Are
all those boys yours?
Yes.
They are all four Elizabeth’s and mine.
Do
the boys take lessons?
They’ve
all learned what they know primarily from me (their dad). However, they learn from others as well. Zach, for example, picks
up things (now and then) from some very accomplished bassists who are friends of the family. Likewise, Isaac picks up stuff
from other drummers that we know and watch. In addition to what I teach Nathan on the keyboards and guitar, he takes piano
lessons outside the home. As for Elijah, I give him music lessons whenever he
wants them. He also takes piano lessons outside the home. Elizabeth works with both of them on their piano homework.
How
often do you practice?
Well,
like anything else, the boys prefer performing over practicing (although they do enjoy practicing). During the summer, when
we perform every week, we do not practice much. We normally just leave our equipment loaded in the trailer ready to go for
the next gig. Plus, we do a lot of other stuff in the summer, like tennis, golf, swimming, basketball, and biking. During
the school year when we perform only once or twice per month, we typically practice an hour or so a few days before
a show. Wish we practiced more, but don't like to push it.
Did
you pick which instruments the boys play?
No.
I had nothing to do with their chosen instruments. Zach decided he wanted to play the bass guitar the day my wife, Elizabeth,
brought home a brand-new Fender Jazz bass for me for my birthday. I was teaching him a little acoustic guitar at the time,
but as soon as he saw that shiny new bass, that was it! As far as Isaac is concerned, he has always had a thing for the drums.
When he was really little, he’d draw drumsets, build drumsets from Legos, pans, boxes, and other stuff, and play them.
Nathan has always been interested in the piano—even before he could play. At first, we had Isaac taking the piano lessons.
But after months of incessant complaining about them, we decided to let someone else take the lessons—someone who really
wanted to play. So now, Nathan takes the lessons. He's also very into the guitar now—a real natural. Elijah wants
to play the drums and keyboards—again no prompting from anyone. Hopefully, we can get him more involved in
that as he improves. One last thing, the boys play each others’ instruments as well. Not nearly as proficiently
as their primary instruments, of course, but I frequently see them dinking around on their brothers’ instruments. I
think that’s healthy.
What
does 4th Normal Form mean?
In a
computer science context (and more specifically in the area of relational database theory), 4th Normal Form means that
we have a set of related database tables that exhibit the following characteristics: Each table 1) has a primary key that
is defined and populated with unique values, 2) contains no partial dependencies (that is, no non-key attribute is functionally
dependent on only a part of the primary key), 3) contains no transitive dependencies (that is, no non-key attribute is functionally
dependent on another non-key attribute), and 4) contains no multiple sets of multi-valued attributes. Need I say more?
Are you all playing to backup tapes?
No. Every note is played live, and every mistake is our own!
