Cat prefers live music (04/09/07)

Gracie, the calico cat, doesn't like saxophone music. Actually, she didn't appear to mind the live concert that took place in my living room recently. It was the recorded version she objected to by trying to bite the tape recorder. Or maybe she was trying to find the off button. I've never seen her attack like that before.

My 11-year-old nephew, Jadyn, came over last week. He brought his saxophone with him. He has only been playing for a few months, since the beginning of the school year. About half way through his performance I decided that I should record his playing. I had to let my temporarily-out-of-town husband hear it and then send it off to Texas to share with my daughter.

We have been remodeling the house for several decades now and the room he chose didn't have any outlets or lights so we created ambiance by placing several lanterns in strategic locations. It's good practice for future playing in dimly lit venues. The first time I tried to record him I pushed the wrong button on the recorder since I couldn't see which one it was. I got it right the second time.

He went through his entire repertoire a third time and in spite of several jarring squawks and a couple declarations of, "Oops," I recognized every song he played. I thought that was pretty good as quite a while back I decided to take piano lessons. In spite of several years of instruction I never did manage to play anything anyone could recognize.

Jadyn was so serious and formal as he announced each song and described what made it special. At one point he explained a dotted half note and a slur. He announced there would be no encore although he did pose afterward for some pictures. I can't wait until I see if they came out or not. Maybe I should have insisted on an autograph. He might be president someday.

The concert came after he and his mother had helped me with the paper route. I obtained an extra newspaper bag and loaded him up with about a third of the papers, some rubber bands, dog biscuits and a bottle of water.

That lasted about a block and a half. Then his mom got stuck carrying the bag and putting the rubber bands around them. Jadyn ran up to the first 20 or so houses before he slowed down to a walk. He complained that not many dogs were out and about to receive his dog biscuits.

By the time we were almost finished he was complaining that his feet hurt. I had no sympathy because my feet hurt also. Needless to say, we finished in record time. There was no way I was going to let a kid get ahead of me.

He had been wanting to help distribute papers for a long time. He even dressed up as an old-time paper boy for Halloween last year. I think this little expedition cured him of paperboy envy as it was on one of the days when it was bitter cold and very windy. He can go back to school and tell his buddies that he passed papers in the snow during spring break.

The private concert was followed by skateboard demonstrations and a trip to the local Mexican restaurant where he consumed an entire bowl of salsa and ate the chips in his order of nachos while carefully avoiding most of the meat and veggies. He started on the second bowl of salsa before his mom said, "Enough!" Now I know where all that energy came from. It was the salsa.

He is such a good kid. I'm guessing his musical ability comes from his mother's side of the family. His dad and my other brother are about as tone deaf as I am. We like music but have a complete inability to play anything or even to sing on key. If Jadyn keeps practicing he could become a great sax player or anything else he wants to be. He already has style and enjoys playing before an audience.

Who knows, if he practices enough maybe Gracie, the calico cat, will take a liking to recorded saxophone music, complete with squeaks. That's it! I bet Grace thought there was a mouse in there squeaking! It wasn't Jadyn's playing she objected to after all. She was just after a little snack.[[In-content Ad]]