I’m a pussy cat dad, a long way from being a Tiger Dad, but I have amped up my discipline on piano lessons, keeping my kids at the keyboard for up to an hour. We’ve been using Mark-my-time to keep the kids on track for their time commitment. Unfortunately, it is a pretty poor quality digital timepiece, poorly constructed and worn out quickly. So when I got a chance to try the Time Tracker Mini from Learning Resources, I was glad to look at a new option.

The Time Tracker is a big device, despite the “mini” designation, designed instead for keeping time for groups. It stands almost six inches tall, with a big translucent golf ball style device that changes color from green to yellow to red as time go down. You can imagine this at the front of a classroom making it easy for all see the time limit, as well as visual (and tonal) indicator at a designated warning.

The device is a mixed bag in terms of value for a piano or music lesson however. First the positives. It is well-made and sturdy with mechanical parts to set times. It’s easy to set time as well, using sliding rings in five minute increments.

However, there is no way to see how much time is left as the clock wears down, other than having a warning at some point in the practice. In some cases, it might be best not to let users know how much time is left (fidgety kids who check the time every 30 seconds), but most people like to know how much time is left to allocate time to different parts of a lesson.

Additionally, there is no way to “pause” time. Adults and kids take bathroom breaks or have to get up to answer the phone, punching holes in otherwise focused lessons. Other times, kids might want to break up their hour in four equal parts, which is often recommended by teachers. It’s unfortunate, there is no way to “stop the clock” in these cases.

Finally, given the size, you’ll need to put this on top of the piano, instead of at eye level, which may or may not be practical for smaller kids.

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I’m a pussy cat dad, a long way from being a Tiger Dad, but I have amped up my discipline on piano lessons, keeping my kids at the keyboard for up to an hour. We’ve been using Mark-my-time to keep the kids on track for their time commitment. Unfortunately, it is a pretty poor quality digital timepiece, poorly constructed and worn out quickly. So when I got a chance to try the Time Tracker Mini from Learning Resources, I was glad to look at a new option.

I’m a late bloomer piano prodigy. I decided to learn piano at the same time as started to subject my then five year-old daughter to lessons. At nine, she already plays more easily than I do, but we have a great time playing the piano together, learning new music, and singing along. My direction to “go practice” sure has a lot more moral authority when my daughter knows I’ve already put in an hour at the keyboard.

Along the way, as my daughter was doing classical drills and practicing the basics, I started learning jazz. I’ve always loved jazz, especially standards, and knew the freedom would give me a lot more pleasure than repeating Minuet in G Minor over and over to a metronome. In my hunt with my teacher for easy music to play and improvise from, we stumbled on The Piano Guy and his series of music all transcribed to the Key of C. Eliminating the “black notes” for the most part makes playing the songs simpler to read and play, as well as makes them easier to re-arrange following general “jazz rules.”

Scott Houston, Mr. The Piano Guy, also has a PBS TV show which is fun to watch if you’re into how jazz piano is played. He also sells books and DVDs of his lessons. I have three of his books, but have not tried the DVDs. He’s giving one of them for free though for the holidays – his in-depth instruction on Silent Night. While this isn’t my favorite of holiday songs, I’ve really gotten a lot out of this approach and you might find this song motivating if you want to learn a jazzy rendition of a Christmas classic for this season. I’m going to give it a try, but right now I’m working on God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and Chestnuts Roasting Over an Open Fire. That’s about all my brain can handle right now.

Here’s the link to the free lesson, which is in 3 parts, including the sheet music. With this basic instruction, even someone who doesn’t know how to play the piano could learn to play this song in the next three weeks. That’s not some miracle sales pitch; it’s just actually that easy to play jazz piano at its simplest level. Now playing like Dave Brubeck is a different story.

The free lesson, including the sheet music, starts at: www.scotthouston.com/freelessons

Note: Scott didn’t give me anything to say this – I just enjoy his approach.

A dad on our forum related how he had made a video of his own son and baby to give to him for Father’s Day. Isn’t that about the best present you can get as a dad? These fatherhood years go by so quickly and all we all love to try to recapture the feelings we had through them. Videos made in iMovie or in Adobe’s Video Editing suite for PC can be the best Father’s Day gift of all.

Here is the video HDFree gave to his son and sent us:

Though I’m not a big country fan and I find “Let them be Little” by Billy Dean a little sugary sweet, it’s hard not to get a little teary listening to the lyrics that talk about how short childhood is.

We made a list of other good home movie songs, some of which, I’ve put below, but visit the link to see the rest. If you have other suggestions, add them to the comments section.

Some of those other suggestions:

Birth

Forever Young – Bob Dylan – I first heard this as a background music in an Apple ad explaining the joys of iMovie. It’s a wonderful song, full of wonderful wishes for a new born.

Where do the Childen Play by Cat Stevens – puts parenting versus other grand projects in perspective, and makes a darn nice soundtrack.

LongMayYou Run by Neil Young – If you like the raspy voice of a young Neil Young, and also edit out a few lyrics, (“back in ’62 when I last saw you alive”) this has a good beat and mood.

May you Never by Eric Clapton

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – very soothing variation on the old standard, and if not overused, less clichéd than other more popular versions.

Crawling Babies

La Donna e Mobile – You’ll instantly recognize La donna è mobile (“Woman is fickle”) as the misogynistic song from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (1851), Though you don’t need to consider that last part. Just use it as backdrop to a baby (preferably female) cruising around the house and you have instant soundtrack magic.

Everyday People by Sly

Family Stone Sweet Child of Mine by Sheryl Crow

Baby or Little Girls

Tupelo honey by Van Morrison by “She’s as sweet as Tupelo Honey” is all you need to know.

Blue Sky by The Allman Brothers

Rock-a-Hula Baby by Elvis Presley

Jazz for Dads (Concord Records) I don’t know anything about this, but saw it and had to take a look. It’s positioned as jazz hand-picked for dads. AS “Mr. Jim” says in his Amazon review: Jazz lovers will enjoy this album anytime of the year, but with “Dad” this CD touches the heartstrings. Highly recommend to all for an enjoyable listen – “Jazz For Dads” for your favorite person.We always plug it, but we have an iTunes mix of other good “dad music” available in iTunes.

We’ve said before and we’ll keep saying it because if you haven’t heard this song by Loudon Wainwright (he’s Rufus’ dad, if you’re under 40), you’re missing out. At every stage of “bein’ a dad,” this song rings true. The first lines go like this:

Bein’ a dad isn’t so bad

Except that you gotta feed ‘em…

Bein’ a dad can make you feel sad

Like you’re the insignificant other

Yeah right from the start

They break your heart

In the end every kid wants his mother.*

“Little Ship” (Loudon Wainwright III)

Comments? Other suggestions on good dad music. Check out our list of music for making videos at GreatDad’s Music for Dads .

we prefer the sister Qwik Time Metronome to this one (because of its it’s woodblock sound), but the price can’t be beat on this metronome for beginners. Ony $14.95 at Amazon.