When They Begin The Beguine ...Doo du du du doo

Laura's been learning the clarinet since September and she's coming on in leaps and bounds. She knows D E F G A and with those 5 notes you can play some pretty good tunes. The quality of the notes has improved in the last few weeks, too, and her playing sounds more mellow and controlled. She's chuffed to bits with herself, also, that she is learning to read music. I don't think that had occurred to her but it has now dawned on her that she knows what all those notes, rests, pauses and time signatures mean and where to apply them.

The other night she was having a little "jam session", after her formal practice, and as she tootled I realised she was playing the start of "Begin the Beguine". A bit of la-la-la and doo-doo-dooing from me and she can play the first 8 bars now. Watch out, Arty Shaw, Laura C's coming up.

She's brought the cornet home again this week but she hasn't done anything with it. She can play an E on it, and so can I since she showed me, we gave the plumbers quite a shock last week when we all had a go. Somehow, I don't think she's going to end up playing in the redoubtable Warrington Silver Band - but I'll be happy if she joins the British Glenn Miller Orchestra one day.

It's funny how musicianship runs in families. My parents were both musical, dad was in a band for years - drummer/singer and sometimes pianist. I'm told his father was a singer and I followed that tradition, singing for years, in an amateur capacity, Operatic, Folk and Jazz. My daughters are quite musical but my son is lead guitarist with 2 bands (one semi-pro) and he is brilliant (even though I don't like the music he plays. I'm not into Heavy Metal and Punk). My grandson also plays guitar, though he's not at Uncle Alan's standard yet, and now the music gene seems to have hit Laura too. I couldn't be more pleased.