I’ve talked about my son being interested in music before. He’s constantly surrounded by guitars, drums, pianos and other instruments on account of having musically inclined and interested parents, as well as an extended family interested in music of all forms. He’s been listening to music since he was a very young boy (in the womb, in fact) and it’s always been important to him. He dances and wiggles his pointer fingers when he hears anything resembling a beat (I can’t adequately describe how cute this dance actually is) and is always the life of the party (he had a date to prom before turning one). So, when I say that our son is interested in music, it isn’t an understatement. As his grandfather (a lifelong drummer) said after putting some sticks into his hands and watching him play the entire set and generally keep rhythm “has he done this before!?”
At any rate, something interesting has been happening recently. As a student of theatre I find it sort of fascinating. Our son is beginning to pretend. How do I know this? Well, aside from him playing my guitar at every chance he gets, and singing his own made up songs (with a key word from other songs he really likes and asks for all the time), I can tell because he’s been playing a very tiny wooden guitar. Now, before you think I’m making this up, or that the guitar is just a very tiny guitar with real strings, let me be quite clear: the guitar is from a puzzle. He received a wooden puzzle game containing various instruments as pieces. The object of the game is to place the pieces correctly and, if you do, you hear that instrument make a sound. This piece is maybe three inches in length and is basically a sticker on a thin piece of wood. Our son carries this around strumming and singing songs. He’s even had me play it on occasion. That is the “little” guitar.