As the mother of a child who is leaving for college in the fall as a
performance major, I have really enjoyed this thread.
My older daughter, a cellist and singer, has been taking some sort
of music lessons since about age 4, with varying degrees of
involvement over the years. She started with Suzuki violin, switched
to cello for the school orchestra in fifth grade (she liked the fact that
the case had lots of little pockets for storage of music and such).
She and her younger sister have both been in excellent church
choirs since they were four, and schools choirs since junior high.
As for sight reading, I vividly remember the older girl sitting on my
bed one day with a hymnbook from another church, sight singing
hymns she had never heard. I was flabbergasted.
Both girls sing beautifully, with the younger girl probably having the
better voice, BUT the older daughter is much better technically,
because of years of instrumental music and a flair for it. The
younger girl never wanted to take an instrument until this year, and
she's starting, at age 15, because she likes the teacher and she
doesn't want to be a "dumb singer" who can't read music.
The 18-year-old goes for auditions at Centenary in Louisiana next
month, and she is not concerned in the least about the theory test or
the sight-singing requirement. She's been doing it for years and is
just not concerned. She is, however, concerned about the need to
sing an aria or art song, and has just starting learning them (about a
month ago.) She is a show singing, does musicals and such, and
sings at church, but has done no opera work. That part worries her.
Her cello audition ought to be all right, as she is used to playing
classical string music. I suppose there isn't much opportunity to play
pop cello.
I have rambled on forever, and the point, if there is one, is that kids
are different, and the will do well, if inclined, in what they are
exposed to. My younger, non-technical daughter may end up a
vocal performance major, and her teacher thinks she has opera
potential. But she will require far more nudging along the way that
her sister, who picked up sight singing and theory almost from
birth...and they were raised by the same parents who have
surrounded them with music forever.
If there is no other reason to teach your kids music, I have to say
that there is just nothing like having two girls sitting on the foot of my
bed, singing in harmony. I love it, and when they go off to college, I
will sure miss it.
Abby Ross
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