Neighborhood Music Sharing Party

One of my friends in my neighborhood mentioned that it would be really fun to be able to hear all the kids  in the neighborhood who are learning instruments right now, and from that notion came the idea of having a music sharing night at our house, since we happen to be well set up for that kind of thing in the piano room.  Around our house, the neighborhood music sharing party was highly anticipated for weeks.  Both adults and kids were welcome to play, so our family happened to have a lot to contribute.  I played my bass clarinet and the piano, The Banana played her violin and piano, Mr. SP played the piano, and YaYa played the oboe.  Even Mr. TOF was thrilled to get in the action, singing a song from music class and playing the bass C bar along with it.  He was so excited to be included and to have something to “practice” along with everyone else.  In addition to that, among our neighborhood friends were three additional pianists, two more violinists, an a classical guitar player, a couple of singers,  as well as adults who also played violin and whistled.  Hopefully more grown ups will get involved next time, now that they know it’s not scary!

It wasn’t a very complex affair.  I put chairs in the piano room for the audience, and everyone shared their music before having ice cream and cookies.  It was really fun to see all the energetic small people excited to play for one another.  It was even better that mistakes were not a big deal (I made quite a few, actually) and afterward there was much playing and great conversation.  We have decided to make it a staple activity every two or three months or so.

We have a great neighborhood.  I am already thinking about what I want to work on to share at the next neighborhood music night.