Are you from a musical family?

[AnchorHoy]

I grew up with a piano in the house, which my dad played quite a bit. Mostly old csárdás tunes - Hungarian gypsy dance music. Here's a clip of something in the basic style, complete with some of the better dance moves I've seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCRBwsQkwY

Note that this is the Real Deal cigány (gypsy) stuff. While the more "respectable" Hungarians like my parents enjoyed this style of music tremendously, the liklihood of their actually dancing like that was just about nil, no matter how much pálinka (brandy) they had in 'em

Anyway, hearing my dad play the piano on a regular basis probably had an effect on me as I was growing up although I never got into the kind of stuff he liked. Somehow, just regularly seeing how much he enjoyed it made me aware at a pretty young age that music could be a fun thing to do, not just listen to. That same piano also later clued me in to the possibility that I might be able to do the same thing myself. When I was about 10 or so, we were all watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special on the idiot box when I sort of drifted away for a moment and sat at the piano for some reason. By some fluke, that was the exact moment when the kids on the TV started singing Christmas Time Is Here. By the time the tune was over on the TV I had figured out a passable version of the first stanza of the song, using the maj7th voicing for the I chord (just like Vince Guaraldi did) and most of the passing chords coming down from the IV

Both of my parents were completely dumbfounded by this, since I had never shown the slightest interest in music before (outside of listening to the radio a lot). My mom immediately tried to steer me into piano lessons but that honestly didn't interest me in the slightest so she dropped the idea after a while. Interestingly enough, my dad had no comment one way or the other. Never showed any desire to actually play an instrument until about 4 years later, in High School, when I started hanging out with Prog Rock musicians. One of those guys sold me my first bass, and I've been playing music ever since - 39 years so far

As for my parents, they positively hated the stuff I wanted to play at first: starting out with Hendrix, Cream, that sort of thing, and quickly moving towards things like the Mahavishnu Orchestra and some of Stanley Clarke's early stuff (Lopsy Lu etc.) It wasn't until decades later, and after I had become a passable acoustic guitar player, that they finally admitted that I could produce more from an instrument than Horrible Noise LOL

Towards the very end of their lives, they both came to enjoy the more introspective kinds of things I played on guitar, and that was a very gratifying thing to me, both then and now that they're gone

[DougD]

I was born on a piano stool (well almost) My mom played/sang for every church in town, and started their musicians off on the right track as their fill-in musical director. She also sang along with my aunt and uncles. Of 13 children only 2 of my mothers siblings were NOT either singer/musicians or singer/musicians/preachers. So guess what all of my cousins were?........Singers/musicians lol. I bounced around from instrument to instrument in our family church before settling down on the bass. One of my uncles would be giving a sermon, and us kids would be in the music pit fighting over who was gonna play what, Who played last, and so on.. Bass was the only instrument that I didn't have to fight to play lol. Make a joyful noise

[jetbike]

My brother is a really good drummer, so no.

[strikeslast]

My dad's a total rock star. Tattoos, styled-up black hair, the whole shebang. He's been in a number of bands over the years, and he's got talent in abundance. Singing, guitar, etc. etc. He's the reason I've always been so artistic, though playing music myself is a newer thing for me.

Here's a video of my dad's current band, Panic Trigger. My dad's the one singing, though this was a few years ago. He actually looks much better nowadays (he quit smoking).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZf0iCeR_64

[pkstone]

Nobody in the entire extended family of my parents, on either side, was musical, aside from one Aunt who sings and plays piano. My dad liked to pick tunes out on a piano, but never went beyond that. Neither my brother nor sister play.

I didn't start playing anything until college. These days, my house is always full of music, and my son plays viola and guitar.

In my family, it was environment over heredity, I think.

[lbbc]

No one in my family played an instrument as I was growing up. I started on flute and guitar...moved to tenor sax and bass...and haven't looked back since. My 2 youngest sons play guitar/bass and bass/drums (bass has been prevalent since they were born....so it seems natural to them). My wife plays keyboards...my older kids play flute, clarinet and trumpet...and we all sing! BTW, I'm a band director by profession.

[Jhengsman]

My father gigged some on upright while a soldier before I showed up. After I hit music class in junior high he bought a trumpet and started to play again. His cousin went to work for Motown when they moved to LA and she wrote a few songs recorded by some of their second tier acts, no hits to report. My mother joined a community choir after my father passed

[kreider204]

My dad is very musical. He plays jazz and classical guitar, has since he was a kid, even supplemented the family income giving lessons when I was young. He also played drums a bit in high school, but didn't play set serious until midlife: When I was 14, I talked my mom into buying him a drumset for Christmas. You should have seen the look on his face that morning. He played quite a bit until recently - he's getting a bit old to flail his arms around like that anymore - and we even used to jam a fair amount.

My mom claims to have played piano and guitar a bit when she was younger, but I've never heard her play a lick.

My sister played flute fairly well in high school, but hasn't played since to my knowledge.

[gumbynotpokey]

My dad's mom played piano (traditional training, sight-reading from sheet music, etc).

My mom's dad was a multi-instrumentalist born in the late 1800's. A very traditional high-German family. He was told at the peak of his violin training there was no instruction left for him in the USA. He opted for a different life. He taught percussion, piano, the strings and some woodwinds out of his house, and played first chair SECOND violins in the city orchestra. He would sit-in a national (very large city) orchestra once in a while when he traveled. Why second violin? "Any %#$ fool can play melody", he was fond of saying. (This might be where I get my love of bass). His wife, my grandmother, was from a penniless low-German family, but she actually had real perfect pitch. He hated/loved this. He would during a struggle yell to her in the kitchen, "Hey (her name), give me a..." then he'd name the note. True story. No reference pitch. She had nothing to do with music.

My wife's family is full of blue grass pickers, Nashville session guys, touring and jamming country players, etc. Our kids were doomed and all love and play multiple instruments across genres.

[TwinBass]

My mom majored in the bassoon in college, but she died long ago. I have an aunt who is a musical genius (clarinet and as a soprano singer) and two cousins who are crazy talented (soprano and alto singers along with sax, clarinet, and bassoon). Unfortunately, I only see them a few times each year so I can't pick their brains much.

My brother plays the guitar, but to say he's hard to get along with is an understatement. Even if he were personable, he can only shred pentatonics so there's not much to work with as far as actually making something sound musical.

[nickrs540]

As far as I know my great uncle back in Norway was a award winning singer. My grandmother gave me some of his singing medals. As far as I know that's all the actual musical talent in my family. Everyone is a huge music fan though, especially my dad.

He did say if he ever wanted to play an instrument he'd play bass. Maybe it's time for him to give it a try

[mixtapelove]

My paternal grandfather was from southwestern Virginia and played guitar and fiddle most of his life. Later lived in Texas; played a lot of bluegrass and Texas swing. He's alive but in pretty advanced stages of Alzheimer's, unfortunately. Pretty much all of his children and grandchildren turned out to be somewhat musical from his influence.

My dad was a drummer in the late 60s and early 70s in Omaha in a band called The Prisms. They did a lot of Doors and Allman Brothers stuff. He sold most of his instruments around the time his second son was born (that would be me). The highlight of his career was playing on the same bill as The Who in about 1968, albeit very low on the totem.

His brother (my uncle) was a guitarist but did not play out much... he had a family very young.

I have an aunt (youngest of my dad's siblings) who did not do anything of musical consequence herself but she has two very talented daughters. One is a piano player attending the University of North Texas on a scholarship. The other is a high school junior who is a very good clarinet player and soprano.

My older brother is an excellent drummer; he teaches drums to kids and plays jazz and blues professionally. He also plays drums and sings co-lead vocals in an 80s band with me on bass.

My sister played clarinet until about 8th or 9th grade and quit. She was the athletic one... lettered in soccer, volleyball and gymnastics in high school.

There isn't quite as much on my mother's side. She herself played oboe and piano but strictly recreational.

My sister-in-law in Australia was a fairly prolific folk-rock singer/songwriter around Melbourne for many years with a couple of indie albums to her credit but she left the music business to get her doctorate in psychology.

The five of us in my immediate family run a mom and pop music store in Denver.

[Jay2U]

Originally Posted by kreider204

My dad is very musical. He plays jazz and classical guitar, has since he was a kid, even supplemented the family income giving lessons when I was young...

So did my father, he gave lessons on organ to make a little extra money. I remember him doing so every Monday and Thursday night in the late sixties.

[4dog]

No one cept me that i know of

[the yeti]

Originally Posted by jetbike

My brother is a really good drummer, so no.

classic!

[two fingers]

Skips a generation or two in mine.

I play several instruments, as does my brother, as did my sister.

Great grandfather wrote hymns even though he couldn't play a note on anything. Great Grandmother played what he sang on the piano and then scored them.

Mom and Dad can't play a radio without getting static.

[Gaius46]

Dad plays harmonica. Mom plays records.

One brother plays guitar and mandolin - blues and bluegrass mostly. The other is a classical pianist. I play bass and guitar. My sister plays the radio.

My daughter plays violin. My son's a DJ.

[Crystalman85]

Yes I come from a musical family. my dad played guitar, piano, keyboards, flute, harmonica and accordion. he once told me when he started playing according when he was a kid, he originally wanted to learn how to play piano(which he eventually did later on), but my grandfather insisted that he should learn how to play accordion instead. after that, he did became a multi-instrumentalist just like me and my brother. so music does run in my family.

As for me, I started playing music when I started playing keyboards when I was 7. I started playing bass when I was 14, and after that, I started playing other instruments like guitar, synthesizers, piano, ukelele, flute, zither(or auto-harp), and some percussions except drums. I'm not really good at drums, but I can program drums when I record music. so just like my dad and my brother, I too became a multi-intrumentalist when I got older. so there you go. I got musical talents from my father side of the family.

[1958Bassman]

Mom sang and played organ, using sheet music. Couldn't play by ear to save her life. Her singing was fine but when she whistled, my brother and I would squirm like eels because she was usually a tiny bit sharp, but both of us could hear it easily. Dad played trombone in high school, but stopped after that. I got an acoustic guitar for Christmas when I was about 16 and he asked for it- I assumed he wanted to look it over but he just started noodling around. After he got his bearings, he played a whole song and I don't remember him EVER touching my guitars before that. Brother played clarinet in grade school but had problems with reading music, so he just memorized the fingerings and note placement. He was 2nd chair. Started singing in chorus/church during high school and was the lead in Kismet his Sr year. Ended up minoring in music in college, sang on a few records by a pipe organist, has worked at classical radio stations for a long time and his main interest is Early Music. He has bought/played several instruments over the years- harpsichord, piano/organ and Viola da Gamba. He became interested in classical music because of Warner Brothers cartoons. I started playing guitar at 9 years old after it showed up with the mail, from my uncle in AZ. He couldn't play it because he was bed-ridden with Rheumatoid Arthritis, so he sent it. I took lessons for three years and gave up because I didn't know anyone else my age who wanted to get together but I started learning by ear almost immediately but I picked it up again three years later and haven't stopped since. I also played trombone in 5th & 6th grades. I was the same as my brother- I knew treble clef but nobody bothered to tell me that bass clef is just a third lower, so I memorized the slide positions. I made it to 1st chair about halfway through the first year after the instructor said I needed to challenge the older guy. I had bought a bass when I was 10 or 11 and started learning all kinds of cool music that my brother brought home- Tull, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, ELP, Moody Blues, etc (obviously, I wasn't great at 11 or 12, but I had the basics down pretty well). I bought a bass about 20 years ago and played it a bit, although it always had truss rod issues, so I stopped playing when it was too painful. Recently bought a fretless after realizing that I was no longer thinking/listening to music in terms of guitar, but concentrating on the bass a lot more. Had an uncle who played organ at supper clubs after he retired and didn't read/had forgotten how by that point. He had played accordion and drums when he was young and if he had been able to, he could have gone on the road with Woody Herman when he left Milwaukee- he had played in Woody's band for years before that point.

For whatever reason, my brother and I have the ability to hear small pitch differences/discrepancies and it kills both of us. He was adopted, so it's not genetic.

[Bassmanbob]

Yes definitely. To start, my mother played violin and had an operatic voice. At 85, her voice is still pretty darn good!

I'm the youngest of three siblings. My brother is 10 years older than me... trombone and my sister is 12 years older than me... piano. The joke is that my parents had my sister, then they had my brother, then they bought a TV. But seriously, growing up, there was always someone practicing something.

My parents gave each of us private lessons for many years. My formal instrument was the trumpet. When I was in junior high school (that's middle school for you kids younger than 30 years old), I bought my first bass and amp which I still have.

Oh... my father. We tell everyone he plays the radio. But he can hum a tune in key, never missing a note. I'm sure he would have been good had he put any effort into it.