How To Make Art A Family Matter

0 CommentsWednesday • January 12, 2011 • by Imei

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Growing up in a musical family, practice times were a mix of pain and pleasure. As noted in Amy Chua’s new book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, it’s not the first hour of piano practice that’s hard; it’s the second and third. While three-hour piano practices on the weekends weren’t easy for me, I look back and realize they could not have been easy on everyone else’e ears either. At least by then, the piano was in the basement, and everyone else at home would have a corner in which to flee from Hanon drills and bad renditions of Beethovan.

On the flip side, I have memories of accompanying my father on piano whilst he played the flute, doing duets on the recorder with my sister, and snuggled up next to my brother during mini-piano lessons in the seasons between piano teachers. I couldn’t reach the pedals when I first started to play, but by then, making art was a family matter. There was no doubt in my mind that all of us would play an instrument, and we would play well.

Making music could be expensive back then. My father purchased one silver flute, and rented band instruments for my sister and I: a saxophone, and two flutes. The piano was a green monstrosity, rarely tuned, with one note in the upper register (I think it was C) that no longer produced an audible tone. Gifted to us from a neighbor needing to reduce their belongings, the piano was dragged from home to home over the years. Yet, of all sacrifices that my parents made, having that piano- and being required to practice if I was to ever see my friends again – is one painful element of my growing up years that I am most grateful for.

Recently, my friend Barb asked me to play the piano for her New Year’s Eve guests at the home of her boyfriend. In a lovely front room was a beautiful Kawai white baby grand in great condition, tuned, and ready to be played. While it’s been years since I’ve played for performance (and you could tell!), the joy of playing music has never left me. I played a page of an old Chopin piece, and then I futzed with a mix of two pop pieces, played and sung by ear, and used my iPad to scroll the lyrics of the song. With everyone surrounding the piano, and a little girl twirling to the music, it felt the closest to those moments of playing with family than I’ve had in a long time.

Check out this Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes acoustic cover done by father and daughter Jorge & Alexa Narvaez

With technology, making art a part of your family’s routine is easier than ever. Garage Band for Mac has corrective software that allows you to see how well you performed a piece compared to the original music. New applications such as Amplitube 2 with the iRig transforms your iPhone into a mobile guitar amplifier and processor board. Don’t have a guitar? ishred is the app Atomic Tom used for their video of their iPhone band on the subway, and it’s hard to beat $4.99 for the app. Sing using the I-am-T-pain app, and you’re on your way to autotuning heaven. Of course, having a few iPhone4′s in one home is pricey. But the music you’ll make: priceless.

How can you make your art a family affair? Do you paint together? Watch cartoons and make Play-doh sculptures? Do a bake off and submit recipes to food blogs? Let me know what you do to keep creativity flowing in your home. And if you haven’t already done so, please follow me on the blog and on Twitter @hipsforhire.

Editor’s note: don’t tell your kids that playing an instrument well is a means of attracting dates. They’ll figure that out soon enough. And for a terrific example of someone who makes creativity a family matter, see this article about Chuck Gamble in WI, who runs Lucky Radish studio from his home.

Posted in: Art

Tagged with: art, family, music, technology