Everyone can be a great musician

When I was a child, I always watched my elderly sister’s piano lessons. Her fingers moved very quickly and created beautiful sounds. I wanted to be like her and be able to play the piano which made our family extra happy with this music.

One day, I learned how to play Twinkle, Twinkle little Star on the harmonica at kindergarten. Right after I came back from kindergarten, I sat on the piano chair and tried to play it on the piano. I tried and tried to play the tune Twinkle, Twinkle, little Star but after ten minutes of practicing on the piano, I stopped playing and decided myself that I was not very musical.

Since then, I hav avoided playing any musical instrument until I met a coworker who can play various musical instruments and composed music by himself.

“Chiaki! Why don’t you learn a musical instrument?” My coworker asked me when I started to work at Ohana. I said, “I want to! But I’m busy! Maybe later!”

Three years later, he asked me the same question again and this time I said,

“Yes. I think I am ready to learn the ukulele now!”

Since I started to work at Ohana, I realized that music is magic for children and I started to think that I wanted to be a part of this magic one day. When my coworker opened his guitar case and held his guitar, everyone became quiet. He strummed his guitar, and all the children smiled and sang songs, jumped high and expressed their feeling by dancing to the music that he played on his guitar.

Also, there is extensive research that has shown that music has a positive impact on children. It helps to remove stress and boost happiness. Children develop their language skills by singing and memorizing songs naturally. Music also leads children to develop their fine motor skills by playing a musical instrument and their gross motor skills can further be developed by dancing and moving their bodies.

After I got my ukulele, I brought it to school so that I could learn how to play it little by little. As you can imagine, it was really difficult for me, in the beginning. Even just strumming the ukulele without creating a cord, was challenging for me. Yet, I practiced playing the ukulele at least one hour every day, even though my fingers became numb from holding the chords so tightly.   While I was practicing the ukulele, my coworker always complimented me, and it really helped me to not lose the passion to play it with children.

A week later, I finally was able to play Twinkle, Twinkle little Star, all by myself. I felt full of satisfaction and I was ready to play the ukulele in front of the children. The next day, I showed my ukulele to the children during my circle time. All the children looked at me and seemed to be wondering what will happen with the ukulele. And some of them appeared confused because I held the ukulele, not my coworker. I became nervous and I could hear my heart beating. I was about to put my ukulele back inside the ukulele case. Yet, my passion to be a music magician won over my fear of playing ukulele.

“Who likes to sing a song?” I asked the children.

They said, “Yes!”

I said, “Wonderful! Let’s sing Twinkle, Twinkle little Star!”

All the children’s eyes sparkled when they heard my ukulele and they sang the song with energy and beautiful voices. Some children even started to dance and smiled at their friends. I felt so grateful after playing the ukulele and felt everyone can be a great musician. The feeling of making magic through music for children and sharing happiness is so beautiful.

Since then, I keep practicing the ukulele to be a better musician. So far, I can play seven to ten children’s songs all by myself. Whenever, I bring my ukulele to the classroom, children often ask me to play it and soon I will have a regular music session with children playing drums and their sweet singing voices.

If you hesitate to play a musical instrument because you think you cannot play like I felt before, my advice to you, is to find the passion to play any musical instrument.  Keep practicing even though you may want to give up or you lose the passion to play. Once, you find the happiness when playing a musical instrument, you can be one of the greatest musicians, readily sharing your happiness with others.

Sincerely,

Chiaki

Photo taken from: https://www.vidpaw.com/blog/best-online-ukulele-lessons.html