Let's Form A Band, Daddy

I have no idea what a kid is going to grow up into. As a parent I can only encourage. I can only present my child with opportunities to learn. I can only be an example through my own activities, and if my child is inspired to explore areas that I am unfamiliar with then I must be ready to learn, too, so I can teach.

I took up the harmonica and joined a band to keep myself sane. Stranger in a strange land, and all that. I learned the basics of guitar so I could understand what my band mate was doing, and I bought a keyboard I so could understand intervals and chords, key signatures and modes. And over the years I have collected tambourines and chimes, cowbells and bongos. And somewhere in there, I had a little girl, and she has grown up seeing me play and I have taken her to practices.

I don’t think you can teach a five year old. You facilitate their joy and confidence. And they become little band directors. And, if you listen, if you allow them to show you what they can do, and if you teach yourself so you can show them what they want to know, you will be the better for it. You will be part of their childhood, and their childhood will be part of you.

“I’m a better keyboard player than you,” she says.

And she is, too. I am the second most smartest person in the world, according to her, and she is the first.

“We should make a band,” she says. Her on keyboards and me on harmonica.

“And what about the guitar? You should play for guitar.”

I haven’t touched the guitar in over a year, not since I flipped the Fender… well, a black and white Korean plywood copy. I was having trouble with the spread of my left hand, and the strumming with my right was sounding stiff. Now I am going to have to re-learn everything. But I will do it for her. Because, before, she would strum while I made shapes on the neck. And she remembered. And I am the bestest guitar player in the world, according to her. And I don’t know if the distant possibility of fame and fortune is worth putting the work in. But I know my daughter is.

“Let’s form a band, Daddy. Let’s form a band.”