High Notes

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posted Saturday, 29 December 2007

Thursday was a wet, rainy day. We all bundled into the cars and headed downtown to the Experience Music Project (EMP). From the outside, this is an amazingly designed building by the architect Frank Gehry. It was very controversial when it was first built. We moved to Seattle from Dublin in January 2000 and it was just being built. It was fascinating to see work on the multi-colored, curved façade progress (albeit very slowly).

I visited the museum shortly after it opened later in 2000 when my friends Maria and Claire visited from Dublin. That time, uncertain what to expect, we didn’t allow enough time to truly have the full “experience”. In 2002, pregnant with Ashley, I brought a class of Japanese high school students to the EMP as part of an English language program I taught on. Again, being 8 months pregnant in the height of summer didn’t mix well with lots of walking around a big museum.

This time we gave ourselves all day. We arrived mid-morning, bought a membership and roamed the museum. We split from Granddad and Grandma during the morning and arranged to meet them for lunch at the museum’s restaurant, the Revolution Bar and Grill.

We initially tried to use the Megs that are provided for self-guided tours. Caitlin was very keen to use one and we eventually came up with a configuration where James could carry the heavy meg while Caitlin wore the headphones. She enjoyed wearing them and dancing to some music, but pretty quickly we realized that the best way to see the museum was just to explore. So we returned the megs.

We started at the guitar statue (officially call “IF VI WAS IX: Roots and Branches” ), which actually plays music. Ashley enjoyed listening to it through the head phones provided. Then we spent a great deal of time in the Sound Lab which provides a hands-on opportunity to experience instruments and music making. This was a lot of fun for both girls, though Caitlin’s attention span meant that I had to entertain her more so that James could help Ashley focus more on the different stations, which she was keener to do than Caitlin.

We had an enjoyable lunch (delicious fish and chips for James and I, pizzas for Ian, Janet and Ashley, and chicken strips for Caitlin, all very tasty, plus our membership gave us a 10% discount in the restaurant). After lunch I took the girls to the children’s play room (called SpinKids) where they could dress up, read books, build with blocks, color pictures of instruments and, our personal favorite, perform on the little stage with pretend guitars and drums (not very loud). I played guitar, Caitlin was in her element on drums and Ashley danced on the stage. We were all on vocals as our “band” sang Christmas carols.

It was such a fun day. Given that we are a bit of a musical bunch, this was a great place to visit. (Janet plays clarinet, recorder and piano. James plays clarinet and piano, and can play tunes on recorder and tin whistle just by working out the notes from ear. The girls love playing the box of instruments we keep at our house and I love to sing.) All-in-all, I’m glad we bought the membership. We can bring the girls back again and hopefully also have some adult only trips to fully appreciate the galleries and more formal exhibits.

Oh, and just as we were finishing up the girls needed to use the bathroom. Anyone who has ever accompanied little ones to the bathroom knows that each trip can be an adventure in itself. Caitlin had great fun strapping her new alligator and gingerbread baby into the changing table and, inspired by our visit to the museum and the acoustics of the bathroom, there was a lot of singing. This slowed down the bathroom trip even more than usual. What I most noted about this particular bathroom adventure was Ashley’s singing voice. I’ve known that she has a good voice, but this time I noticed that her range is striking, and there is great strength in her voice when she hits high and low notes. We are going to pay attention to this emerging ability. As we left the bathroom we realized that a bunch of people waiting outside were also paying attention. I’m not sure if the looks on their faces were awe at the musical performance they had just heard from inside the bathroom, or physical strain from needing to wait so long.

3 Generations of Music