Gloria and Bells

Sarah read Bravo Gloria and is now more invested in my little Maestro than ever. I could not be more grateful. She is full of excitement about teaching Ari in a way no one else ever is. To say I am grateful to have found her is an understatement. We were at her house for over 2 hours today. Only an hour of lessons but the rest is like visiting a grandmother for Ari. We have water and sometimes a little snack and hugs and read books. It is wonderful. Today she taught Ari the Bells. I have never seen this in person. It was really cool. I never knew each bell played a different note...but I guess it does. She had Ari play Twinkle Twinkle and it was so cool. Sarah played the piano and Ari played the bells - quite a duet : ) If Sarah has it her way Ari will be attending Berkshire Hills Music Academy as she has met some of the founders and is soo impressed with their philosophies and how amazing the students are. God knows what the future will bring for any child but it's nice to know that there are people out there pulling for mine :)

Tuesday's with Sarah

Ari's second piano lesson. Aidan came with us to meet Sarah and see what a wonder and a treasure both she and her home are. We chatted a bit about the Berkshire Hills Music Academy and she encouraged me to go take a tour. Sarah was there a while back and met a bunch of the kids and were so impressed with their talent...I think she would love to see Ari end up there (I wouldn't mind either : ) We talked about perfect pitch and she explained it to me a bit more. She told me that it's too soon to tell, Ari is young, but that she herself has perfect pitch (Sarah) and now that she knows it's correlation with WS she will be keeping an eye on it. Ari worked on playing 2 black keys, 2 black keys, Identifying a quarter note, and the symbols for rest and repeat. She picks it up so quickly it amazes me...I suppose it's easy to learn when you love something that much : )

practice

Great practice all week. Totally understands the idea of Forte (loud) and Piano (soft). Understand that sounds/notes travel up or down and becomes really frustrated if Tim sits down to play next to her and plays incorrectly...."NO! Dadddy! it's like this!"

Happy Birthday

Ari just figured out how to play happy birthday by ear by herself on the piano ....holy cow...

a new beginning

Arianna was diagnosed with Williams Syndrome at age 1. They told us put her in music lessons NOW. She is currently 5 years old and we have spent years in mommy and me music classes, with music therapists and even Suzuki piano lessons at age 3. Today we find ourselves with our favorite music teacher visiting her for the first time for private piano lessons and finally finding exactly what Ari needs. She is using a program called Music for Little Mozarts. It seems great. Stuffed animals, stories and lots of fun. Not just "boring old piano lessons". She must love it because she ran out of bed this morning asking wear her Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear (the stuffed animals) were still downstairs and she wanted to go down stairs to play the piano at 6:30 in the morning and I had to tell her to wait. Once we had the house to ourselves we sat and reviewed her lesson from yesterday - forte/piano, finger numbers, notes move up, notes move down, 2 black keys and high/low notes. She has been sitting since playing her own beautiful tunes and having a renewed excitement about piano. It is a joy to see her soul soar while she sits there...it brings her such peace and pure joy.