Harmonica Lessons!

Juno has been taking harmonica lessons at The Keene Public Library, in Keene, NH with a fun music instructor named, Tad Dreis.

Tad is the owner of Wildflower Harmonica Instruction, and he even teaches harmonica lessons on Skype (plus guitar and ukulele)!  For the last three Wednesdays, we drove up to Keene and spent time at the library for the afternoon.  Juno has been enjoying the hour-long lessons.  I could not convince Freyja to attend the class, unfortunately, because she was leery of being "taught" to play the harmonica.  She would rather noodle around on instruments and make up her own music, she says.  I think she would like the class if she gave it a chance, but the harmonica is not too hard to learn to play, so maybe she will do it on her own.  Maybe she will watch Juno and learn that way.  We will see what happens. Juno has one more lesson at the library.

When I lived in New Hampshire for four and a half years, I really missed the fabulous Western Massachusetts Regional Library System, which has now turned into the Massachusetts Library System, evidently.  I don't know much about the new change, but I will tell you what I really missed was the great inter-library loans they provide.  One can go online to the local library's website, and choose books from libraries all over the state.  That is something to miss terribly, especially when one moves to a teeny tiny town in NH which contains a teeny tiny library.  It is almost enough to make you yell out, "GIVE ME MY BOOK!!"


The library in Gilsum, NH was sweet and small, and was staffed by the nicest people, but it did not offer the book choices I wanted.  I was spoiled from my previous library life experiences.  Large cities with 8 or 10 different branches, the Mass Library System, etc.  New Hampshire does not have interconnected libraries.


So, I would go to the nearest city, Keene, NH, and I would purchase a year's library use with $50 of my own money.  It was a $50 well worth spending.  Even though I live in MA again now, with the super-great library system here, I still feel like the KPL offers me a lot for my $50 dollars per year.  For instance, this harmonica class is great.  They have been offering a lot of homeschool programs lately as well.  So, I keep renewing my card.  I will keep you posted what we do there.