For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 27, 2014

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    Can't Sleep  almost 11 years ago

    Jeeze, duck – Look at the art. We see the boys from 3/4 view from the front, a side view, and 3/4 view from behind. Different angles reveal parts of different houses. I don’t know about where you live – maybe in a little house on a prarie – but where I live there are houses behind each other, and some that you can even see from the next street over.I’d love to see some of your art samples sometime.

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    Wren Fahel  almost 11 years ago

    I loved taking keyboard lessons as a kid, and would voluntarily spend hours in our basement practicing. It broke my heart when my parents had to discontinue the lessons ($$$). My older daughter is taking violin and she loves it just as much as I loved keyboard. Thankfully, her school offers it for free, so she can do it as long as she attends.

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    rshive  almost 11 years ago

    What will happen will happen. But sometimes I wonder whether lessons like that are more for the adults or for the children. Both will end up getting some benefit from it, though the children may not immediately recognize it.

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    masnadies  almost 11 years ago

    My friends had lessons, and I didn’t. As an adult, everybody I know who didn’t have lessons regrets it. Never heard that from anyone who can play. I hope to have money for my kids to have lessons in the coming year or 2. Let them choose what. I’d liek to learn the piano, myself.

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    GSJohnson  almost 11 years ago

    My son took piano when little and hated it. Then he started the double bass in 5th grade at school, and now is a professional bassist. Sometimes it just depends on the instrument.

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    jaeldid66  almost 11 years ago

    Learning music also improves analytical and math skills. Even if they never play it again, it benefits their brains!

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    Argy.Bargy2  almost 11 years ago

    It’s funny how this whole thing with music lessons goes. When I was a kid, the Pittsburgh public schools would provide basic lessons for kids if the parents requested it. (Otherwise, you had a class on ‘chorus’). -My father had played a violin, so I wanted to learn. I was terrible. Turned out I was tone deaf (who knew?!) , so I couldn’t figure out that what I was playing sounded nothing like what the teacher played. The teacher basically suggested to my parents that maybe I wasn’t, uh, gifted in that area (and my father did more than suggest it to me), so I reluctantly gave it up. I really did it more to get out of chorus class, since it was already apparent to me that I was no singer (due to the same problem.) In fact, my chorus teacher asked me to just mouth the words, because I was throwing off everyone around me.-My younger brother turned out to have a natural ear for music. Did well at his lessons and ended up in a city wide orchestra for kids (which is probably no longer available in the school district in Pgh; no money for it.) He no longer plays for any reason other than his own pleasure, but is always happy he had the lessons.-Our older cousin had a mother who taught piano, and insisted on teaching him. He hated the lessons and would always refuse to play if any relatives or even friends asked him. So I never knew whether the lessons did him any good. After his death, a number of his friends came to his funeral and told me that they met him because he sat in on jazz sessions at clubs and played beautifully. Again, though, if others asked him to play, he refused…-So I guess the lessons thing can turn into one of those parent-child battlegrounds, like doing homework versus playing ball, unless the kid is really interested in music on his or her own and asks for lessons….

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    hippogriff  almost 11 years ago

    jaeldid66: Music is a field of math. Music theory was started when Pythagoras discovered the octave (half the length at same tension is an octave higher in pitch), he did more than play with right triangles. Einstein was good enough with the violin to play with some of the top musicians of the day.

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    westny77  almost 11 years ago

    When something is forced down your throat you will not do well at it. Religion was forced down my throat so I’m not religious. However my parents made me stick with accounting in college since it was a bread and butter subject.I wanted to go with marketing. It turned out well since I enjoy doing accounting it for a living. Go figure.

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