Challenges of Parenting a Musically Talented Child
March 02, 2015
There are challenges when you are raising a musically talented child and they just increase when you do it while traveling around the world and as parents without any musical training. It's truly understandable why she is the first child since Wolfgang Armadeus Mozart to do extensive world travel with a violin and piano as it is no easy feat, especially with parents who are not musicians!
If you look closely at this photo above, you will see that the stand for her digital piano is actually an ironing board! These are the kind of "work arounds" we have had to come up with, using all of our creativity of solving the problem of supporting Mozart's musical talents while traveling on a tight budget.
We used an ironing board as a piano stand for her rented digital piano in our first small furnished studio in Dallas!! It works great...just bought a cheap folding chair to sit in. Solved the problem and stayed on budget.
When she was younger in our Spain winter rental, we used free bricks ( like these books) to put the piano on ( sometimes a table) and used a step ladder they had there with a pillow on top as you can see if you look in this video below.
That worked perfect when we were in our rented apartment in the winter in Spain for four years and gave her a music room to share with friends which she loved to do.
We spent late November through usually the 1st of May in our white village in Andalusia, Spain where she went to school to immerse in Spanish, then seven months traveling Europe when we homeschooled on the move.
During that time we'd juggle space in our tiny RV/ cab over camper van and pull out the heavy digital piano every morning after breakfast. I'd have to lay up on the bed to make room and that is where I took this photo from.
When we'd return to Spain every winter, we'd pull the digital piano out and find a place to make it work. Each rental home was a little different, but we got used to being flexible and making it work. People thought we were crazy to carry a super heavy, top-of-the-line Yamaha digital piano with weighted keys, but we're glad we did!
Sometimes we'd also use pianos at hotels like Mozart above at the Armadeus hotel in Seville with her visiting aunt from California watching or below at a hotel in Turkey where she made friends with the owners son.
When we based in Asia for Mozart's Mandarin immersion, we found teachers for violin ...
...and piano easily.
In Asia like in these photos..we bought a cheap piano and table and she stood...plus went regularly to practice on the real piano at the nearby International school!
One must stay creative on the road! At least the violin is more easily portable ( although with a growing child that was sometimes tricky as she has gone through several sizes as we traveled and finding a good violin in a foreign land adds challenge). Nevertheless traveling the world with a piano is much trickier than with a violin! We still have a digital piano stored in Europe in our camper van and we have one here now.
The one we recently bought here is Williams Allegro 88 keys with piano touch and we rented a similar one in California when we were there for 5 months one winter (from Starving Musician for cheap).
The one in Asia was just a cheap Casio because we could get lessons on a good full piano at the international school nearby. We stored that one a few years, but sold it before leaving for the same price we bought it.
Mozart has always had gifts in music from babyhood, but she is gifted in many areas like math, science, art, writing, so we had no idea that she would become so passionate about it in her teens. We just wanted her to have the basics as it was her first love.
So much has happened so quickly for her since she turned 13, that now we are certainly glad that despite the many challenges, we supported her musical talents even as we traveled the world. I hope that encourages other parents who might also face challenges in this area.
N
There are challenges when you are raising a musically talented child and they just increase when you do it while traveling around the world and as parents without any musical training. It's truly understandable why she is the first child since Wolfgang Armadeus Mozart to do extensive world travel with a violin and piano as it is no easy feat, especially with parents who are not musicians!
If you look closely at this photo above, you will see that the stand for her digital piano is actually an ironing board! These are the kind of "work arounds" we have had to come up with, using all of our creativity of solving the problem of supporting Mozart's musical talents while traveling on a tight budget.
We used an ironing board as a piano stand for her rented digital piano in our first small furnished studio in Dallas!! It works great...just bought a cheap folding chair to sit in. Solved the problem and stayed on budget.
When she was younger in our Spain winter rental, we used free bricks ( like these books) to put the piano on ( sometimes a table) and used a step ladder they had there with a pillow on top as you can see if you look in this video below.
That worked perfect when we were in our rented apartment in the winter in Spain for four years and gave her a music room to share with friends which she loved to do.
We spent late November through usually the 1st of May in our white village in Andalusia, Spain where she went to school to immerse in Spanish, then seven months traveling Europe when we homeschooled on the move.
During that time we'd juggle space in our tiny RV/ cab over camper van and pull out the heavy digital piano every morning after breakfast. I'd have to lay up on the bed to make room and that is where I took this photo from.
When we'd return to Spain every winter, we'd pull the digital piano out and find a place to make it work. Each rental home was a little different, but we got used to being flexible and making it work. People thought we were crazy to carry a super heavy, top-of-the-line Yamaha digital piano with weighted keys, but we're glad we did!
Sometimes we'd also use pianos at hotels like Mozart above at the Armadeus hotel in Seville with her visiting aunt from California watching or below at a hotel in Turkey where she made friends with the owners son.
When we based in Asia for Mozart's Mandarin immersion, we found teachers for violin ...
...and piano easily.
In Asia like in these photos..we bought a cheap piano and table and she stood...plus went regularly to practice on the real piano at the nearby International school!
One must stay creative on the road! At least the violin is more easily portable ( although with a growing child that was sometimes tricky as she has gone through several sizes as we traveled and finding a good violin in a foreign land adds challenge). Nevertheless traveling the world with a piano is much trickier than with a violin! We still have a digital piano stored in Europe in our camper van and we have one here now.
The one we recently bought here is Williams Allegro 88 keys with piano touch and we rented a similar one in California when we were there for 5 months one winter (from Starving Musician for cheap).
The one in Asia was just a cheap Casio because we could get lessons on a good full piano at the international school nearby. We stored that one a few years, but sold it before leaving for the same price we bought it.
Mozart has always had gifts in music from babyhood, but she is gifted in many areas like math, science, art, writing, so we had no idea that she would become so passionate about it in her teens. We just wanted her to have the basics as it was her first love.
So much has happened so quickly for her since she turned 13, that now we are certainly glad that despite the many challenges, we supported her musical talents even as we traveled the world. I hope that encourages other parents who might also face challenges in this area.
N
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You guys have done awesome for Mozart! And it really shows in her sharing her gifts with the world.
We, too travel with a portable keyboard, flute (easy-peasy) and guitar. The keyboard "sleeps" with me in the trailer, while the guitar "bunks" with the boy.
Posted by: robyn | March 08, 2015 at 01:20 PM
A wonderful post in sharing how you do what you do. I have enjoyed reading your blog from the very beginning. My own 14-year-old loves Mozart's song and watches her on You Now (I think that is what it is!?) after I shared this blog with her. What an exciting journey she is taking YOU on now! :D
Posted by: Michelle | March 27, 2015 at 09:33 AM
What a talent ... hope she keeps blossoming into the star she will be someday!
Posted by: James | April 05, 2015 at 12:39 AM
Thanks so much Michelle! Sorry it took me a while to get to this, it's been a little crazy lately!! ;)
So happy to hear you have read this blog from the beginning...boy lots of reading!! ;) So sweet too that your 14 year old enjoys Mozart's music.
She is indeed taking us on quite a journey and I often feel like I can barely keep my head above water as this was not the plan, but that said, we are learning so much and loving that she is finding her bliss this way!
Posted by: jeanne @soultravelers3 | April 22, 2015 at 11:04 PM
Aw, you are too sweet Robyn! Also sorry I took so long to answer you..what a whirl wind we are in, so the poor blog gets neglected a bit.
Music and traveling to go well together and if there is the will, there is always a way! ;)
Posted by: jeanne @soultravelers3 | April 22, 2015 at 11:05 PM
Aw, thanks so much James!! We never expected to go this route, but at this point , we sure are glad we put the extra effort into traveling with musical instruments!
Posted by: jeanne @soultravelers3 | April 22, 2015 at 11:12 PM