Jam Session

Our upstairs neighbor is learning and playing the Irish tin whistle at all hours - usually when Ben is asleep. Which is disappointing because the one person who would really enjoy such serenading is Ben.

So we invited our neighbor over for a jam session. Sunday morning at 9 am. A time we know he likes to practice. It is very hard to explain a jam session to a upright engineer of a German (much less not laugh when he calls it "the cham"): a jam session is where we play songs and sing and everyone is just going to do the best they can. So we got out our glockenspiel - which we got Ben for Christmas but that mostly George plays - and our other percussion instruments. Ben played the tambourine and the kazoo and I did my best to just keep a steady beat to keep us going together. And we set a specific time limit because there was a two year old involved and because if it is a complete fail you want to be able to know when your escape is coming.

Onkle Tom hat einen Bauernhof/Old MacDonald had a Farm was a big hit complete with farm animals. And we did Frere Jacques in French, German and English. And Scarborough Fair, Sally's Garden and some solo Irish tune were also featured. And we tried to finish with an open music time or free play accompanying a song on CD but our neighbor got nervous with such improvisation.

A worthwhile adventure! Ben got to play music and was facsinated by the tin whistle. Now we just have to explain we like to play music but are not going to attend a 3 day Celtic music celebration next month.