little musician

Elizabeth has been singing música do (her name for Brahms Lullaby and a few others) for over a year and a half now. (Interestingly enough, I learned during this trip to Uruguay that singing solfege is taught in Europe as an aid to developing both reading and listening skills in music.)

On a very hot bus ride into Montevideo, Elizabeth came up with her own transcription of música do, using what she calls her drawing machine. (Thanks, Auntie Amy!)

She started by showing me the top picture, asking me which notes were sol.

They’re the ones that look like suns, of course!

A little later, she asked me how to draw si. Being distracted, I heard sea, so I drew a series of little waves. She then proceeded to explain to me that what she had written so far was:

Mi, mi, sol. Mi, mi, sol. Mi, sol, do, si...

(Note that mi is represented by a dot, sol by a sun, do by a circle, and si by waves.)

She then proceeded to ask how to draw la, re, and fa!

(We came up with a line, a check mark, and something else I now don’t even remember for la, re, and fa.)

While running to catch our second bus, we dropped the drawing machine and so did not get a picture of the almost complete transcription of Brahms Lullaby...

But, oh, the fun we had on that very hot bus ride! (Look at the smile on Elizabeth’s Daddy’s face!)