Maestro Max: My little piano man rocks out

Last night, Max sat down and started playing piano. For the first time, he used his pointer finger to pick out notes, I captured a bit of that here. Not caught on tape: him cracking up when I plinked out Happy Birthday (a song that kills him every single time).

Max has always responded to music; he was able to sing words before he could say them. He is still getting music therapy from Joanne, and he's still singing.

I bumped into a neighbor of ours over the weekend. He's a music major who's taking a year off from college to teach music. He said he'd be game to come by and give the kids some lessons, so I'm taking him up on it this week, and we'll see how it goes.

I know how to play piano, but I'm horrible at note reading. As a kid, I learned by the Suzuki method, which emphasizes playing by listening and repetition. I'd get a record of classical music from my teacher, which I'd play again and again. When I'd finally sit down to play a piece, I knew by heart how it should sound and so it wasn't hard to figure out without having to really read the notes. I can play some stuff really well but it takes me forever how to learn anything new. Also, I don't like playing in front of other people, I'm shy like that.

It would be awesome if Max and Sabrina like piano but if it doesn't happen, I'm not going to force it. My parents were pretty loose about lessons (usually, I was the one asking for them—piano, ballet, photography, whatever), and I'm going to be the same with my kids. But it would be so good for Max to play piano, for so many reasons.

And then I could hire him to entertain for all our parties.