Our little Musicians

Lukas has been playing piano for a few years now and is also taking saxophone in school. Although it doesn’t seem to come naturally to him, he’s working hard and really improved in piano quite a bit over the past year!  He is the type of person who enjoys good music but doesn’t necessarily have the gift of making it. 

The little guys have been interesting as we’ve seen their interest in music blossom early and in different ways. All 3 of them sing along to music in the car regularly which is new for us. It’s adorable! 

They request songs and Nick has his own Amazon playlist. He’s always humming or singing something at home, as is Jayden. It seems like Nick likes to sing most during dinner time, don’t ask me why, and when he does he really belts it out, with a dramatic and beautiful voice. He also admires rappers and wants to be able to rap one day.  I keep telling him that most performers get their start in church choir but, so far, he hasn’t taken the bait. 

Jacob loves music too but sometimes seems most interested in dancing. Jayden and Jacob are in church choir and doing great! Jacob is great at memorizing both the words and the moves.  I love to watch them perform! 

Jayden is perhaps the most musical of all, especially when it comes to the piano. He took lessons briefly but didn’t have quite the attention span for a formal lesson. But despite that, he practices unprompted several times a day for a minute or two at a time and is teaching himself quite a bit!  He has an uncanny ear and now plays at least 6 songs regularly, a few stanzas each, with both hands; Happy birthday, Jingle Bells, Mary had a little lamb, Angels we have Heard on High, Twinkle Twinkle, a little of Darth Vaders March, plus recently one of Luke’s songs he has to practice for his lesson. 

Recently he was trying to figure out some song he heard and it was pretty cool - Nick and Jacob decided they recognized the few sounds he repeatedly was playing on the piano and came up with the word “nevertheless.” This led Mike and I to go searching (mostly Mike), ultimately finding out that he was playing “Sunflower” by Post Malone which is a Spiderman song and this is the line with those words: 

Needless to say, I keep her in check

She was a bad-bad, nevertheless (yeah)

It was amazing! I have NO such abilities for recognizing notes or being able to repeat them any where near or on pitch.

So, I’ve been calling Jayden a piano genius! It really comes naturally to him, and seems like such a special gift!! 

In my ignorance I wasn’t really sure how common playing music by ear was. Within a google search, I was able to learn that many musicians can learn to play by ear through devoted practice. There were no ages listed where this may become common but I’m guessing 5 is pretty darn early!  Here’s a nice blurb I found: 

Playing by ear is a talent. Those who play by ear usually have an acute sense of pitch and an instinctive recognition of intervals between notes. Undoubtedly, those who play by ear would benefit immensely from learning to write/read music, but they do not need it to become outstanding performers.

So I’m sticking with my title of piano genius!

Unfortunately, Jayden is very reluctant to be watched, taped or photographed while playing so I have virtually no photographic evidence, but here is the one I snagged right before bed last night.

In short, I love this special talent that seems to be growing in my boys! Such joy ❤️❤️❤️❤️