The next extracurricular we began this school year was guitar lessons. I think Jethro is a really musical kid- it comes pretty naturally to him. We tried piano lessons a while ago, but without a piano of our own it was too difficult to try to get him to practice at the neighbor's or at church. It just didn't work out. So then at the end of last year there was a list of extra classes that Jethro could sign up for, and one of them was guitar lessons. It was reasonably priced but we didn't have a guitar, so I didn't think too much about it. Then when we came back from the States, the missionaries gave us an old guitar, so I emailed the teacher asking whether Jethro could join the group guitar class. Unfortunately, it was full. But she was willing to give him private lessons. So we decided to do that, but it was incredibly expensive! At least, it seemed so to me. I mean, it was 10 francs per hour MORE than riding lessons- although there are no horses to stable or feed or take care of. Doesn't make sense to me, but there it is. We even called another music school to compare prices and it was the same. So we decided to do lessons every other week.
Then his teacher told us that his guitar was not good enough (it was quite decrepit), so we had to search for another one. Fortuitously, a lady in my ward had a guitar she was willing to sell to Jethro and better yet, she was willing to have him come do yard work to earn it. He worked for her for a few days and earned his guitar.
I got an email from his teacher saying that she was a bit worried at first about the every other week schedule, but that he was really doing great and she was impressed with his progress from lesson to lesson. :)
We have had a good time looking for songs that we want him to learn. I looked up a youtube video tutorial of the song Blackbird by the Beatles, and while that's much too hard for him at the moment, Brett stole his guitar and started working on it. He's got the first three chords of the intro down pat. :)
I can't wait for Jethro to be able to strum his guitar and sing perty songs to us around the campfire.
2 comments:
We had same problem in Saba about piano, so bought a keyboard from church distribution for I think about 80 bucks!! But a guitars cooler anyway, he can sing to the Switzerland gals in his class!!! Derek
Way to go Jethro. I am so impressed. And for you to work and earn your guitar is even better. Love you.
Grandpa said that the next time you go for a ride with him you can bring your guitar and strum and sing along the trail.
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