’s mind: ear training, basic pattern recognition, etc. I don’t buy that Mozart effect nonsense, btw. Listening to a few Mozart pieces will perhaps calm you down (depending on what you are listening to), but I doubt it develops your child’s mind. Development comes from study, practice, repetition. I have no scientific basis for suggesting as much, but believe that math, logic, and spatial analysis are all skills that the study of music seems to hone in an indirect way. In order to understand pitch and harmonic relationships, to identify pitch and physical gesture, and to begin grouping patterns and groups of pitch and meter into musical phrases, you must train and develop your mind. Moreover, the discipline required to focus over longer periods of time seems worthwhile.
I’d offer mental development associated with an early study of music seems intuitive, but I lack the scientific data to back it up. More important to me, however, relates to the education of expression. Communication seems so fundamental to our being. Musical communication seems to transcend several boundaries, and in some cases connects one soul with another. I’m not suggesting I subscribe to the psychic-hotline (I just pay per call). Just speaking from experience, music as a means of expression seems unique in its capacity to connect people. Children certainly notice this, and I think they enjoy it.
But put aside all of this develop your mind, get into Harvard B.S. for a moment. Let’s instead focus on the important (and I’m being serious for the first time). Did you know that the moon is made of cheese, and that a man and his clever dog constructed a rocket to visit the moon to sample the cheese? They almost missed blast off – someone forgot the crackers. Did you ever drink from a river of flowing chocolate? Did a cat with a funny hat ever visit you when it was raining? Before long, he opened a box, and Thing #1 and Thing #2 ran out of the box and began to fly kites inside your house.
What about your child’s imagination? I’d offer music has much to offer here. My son, for example, decided to make a CD a couple months ago (with the intent to sell the CDs to make money; I’ve tried to explain that business is less rewarding than music, but I’m not sure he listens). In addition to ‘Ode to Joy’, he decided to record a few of his improvisations, including ‘C-scale goes on and on’, and ‘Raindrop falling’. He also put together a medley of songs (he wrote the lyrics), and convinced his sister to sing back-up vocals.
Medley
I like ice cream
I like baseball
I like mommy
But I don’t like green beans
Homework, homework
Too much homework
I’m only six years old
Homework, good grief,
tired of all my homework
I need some fresh air
Come and play outside with
Come and ride your bike with me
Let’s go climb a tree
Maybe have a cup of tea
I don’t want to go inside
And if you make me I will cry
Come and play with me
I’m not suggesting that my son will debut in Carnegie Hall next month, nor that my daughter will open for the Met Opera’s 2020 season, nor that they both will attend Yale g.d.it (Dr. Seuss went to Dartmouth!). Rather, I believe
There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be"
- Jeff Smith is an entrepreneur, software engineer and classically trained musician. He's held senior positions at HP, IBM, and is a co-founder of Tumbleweed Communications. He's returned to Stanford full time, where he is currently a PhD candidate in Music.
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