When I married Glen, I made no secret of the fact that I hoped that they would inherit his naturally straight teeth, his ability to digest milk without producing noxious gas, and his ability to sing in tune. Crain genetics were not kind in any of those departments and I held out hope that our kids would fare a little better. So far we're 0 for 5 on the naturally straight teeth, 3 for 5 in the ability to digest milk (with the other 2 that are too young to know yet), and only one of my kids sings as out-of-tune as I do.
Although all of the kids are far more musically inclined than I was, it's Emma who really seems to have inherited the strong musical genes that hale from both sides of Glen's family. She was born singing (in tune) and hasn't stopped since. We have videos of her as a toddler, where she would sing and sing and sing, pushing siblings out of the way to make sure that the camera stayed on her. I tried really hard to get one of those videos off of the DVD and onto the computer to show you how cute it was, but alas it defies my tech skills and you will just have to imagine a spunky little red-headed two-year-old belting out primary songs while constantly pushing past any showboat siblings that may have tried to get between her and the front of the camera. She sang in bed, sang sitting on the potty, and sang during mealtimes.
Fast forward a decade and she is still putting those lungs to good use and gracing our home with beautiful music. She doesn't fight for camera time anymore, since most of her siblings are only all too happy to relinquish it, but out of all of our kids she is the least shy about sharing her musical talents with others. Not only has she already sung solos and duets in church, but she also recently started taking voice lessons and recently was very honored to be chosen to participate in the 6th Grade All-County Chorus Festival.
The festival is an annual event that has been going on for about 40 years now. Not only do they have to audition, but they also only choose a handful of students from each school. They are required to practice at home and attend several practices (all over the county ) in smaller groups for months in advance. Finally on April 20th all 900+ participants gathered from the over 120 elementary schools in our county and combined to form one fabulous sounding elementary school choir!
We were far away and couldn't see her all that well, but the music was fantastic...
This song was the final song of the performance and Emma's very favorite...
(Note: I did not actually take this video)
Although all of the kids are far more musically inclined than I was, it's Emma who really seems to have inherited the strong musical genes that hale from both sides of Glen's family. She was born singing (in tune) and hasn't stopped since. We have videos of her as a toddler, where she would sing and sing and sing, pushing siblings out of the way to make sure that the camera stayed on her. I tried really hard to get one of those videos off of the DVD and onto the computer to show you how cute it was, but alas it defies my tech skills and you will just have to imagine a spunky little red-headed two-year-old belting out primary songs while constantly pushing past any showboat siblings that may have tried to get between her and the front of the camera. She sang in bed, sang sitting on the potty, and sang during mealtimes.
Fast forward a decade and she is still putting those lungs to good use and gracing our home with beautiful music. She doesn't fight for camera time anymore, since most of her siblings are only all too happy to relinquish it, but out of all of our kids she is the least shy about sharing her musical talents with others. Not only has she already sung solos and duets in church, but she also recently started taking voice lessons and recently was very honored to be chosen to participate in the 6th Grade All-County Chorus Festival.
The festival is an annual event that has been going on for about 40 years now. Not only do they have to audition, but they also only choose a handful of students from each school. They are required to practice at home and attend several practices (all over the county ) in smaller groups for months in advance. Finally on April 20th all 900+ participants gathered from the over 120 elementary schools in our county and combined to form one fabulous sounding elementary school choir!
We were far away and couldn't see her all that well, but the music was fantastic...
(Note: I did not actually take this video)
Forgive the shaky camera in this video I did take. This was another of Emma's favorite songs and shows a little better of how far away we were....
We are so proud of our Emma and how hard she has worked to improve upon the musical talents she was blessed with. Not only does she sing like an angel, but she is also proving herself to be a talented and hard working piano and clarinet player as well.
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"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. "
-Victor Hugo
2 comments:
Apologies from Mom and I for burdening our children with our tone-deaf genes. Delighted that our children have each married musically inclined spouses with both Glen and Tom having amazing professional quality voice.
Double delighted that some of our grandchildren have inherited the non-Crain musical genetics.
Emma, you are a wonderful singer and we loved your concert. Especially loved-loved the first song, which almost sounded African with its rhythms.
Go Emma! You rock for getting into the choir and for taking voice lessons and for singing solos and duets and for being awesome!
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