We knew early that our youngest had musical talent when, as an infant he would wail when I sang in the shower. I love to sing but I'm told it's not one of my talents, and he understood this from birth and he let me know about it. This can be good because older people are often too “nice” to say anything, or if not, they are just obnoxious, and cause fights. I've been singing for years, and all this time no one told me I sang off-key and offended people.
My wife specializes in voice and piano training and quickly recognized his talent realizing that he has one of those “gifts,” which can be both a blessing and a curse, but if combined with a strong work ethic and a serious attitude, can have extraordinary results.
As a kid he continued to receive awards and trophies for his playing and practice skills, but he refused to grow height-wise, and the more complex pieces required larger hands. Besides, how many thousands of pianists are out there, so to stand-out requires great talent and not a small amount of luck.
She began to introduce him to the sounds of different instruments and he liked the sound of the clarinet, so we borrowed one and let him blow. Both his mother and I both played the clarinet when we were young so we knew a little bit about how one should sound, and I liked the idea because then I could teach him what I remembered. He was seven when he first blew the instrument, and I swear he sounded better than mine did after four years at 12 years old.
So he started playing the clarinet, and absorbed everything his mother and I could teach him in about 15 minutes. Since then he has been amazing other experts on the instrument, and as a high school junior, is taking aim at the best music schools with the most money, because he will need it.
He attends one of the top five arts high schools in the country. This should provide him the foundation for wherever he wants to go musically, assuming he can survive the twice daily trips in and out of the city, on the light rail. This kind of risk is an occupational hazard for many creative types who must frequent the inner cities to find the best training.
He is also good in sports like soccer, baseball and even football, but this arts school doesn't even have a gym, and after spending a bundle on a newly renovated building, won't be able to afford one for at least another 100 years.
Attending the arts school has been good to break him into the realities of the “real” world. He attended Christian school, and then home school throughout junior high, so some will say he was sheltered. The public arts school is composed of 60% inner city kids, and at first it was quite a culture shock. These aren't regular kids either; many are highly talented artists, musicians, singers, dancers and actors, some with the arrogance and egos to match the talents, and some with only arrogance and ego.
We've always taught our kids that their “talents” are a gift from God, and their determination and hard work ethics come from their mother and the genes on that side of the family. We aren't yet certain of my contribution, we're still working on it, acknowledging their procrastination and propensities for keeping a messy room came from somewhere. All four of our kids are talented philosophers, musicians, singers, and dancers, but not a plumber or electrician in the lot to support me in my old age.
The public arts school has been an eye opening experience for our son, like when some moron put a knife to his throat, just as a joke we are told, or when the bullies on the light rail bothered his friend. His nick-name to that point had been “Little Dude,” but changed to “Light Rail Defender,” when he scattered a group who were bullying a friend, with a couple of well chosen karate moves. So I guess he can defend himself, but I still get concerned that he might run into some bad guys better armed than he in an inner city known for its' “Wild West” mentality.
All in all, arts school has been a good thing for him. Professional opportunities abound, and the level of instruction in all subjects is superior. Technical subjects are taught in a way that the creative mind can best understand and apply the principles. There must be something to that right brain, left brain stuff, because I finally understood algebra after sitting in once on my son's math class. I know my educational experience would have been better if I had the advantages of arts school, except that I would probably still sing off-key and would have flunked the creative part.
Now that I'm on disability my schedule is more flexible and I can ride “shotgun.” While I foresee this as a means of steady employment as a bodyguard in the future, my kids have expressed some reservations about being protected by a crippled old fogy with a heart condition. Since I usually carry the instrument, drive him to and from performances, and keep the water bottle filled, I'm usually just called “roady.”
