Our Story

October 2000

It's one of those lovely fall days that I anticipate all year. The air is crisp and smells of wood-smoke and snow. As I stand at my kitchen sink washing dishes I find myself caught up in the strains of music that dance in the air all around my home. The plaintive notes are the culmination of many years of an earnest endeavor to develop in my children a genuine and abiding love of classical music. Where did the time go? Now twelve year-old Octavian is teaching his father and brother how to play his new classical guitar. Their laughter rings out as they pluck the strings and muddle through their beginner's songs. Occasionally the sweet mellow notes of Antony's piano can be heard amongst the repetitive thrum, thrum, thrum. I hear him patiently telling Octavian where to place his fingers on the keyboard and they discuss the differences between the two instruments and how to play them. They want to play a duet of Beethoven's Ode to Joy this Christmas?

I so loved Nancy Wallace's stories of her children's music lessons. I read Better Than School, her book about homeschooling the now-famous Vita and Ishmael when Octavian was only five and I remember feeling overwhelmed by her dedication to their musical education. Whew. Could I ever do that?

Well, being the musical dolt that I am it took a new theory and a child's need to equip me with the impetus for action. When Octavian was nine I read about The Mozart Effect, by Don Campbell, a new book explaining the profoundly beneficial effects of Mozart's music on the developing child. At the time Antony was in the throes of emotional change and often found himself at the end of his tether. I suppose there comes a time in every dynamic duo's existence when the follower breaks away and becomes his own man, but Antony's stake in independence was really taking its toll on his composure. I decided to give the Mozart Effect a try.

Whenever seven year-old Antony had a melt down I would ask him to accompany me to the quiet living room to listen to Mozart and sit on my lap for some cuddling. Pretty soon he was removing himself from conflict to disappear into strains of soothing music. He actually adopted this technique as a self-control method.

Fueled by the first blush of success, we bought a 10 CD boxed set of Mozart's music. From there we acquired a similar set of ten different composers' music and found ourselves listening to classical music all day every day. Antony began taking piano lessons as a way to claim for himself a domain exclusively his own and we accompanied him to weekly lessons. All of this exposure boosted our confidence and it was in this cosmic soup of musical stimulus that the game, MUSIC MASTER, was born.

Home | Top of Page