Welcome to MOMMY May!

Every year, as summer swim-team gets all cranked up, a group of friends and I just STARE at each during practice sometimes. Most of the time we just laugh and say, “It’s just May.” So many things are starting up for the summer, before all of the spring sports finish up (baseball) and before school is out. Entire new projects are dumped into our laps as moms (and dads).

This particular “project” conversation was centered around band. One mom was sharing that her son had decided to go into band and the mom was acting like her life was going to end. Evidently this child was known for not sticking things out and for getting bored quickly. They had already gone through the piano thing. They had piano movers go get her mom’s piano and they moved it to her house and tuned it for her. They started piano lessons. They bought “the cool music.” Didn’t last………..

You know, baseball, swimming and soccer really have relatively low start up costs. You might need to buy a ball, swim suit, some goggles or a bat and glove. Music………..well that’s a different story. You buy a piano and you are stuck with it for a long time. Piano lessons – fee wise – are not too bad as most music lessons are relatively inexpensive comparatively. Now, when you start buying multiple band instruments or string instruments because a child is “changing their mind,” that’s a different story.

I was in band in junior high as well as high school. I played flute, piccolo and saxophone……and I don’t remember ANYONE renting band instruments. Nor do I remember my friends’ parents allowing them to bail on commitments either (ADHD comment – another blog, another time).We all saved up over the summers and bought instruments OR upgraded to better ones that our parents had us starting out on. I was lucky. My mom had a flute  – the one she had played on in high school. It needed some work, new pads and few keys needed some reshaping and a few news pins. So I just used that one until I really got into band, which was only a short year later. That’s when I used my own money and bought my solid silver, Armstrong concert flute with the B foot (instead of a plain ole C foot). The one I still play today.

NOW you can rent band instruments. That’s pretty cool because IF you have a child that doesn’t like to stick to commitments or one that changes their mind all the time, you could rent a band instrument. We have this great music store, sort of between Sugar Land and Houston, called Fort Bend Music Center. I’ve written about it before………they have it all. From sheet music to piano sales, it’s all in one place. It’s great.

Fort Bend Music Center has recently expanded and enlarged their showroom that is full of beautiful upright pianos as well as baby grand pianos. The drums are right there for you too touch. Guitars are bit higher – I’m sure that is KID-related. My youngest LOVES going there. One day, I had stopped in to peruse their stock of sheet music, and one of the drum lessons instructors took Grant (then 5 yrs) over to “bang” on the drums. He remembers that to this day. Fort Bend Music Center added more lesson rooms, thus more teachers…………

It’s almost summer. What are YOU going to do with all your days of NO SCHOOL? Learning to play and to appreciate music has never hurt anyone. Matter of fact, there are many reports out there that suggest learning music really helps with math retention, computation and skills. You might consider hopping on over to the music store and see how you can entertain your kids this summer……….