"Your greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God may not be something you do, but someone you raise." ~Andy Stanley

June 21, 2007

The future band

Our goal is to one day have a family band that can worship the Lord together on instruments.
My hubby played the guitar a little, before we married. He and some other people in our small church way back when, took lessons so that we could have live praise and worship.
Soon after that a 5th baby joined our family...not really a child, a guitar. A Martin. And is 'Martin' ever loved and cared for. : )

Even when our house was only 800 and something square feet, we were determined to fit instruments in it and play. We had a keyboard packed into our little living room and a digital drum set (very space saving) in the hallway. (kind of hard to play along from the hallway though!)

When we added on to our house, we also closed in our carport and that became the 'family room.' My hubby and I both dreamed about that room for years! It's where they can play together, that is when it isn't being used as the 'temporary kitchen.'

Zachary is our drummer. He took six mo. of lessons several years ago. His teacher said that "he was born to be a drummer." He loves it. Now, he has a regular drum set and is it ever loud. He plays along to contemporary Christian music on his ipod to practice. He loves to practice!!!
Joy took a session of voice lessons a couple years ago. Daddy wants her to be our vocalist. She has a pretty voice and can sing high notes that I won't reach until I get my glorified, heavenly body. : ) Now, she wants to learn acoustic guitar and so that is what Daddy is working on with her right now. One day, those two will be so cute, playing and singing together. My hubby has a great voice!



Andrew has had to wait until the magic age of eight (like everyone else) to join the family band. We are still saving up for his electric guitar which he decided was his instrument of choice years ago. He is learning on Daddy's adult one for now.


We found out that he's also got some skills on the drums recently....And we only found out because Zach was away for the weekend. ; ) He doesn't share his drums. But, Andrew doesn't mind living dangerously and so he gave them a try and the little guy has 'skills!' I was surprised at how much he has learned from one or two lessons from Zach and just watching him play all the time. He played them all that weekend. We thought at one point, Andrew wouldn't live to see age nine because something happened to the foot pedal but thankfully Daddy was able to fix it. : ) When I told him that Zach wasn't going to be too happy about him playing his drums without asking, he said "I know. I'm going to have to confess and tell him I played his drums and that I'm good at it!" I guess Zach was impressed too because ever since then, Andrew can be heard playing the drums and he isn't even tackled for it. : )
Nathan is our keyboard player. He's had a beat inside of him since he was a baby! He is gifted at it. It comes easy to him. (unlike me) He can memorize any song and play some from ear. He and I took keyboard lessons together. We learned to play chords so that we could quickly learn to play worship songs. After trying to figure out some of the famous composers' songs by ear, Nathan decided his goal is to be able to play classical music and so he is taking lessons again, but this time starting from the beginning, so to speak, by learning to read music.
Carlos is going to be in the family band too. (Because he's 'family') And so now the band will have a trumpet player one day. That is, when we aren't adding on to or remodeling our house and actually have time to practice! : )

It's a long process but my hubby makes sure we all keep at it.
One day, Lord willing, we will all be:
"...sing(ing) praises to Your name,
O Most High; to declare Your loving kindness in the morning
and your faithfulness at night on an instrument of ten strings,
on the lute, and on the harp,
with harmonious sound." Psalm 92:2-3
~Still have a lot of work to do on that harmonious sound part. : )
~Becky

1 comment:

Yvonne said...

Hey Becky, A family band is an excellent goal! The boys want to do the same thing. But we're making them learn to read music. They're doing great! Matt is on bass guitar, Andrew on guitar and Sam is learning both guitar and keyboards. It's fun! ~Yvonne