Happy New Year! I hope 2018 went well for you and the holidays also were happy. Now, after the parties and your hangovers have subsided after a week or so, it’s time to think ahead to our next holiday or vacation. The mundane work we do is already in place and doesn’t need much thought or prepping.
Just think about it, buyers for retail stores are going to wholesalers and conventions and ordering merchandise for the fall for your convenience right now as we speak. We should do the same with our own social lives. Weddings are planned a year in advance, why not plan a Memorial Day party now as well. If nothing else, planning will help take your mind off the long nights and cold temperatures we will endure for the next two or three months.
I have an item that you can buy right now inexpensively and you will use for almost every holiday of the year for years to come.
Let’s step back two months ago. Did you buy a song book just for Christmas songs? It would have cost fifteen to twenty dollars and probably supplied happy memories sitting around the old tannenbaum.
If you did buy one, what will happen to that book for the next 10 months? Probably collect dust in a Christmas storage box. Good luck finding it in November, 2019!
On the other hand, if you bought the “Yankee Collection” for “piano and guitar”, cost $12.95, you will have material for Valentine’s day, Memorial day, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even Chanukah and Christmas which, oh look, brings us full circle.
You could also accompany your kid’s “Yankee Collection” band books (on piano) with the “Band Director’s” book which are all in the compatible keys. Think of it, your own fun, family band all year long. How many family activities can match this concept? If you were to go on a ski outing, the only together time you would actually experience would be the 2 hour drive to the ski slope. That sounds like fun. The rest of the time everyone would be scattered on the mountainside, except for lunch. Wow, now that’s quality family time together. It may be fun but, well you know what I mean.
Four hundred years ago the only family bonding that went on was in the music room playing chamber music with a harpsichord and flute, violin, or cello.
You could revive that tradition, but with a modern piano or electronic keyboard which can actually reproduce the harpsichord sound, accompanying a flute, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, or trombone. You would have the option of buying the String Director’s book to accompany the violin, viola, or cello. And that could be year ‘round activity. Who knows, maybe the family that plays together, stays together.
This could be your New Year’s resolution for the whole family! Going to the gym is optional!
