My kids grew up around this. Kitchen sessions, festivals, shows galore. The older one is a musician but not much interested in trad. She plays 'violin' and bass.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I teach my 4 year old son Fiddle and GHB practice chanter. He and his 2 year old sister have been listening to me practice Pipes fiddle banjo and guitar since before they were born, poor little buggers. I hope it will stick with them or lead to something else for them later on.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Our son grew up around it & did play Bodhran & Guitar ( self taught ) for a couple of years, but then went along the usual electric Guitar route playing Blues & R&R in bands.
He then worked himself through Uni for an Honours Degree in Popular Music & is now a Professional Musician playing & teaching Jazz Bass & Guitar.
It's truly wonderful to watch our kids grow up with a love of music, but it should be encouraged & nurtured naturally, not force fed. I really hate to see kids being forced to do anything that doesn't come naturally, just because their parents think it'll be good for them.
Life is too short & we only get one shot at it, so for pities sake nurture the natural talents & abilities they have.
OK, so your own kids might not be nuts about the stuff, but as long as they grow up with a real passion for something, I reckon you've done a pretty good job. In any case, very often talents & interests skip a generation, only to come back again with a vengeance.
e.g. My Great Grandfather was a Fiddler, my Grandfather was a Piper who also Fiddled, my Dad was tone deaf & had absolutely no interest in music at all, yet I am a full time musician & so is my son!
Surely for us, there is nothing more cringe worthy than seeing kids who are being forced to play Traditional Music, against their will. Like being forced to do things like Algebra at school, only to develop a life-long hatred of the stuff. Trad music is surely an Art, don't turn it into a science, after all, there are enough folk out their already trying to turn it into a bloody Sport, with their stupid competitions.
I reckon, if we let it come naturally .. or not at all, it'll be all the stronger, in the long run!
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Expose them to music, art, performing, history, books, sport, travel, all the good stuff.
Then let them sort it out for themselves.
They'll find the stuff they want to do.
Sometimes they'll follow you, more often they'll find their own path.
It's the kids who get no stimulation at all I feel sorry for - they're the ones who end up on street corners and getting ASBOs because they don't know anything except how to get into trouble.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My older kids play the violin but very little interest in the fiddle. So I started the 5 year old on fiddle tunes early and it seems to have worked but then she is more of a performer in personality and she recognizes how easy it is to grab an audience with fiddle tunes.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My nine year old boy plays fiddle and he enjoys learning tunes by ear from me. He has a couple of jigs down, Cronin's Hornpipe and is working on his first reel. I took him to see Kevin Burke a few weeks ago and he really enjoyed it. I don't know how long this will last, but the two of us are enjoying our time together right now.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
You can't pass it. You can show it to them and keep them exposed to it. You can offer to teach them what you know. You could force it on them, but Mr. P covered all that quite eloquently already.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
fauxcelt - you don't have any children because you are playing the wrong instrument. Take up the fiddle, the pipes, the whistle, long or short. Young women will fling themselves at you, desperate to bear your offspring.
At least, that's what I've been told.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
It's true. That one ancestor all us humans share, way back several million years ago? Played a flute made from a hollow bone. Seriously. I just made that up.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Pete, that's very true - you've only got to look at the rock guitarists doing their stuff on stage. Why do you think there is a line of bouncers between the stage and the audience of shrieking young maidens?
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
we tried. They drift away. and are starting to come back.
The oldest Darling is lobbying her AlphaTechnoHubby to get the young grand son on an instrument.
Some resistance. Bean counters. He's worried that the nickle he doesnt spend now will blossom into untold wealth if stashed under the mattress.
Long Mothers Day Chat about the benefits of learning an instument on development of the 'executive' brain functions.
I know we have a great number of computer afficienados and chip sorts on this board, so please take no offense at the following ecercise in frustration (I have as many types like the son-in-law in my line of work too!)
But why can some otherwise extrememly bright tech types be so narrowmindedly neanderthal when it push comes to shove between quality of life and squeezing quarters til the eagle poops!
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I try and I guess I will continue to try, but it seem that in todays world there are so many distractions that offer immediate gratification that the long slog it takes to learn an instrument is beyond them, I think they much prefer the xbox controller that takes about ten minutes to learn how to use.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
croxton that's true. I worked with a lady who told me her husband plays Guitar Hero for hours every night. She said he had always wanted to learn to play guitar but never did. I suggested that he go to a pawn shop and pick up a cheap guitar and instead of playing a game he could actually learn to play guitar!!! She looked at me as if I had suggested he memorize the Koran!
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I've lent my Martin to my brother, on the off chance he'll learn it and infect the niece with the idea that music doesn't have to come out of speakers.
So far, he's full of good intentions.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Of course I force my children to do things they don't want to do. If I let them do what they wanted they would eat candy and watch cartoons all day. They need to be programmed don't they......... of course they will have naturual talents but I wont cheat them on discipline. Respect of elders and good manners don't come natrually either, but my kids are still "Forced" to do these things.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Thanks, Jwalkert, I was waiting for someone to bring this up. I feel you just have to make 'em do it. It is a rare child indeed that will commit to the difficult and frustrating work of learning an instrument instead of playing with their friends (or their Xbox).
I play fiddle now only because my parents made me do it. Left up to me I would have never bothered with it. But as an adult now, it is a huge part of my life, I could never be without it. I complained to my father when I was about 12, and he told me he's gonna make me do it till I'm 18, and if I want to give it up then, it's up to me. By the time I hit 18 I was playing gigs to help support me through college.
Even Paddy Glackin, recently at the Baltimore Festival, when announcing a tune and where he learned it, simply said "It was beat into us". Tongue in cheek of course.
Music should be fun and enjoyable, but in the beginning stages, it's not really. It's bloody hard work. Very few kids will choose this path for themselves. I think some gentle prodding goes a long way.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My brother was forced to play music - classical - from an early age, 6, and went on to study jazz at degree level. But hardly plays now at all and has never earned any money from it.
I was never made to play, just took up diddley music in my early teens. I spent a good few years with it as my job and supported myself with it through college. I play as often as I can and continue to learn.
I'll never make my kids play. Never. My dad passed the music onto me from his love of it. That's all that was needed. Sure, I force mt kids to be polte and read books and force them to not eat sweets and watch cartoons all day, but I will never force them to play. Kids have an instinct to play and that's that.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
my living room is littered with musical instruments, and my 5 year old daughter just loves it when I play, doesn't matter if it's guitar, banjo, fiddle or ukelele. We're heavy into Hank Williams at the moment (I guess it's the yodel that does it), sometimes she takes out her Disney-piano, sets it up together with this awful pink mike-stand and then gets me to sit down 'cause she's gonna show and teach me how it's done !
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I think llig leahcim is correct when he points that kids will play if they have an instinct for it. If the chld is curious about playing an instrument and wants to play with it, you should encourage this interest. If the child isn't interested, you shouldn't force them to play it.
As an example, I would like to mention my own experience. I am the oldest of four children and have three younger sisters. I was the only one who showed any interest at all in learning to play the piano in our house. I was the only one who tried to imitate what I heard our mother trying to teach her piano students. My three younger sisters were more interested in playing with their dolls.
I wasn't forced to learn how to play the piano because I wanted to learn how to play the piano.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I don't have any children because I am playing the wrong instrument? LOL--yes I do think that's funny.
If the audience members want to be so ignorant and idiotic that they want to focus only on the person leading the band and ignore the rest of the group, it sounds to me as if they are immature, self-centered people who need psychiatric help. They don't want to realize or notice that a band is a group effort and the people who literally play the supporting roles are also important.
As for not having any children, no one has ever shown up with proof of paternity and demanded child support payments.
Before I got married, there were a few single mothers who made me offers which they thought I couldn't refuse but I said no because I am not playing "daddy" for someone else's children or trying to help raise someone else's children.
I know I don't want one of those "shrieking young maidens" whom Lazyhound mentioned. I would prefer someone who sits there quietly enjoying the music.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My children had fled the nest before I took up playing traditional music, but when my grandchildren visit England four or five times a year, and if I take my fiddle with me when we visit them in Europe three of four times a year, I play my fiddle to them, to their fascination - the 6-year old in particular. I let her "have a go" on my fiddle, far too big for her of course, but she does get some sort of tone out of it. Anyway, she's started having piano lessons at her request, so there's hope there. I think number 2 and 3 will follow in her footsteps as they get older. Their mother plays the cello.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My son is all grown up and gone, so I missed my opportunity with him. But my five year old granddaughter has asked me to teach her to play the whistle. What is a good age to start? Should I wait for her fingers to get a bit larger Or buy a couple of those tiny F whistles to get her started?
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I'd just like to say, with regard to an earlier reply, that I'd NEVER lend my brother my Martin. Some things are thicker than water, and that includes my brothers' musical abilities.....
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Hank?! Good taste there Micheal ... although mine runs more towards Jones and Strait. Didn't know you folk up in edinburgh had good music like that. lol.
As for giving my kids the ceol.... no, mostly as i don't have any yet.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My kids, now 15 and 19, have been exposed to various traditional music (Highland piping, Cape Breton fiddling, West Virginia fiddling, Gaelic singing, Irish trad, Bulgarian trad, Quebecois trad, old New Orleans jazz, plus Broadway shows, Andrews Sisters, Bach organ works, the Beatles, sea chanties, etc etc) their entire lives.
Neither has ever played any traditional music. My son, now 19, played trombone for seven years through middle school and high school and can knock out a tune on the piano.
It's cool that neither kid has ever been very interested in the current pop music. My daughter never cared for Brittany Spears etc, much preferring the Andrews Sisters to the Jonas Brothers.
Last time I rode in my son's car he had Glen Gould's The Art Of The Fugue CD and The Man Of La Mancha CD.
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I don't have kids,but i was that kid who was dragged along to all the music festivals entering into all the kids concerts all those kinds of things. My sisters who don't play music also came came along too they made alot of lifelong friends going to festivals. They have kids and they take them to the festivals as there is a sense of community you don't seem to get anywhere else.Even they are passing music on to there kids.
I can't wait to have kids to take them along to the festivals to enjoy things me and my sisters enjoyed as kids like the friends . As an adult I make sure that I always attend the kids concerts without fail . To show the same support that the adults used to give me when I was little . They were always so encouraging, Its something I still hold dear to me Now that I am older and on the other side I can't help but get quite emotional. As I am usually thinking that was me up there I was that kid . It really brings a tear to my eye. It feels good to be on the other side as an adult to show those kids the support and kindness that people showed me growing up.
Will i pass on music to my kids absoulutely i will expose them introduce them but not force! If they make the lifelong friends and experience the kindness i did then it would be worth it. Music being the bonus in the equation
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
If I ever have any kids, I can think of nothing nicer than passing my love for this music on. But I'd never force them into anything, incase it made them turn the opposite way. I'd rather make it available to them, and see if they come to it naturally, and help them with it if they ask for help.
When I was about 8, I got picked as one of about 8 kids out of about 60 in my year in primary school, one of the lucky ones who passed a special music test to see who was best suited to playing violin (the places were really limited). So I started, quite liked it but then my mum started getting all enthusiastic and started trying to force me to practice every night for ages. I was only a young kid, and I was more interested in going out playing with my wee friends to be honest, and getting up to mischief. So after about 6 months I gave up, because I wasn't enjoying it. I only started thinking about it again once I had been left home for a few years, went out and bought myself a fiddle and started trying to teach myself.
I hear too many stories about kids being forced to do things they're just not interested in, and I'd never put my kid through something they didn't feel happy doing, I'd rather they just enjoyed their childhoods.
But I'd be secretly hoping they'd come to it themselves, and give them all the help and encouragement I could if they decided it was for them.
They'll definitely be growing up around it though anyway because I wouldn't stop playing just to suit them!
Are you passing this music on to your children?
Are you passing this music on to your children?
My kids grew up around this. Kitchen sessions, festivals, shows galore. The older one is a musician but not much interested in trad. She plays 'violin' and bass.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by shanty
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I teach my 4 year old son Fiddle and GHB practice chanter. He and his 2 year old sister have been listening to me practice Pipes fiddle banjo and guitar since before they were born, poor little buggers. I hope it will stick with them or lead to something else for them later on.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Jwalkert
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Our son grew up around it & did play Bodhran & Guitar ( self taught ) for a couple of years, but then went along the usual electric Guitar route playing Blues & R&R in bands.
He then worked himself through Uni for an Honours Degree in Popular Music & is now a Professional Musician playing & teaching Jazz Bass & Guitar.
It's truly wonderful to watch our kids grow up with a love of music, but it should be encouraged & nurtured naturally, not force fed. I really hate to see kids being forced to do anything that doesn't come naturally, just because their parents think it'll be good for them.
Life is too short & we only get one shot at it, so for pities sake nurture the natural talents & abilities they have.
OK, so your own kids might not be nuts about the stuff, but as long as they grow up with a real passion for something, I reckon you've done a pretty good job. In any case, very often talents & interests skip a generation, only to come back again with a vengeance.
e.g. My Great Grandfather was a Fiddler, my Grandfather was a Piper who also Fiddled, my Dad was tone deaf & had absolutely no interest in music at all, yet I am a full time musician & so is my son!
Surely for us, there is nothing more cringe worthy than seeing kids who are being forced to play Traditional Music, against their will. Like being forced to do things like Algebra at school, only to develop a life-long hatred of the stuff. Trad music is surely an Art, don't turn it into a science, after all, there are enough folk out their already trying to turn it into a bloody Sport, with their stupid competitions.
I reckon, if we let it come naturally .. or not at all, it'll be all the stronger, in the long run!
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Ptarmigan
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Expose them to music, art, performing, history, books, sport, travel, all the good stuff.
Then let them sort it out for themselves.
They'll find the stuff they want to do.
Sometimes they'll follow you, more often they'll find their own path.
It's the kids who get no stimulation at all I feel sorry for - they're the ones who end up on street corners and getting ASBOs because they don't know anything except how to get into trouble.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Yeah, they're the ones who end up with bodhrans.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My older kids play the violin but very little interest in the fiddle. So I started the 5 year old on fiddle tunes early and it seems to have worked but then she is more of a performer in personality and she recognizes how easy it is to grab an audience with fiddle tunes.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by nfldbox
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My nine year old boy plays fiddle and he enjoys learning tunes by ear from me. He has a couple of jigs down, Cronin's Hornpipe and is working on his first reel. I took him to see Kevin Burke a few weeks ago and he really enjoyed it. I don't know how long this will last, but the two of us are enjoying our time together right now.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
You can't pass it. You can show it to them and keep them exposed to it. You can offer to teach them what you know. You could force it on them, but Mr. P covered all that quite eloquently already.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
No because I don't have any children.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Oldest boy (8) plays whistle and has a practice bag and chanter, he'll be getting his great grandfather's melodeon as well.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Patkiwi
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
fauxcelt - you don't have any children because you are playing the wrong instrument. Take up the fiddle, the pipes, the whistle, long or short. Young women will fling themselves at you, desperate to bear your offspring.
At least, that's what I've been told.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
It's true. That one ancestor all us humans share, way back several million years ago? Played a flute made from a hollow bone. Seriously. I just made that up.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Pete, that's very true - you've only got to look at the rock guitarists doing their stuff on stage. Why do you think there is a line of bouncers between the stage and the audience of shrieking young maidens?
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
ah yes pipe groupies...I married one : ) ; ) : p
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Seosamh Ui Sinan
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
we tried. They drift away. and are starting to come back.
The oldest Darling is lobbying her AlphaTechnoHubby to get the young grand son on an instrument.
Some resistance. Bean counters. He's worried that the nickle he doesnt spend now will blossom into untold wealth if stashed under the mattress.
Long Mothers Day Chat about the benefits of learning an instument on development of the 'executive' brain functions.
I know we have a great number of computer afficienados and chip sorts on this board, so please take no offense at the following ecercise in frustration (I have as many types like the son-in-law in my line of work too!)
But why can some otherwise extrememly bright tech types be so narrowmindedly neanderthal when it push comes to shove between quality of life and squeezing quarters til the eagle poops!
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by zippydw
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I try and I guess I will continue to try, but it seem that in todays world there are so many distractions that offer immediate gratification that the long slog it takes to learn an instrument is beyond them, I think they much prefer the xbox controller that takes about ten minutes to learn how to use.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by croxton
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
croxton that's true. I worked with a lady who told me her husband plays Guitar Hero for hours every night. She said he had always wanted to learn to play guitar but never did. I suggested that he go to a pawn shop and pick up a cheap guitar and instead of playing a game he could actually learn to play guitar!!! She looked at me as if I had suggested he memorize the Koran!
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by shanty
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I've lent my Martin to my brother, on the off chance he'll learn it and infect the niece with the idea that music doesn't have to come out of speakers.
So far, he's full of good intentions.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Of course I force my children to do things they don't want to do. If I let them do what they wanted they would eat candy and watch cartoons all day. They need to be programmed don't they......... of course they will have naturual talents but I wont cheat them on discipline. Respect of elders and good manners don't come natrually either, but my kids are still "Forced" to do these things.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by Jwalkert
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Thanks, Jwalkert, I was waiting for someone to bring this up. I feel you just have to make 'em do it. It is a rare child indeed that will commit to the difficult and frustrating work of learning an instrument instead of playing with their friends (or their Xbox).
I play fiddle now only because my parents made me do it. Left up to me I would have never bothered with it. But as an adult now, it is a huge part of my life, I could never be without it. I complained to my father when I was about 12, and he told me he's gonna make me do it till I'm 18, and if I want to give it up then, it's up to me. By the time I hit 18 I was playing gigs to help support me through college.
Even Paddy Glackin, recently at the Baltimore Festival, when announcing a tune and where he learned it, simply said "It was beat into us". Tongue in cheek of course.
Music should be fun and enjoyable, but in the beginning stages, it's not really. It's bloody hard work. Very few kids will choose this path for themselves. I think some gentle prodding goes a long way.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by tradshark
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My brother was forced to play music - classical - from an early age, 6, and went on to study jazz at degree level. But hardly plays now at all and has never earned any money from it.
I was never made to play, just took up diddley music in my early teens. I spent a good few years with it as my job and supported myself with it through college. I play as often as I can and continue to learn.
I'll never make my kids play. Never. My dad passed the music onto me from his love of it. That's all that was needed. Sure, I force mt kids to be polte and read books and force them to not eat sweets and watch cartoons all day, but I will never force them to play. Kids have an instinct to play and that's that.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by ...
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
my living room is littered with musical instruments, and my 5 year old daughter just loves it when I play, doesn't matter if it's guitar, banjo, fiddle or ukelele. We're heavy into Hank Williams at the moment (I guess it's the yodel that does it), sometimes she takes out her Disney-piano, sets it up together with this awful pink mike-stand and then gets me to sit down 'cause she's gonna show and teach me how it's done !
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by Patrick Dirickx
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Ha, great. My 6-year old daughter loves Hank too. I love the sound of her yodelling along with her mp3 player stuck in her ears.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by ...
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I think llig leahcim is correct when he points that kids will play if they have an instinct for it. If the chld is curious about playing an instrument and wants to play with it, you should encourage this interest. If the child isn't interested, you shouldn't force them to play it.
As an example, I would like to mention my own experience. I am the oldest of four children and have three younger sisters. I was the only one who showed any interest at all in learning to play the piano in our house. I was the only one who tried to imitate what I heard our mother trying to teach her piano students. My three younger sisters were more interested in playing with their dolls.
I wasn't forced to learn how to play the piano because I wanted to learn how to play the piano.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I don't have any children because I am playing the wrong instrument? LOL--yes I do think that's funny.
If the audience members want to be so ignorant and idiotic that they want to focus only on the person leading the band and ignore the rest of the group, it sounds to me as if they are immature, self-centered people who need psychiatric help. They don't want to realize or notice that a band is a group effort and the people who literally play the supporting roles are also important.
As for not having any children, no one has ever shown up with proof of paternity and demanded child support payments.
Before I got married, there were a few single mothers who made me offers which they thought I couldn't refuse but I said no because I am not playing "daddy" for someone else's children or trying to help raise someone else's children.
I know I don't want one of those "shrieking young maidens" whom Lazyhound mentioned. I would prefer someone who sits there quietly enjoying the music.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My children had fled the nest before I took up playing traditional music, but when my grandchildren visit England four or five times a year, and if I take my fiddle with me when we visit them in Europe three of four times a year, I play my fiddle to them, to their fascination - the 6-year old in particular. I let her "have a go" on my fiddle, far too big for her of course, but she does get some sort of tone out of it. Anyway, she's started having piano lessons at her request, so there's hope there. I think number 2 and 3 will follow in her footsteps as they get older. Their mother plays the cello.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My son is all grown up and gone, so I missed my opportunity with him. But my five year old granddaughter has asked me to teach her to play the whistle. What is a good age to start? Should I wait for her fingers to get a bit larger Or buy a couple of those tiny F whistles to get her started?
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Why not Al? I think I was banging on an acoustic guitar at six.
And to everyone else-- thanks for the stories/comments. Music is a great gift to give to your children.
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by shanty
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I'd just like to say, with regard to an earlier reply, that I'd NEVER lend my brother my Martin. Some things are thicker than water, and that includes my brothers' musical abilities.....
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
Hank?! Good taste there Micheal ... although mine runs more towards Jones and Strait. Didn't know you folk up in edinburgh had good music like that. lol.
As for giving my kids the ceol.... no, mostly as i don't have any yet.
# Posted on May 15th 2010 by Pádraig
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
My kids, now 15 and 19, have been exposed to various traditional music (Highland piping, Cape Breton fiddling, West Virginia fiddling, Gaelic singing, Irish trad, Bulgarian trad, Quebecois trad, old New Orleans jazz, plus Broadway shows, Andrews Sisters, Bach organ works, the Beatles, sea chanties, etc etc) their entire lives.
Neither has ever played any traditional music. My son, now 19, played trombone for seven years through middle school and high school and can knock out a tune on the piano.
It's cool that neither kid has ever been very interested in the current pop music. My daughter never cared for Brittany Spears etc, much preferring the Andrews Sisters to the Jonas Brothers.
Last time I rode in my son's car he had Glen Gould's The Art Of The Fugue CD and The Man Of La Mancha CD.
# Posted on May 16th 2010 by Richard D Cook
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
I don't have kids,but i was that kid who was dragged along to all the music festivals entering into all the kids concerts all those kinds of things. My sisters who don't play music also came came along too they made alot of lifelong friends going to festivals. They have kids and they take them to the festivals as there is a sense of community you don't seem to get anywhere else.Even they are passing music on to there kids.
I can't wait to have kids to take them along to the festivals to enjoy things me and my sisters enjoyed as kids like the friends . As an adult I make sure that I always attend the kids concerts without fail . To show the same support that the adults used to give me when I was little . They were always so encouraging, Its something I still hold dear to me Now that I am older and on the other side I can't help but get quite emotional. As I am usually thinking that was me up there I was that kid . It really brings a tear to my eye. It feels good to be on the other side as an adult to show those kids the support and kindness that people showed me growing up.
Will i pass on music to my kids absoulutely i will expose them introduce them but not force! If they make the lifelong friends and experience the kindness i did then it would be worth it. Music being the bonus in the equation
# Posted on May 25th 2010 by frogeyes
Re: Are you passing this music on to your children?
If I ever have any kids, I can think of nothing nicer than passing my love for this music on. But I'd never force them into anything, incase it made them turn the opposite way. I'd rather make it available to them, and see if they come to it naturally, and help them with it if they ask for help.
When I was about 8, I got picked as one of about 8 kids out of about 60 in my year in primary school, one of the lucky ones who passed a special music test to see who was best suited to playing violin (the places were really limited). So I started, quite liked it but then my mum started getting all enthusiastic and started trying to force me to practice every night for ages. I was only a young kid, and I was more interested in going out playing with my wee friends to be honest, and getting up to mischief. So after about 6 months I gave up, because I wasn't enjoying it. I only started thinking about it again once I had been left home for a few years, went out and bought myself a fiddle and started trying to teach myself.
I hear too many stories about kids being forced to do things they're just not interested in, and I'd never put my kid through something they didn't feel happy doing, I'd rather they just enjoyed their childhoods.
But I'd be secretly hoping they'd come to it themselves, and give them all the help and encouragement I could if they decided it was for them.
They'll definitely be growing up around it though anyway because I wouldn't stop playing just to suit them!
# Posted on May 30th 2010 by eenymo