Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I am Robin Red


Sunburst has been learning to play the pentatonic flute since February. I've been using David Darcy's booklet/cd set Playing the Pentatonic Flute and the Pentatonic Recorder to teach myself so that I can teach her. I can't say enough wonderful things about this booklet. It has changed the way I think about music and my own musical capabilities.

For instance, I now think capable as opposed to incapable. I live with Einstein who is a musical genius. He can, and does, play anything he can get his hands on. But he can't teach me... he's my husband after all, and I have this Complex about music. Or shall I say had. I no longer play secretively in the laundry room. David Darcy has brought me into the light.

And now I can give that to Sunburst.

Our second form drawing block was based on a story I made up about the adventures of Robin Red and his search for Spring. With that in mind, I found myself being challenged to write a song of my own for Sunburst to play on the pentatonic flute: Robin Red. It's simple-- using only the notes A, B, and D. But simple is key, I think. It met her where she was, connected to her heart, and took her playing up a notch.
She struggled with it for a couple of weeks, but after her experience meeting a Native American flute player, she returned to this song with renewed vigor and quickly mastered it. Her own musical confidence grew by leaps and bounds with this song, as if she's now swiftly flying along, too.

2 comments:

  1. gris fleur1:18 PM

    I've just discovered your wonderful blog !!!! I'm so excited that I will bother you with thousands of questions.But let's start with one, where did you find David Darcy ' booklet ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gris Fleur, thanks so much! You can buy David Darcy's booklet direct from him on his website: http://www.ddarcy.com/

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to leave a message. I appreciate your sweet words so much!

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 
Site Meter