Was yours a musical family?

[TimWilson]

I'm interested in how many of us came from musical families. I've always been a little jealous of musicians with great stories about how their family played, sang, and just enjoyed music together. I have one friend who's family would just start harmonizing old songs during mundane chores and it sounded amazing!

Mine wasn't like that: Mom played piano (and one of my greatest musical regrets is that I didn't take advantage of her knowledge of theory and ability to sight-read), but she didn't play much anymore by the time I got into music. Other than her, I was the only musically-inclined person in the house full of people.

So who got to have the musical family experience?

[BB75]

I love my parents but they have zero musical ability. However, my Grandmother came from a huge Italian family with 12 kids. Pretty much ALL of them are/were very musically inclined. My one great uncle actually played in Nashville for a while back in the 60s... He wasn't huge by any means, but still had a solid country act there. I remember all of the family reunions and such when I was younger everybody would bring acoustic guitars, accordians, basses, etc and just jam on old time country "standards". Good times. My great aunt actually has a little "band" in her old folks home and they play for the other residents each month. I always joke with her that she gigs more than I do and she's close to 80 !

[KrisH]

Not really. My dad played trombone and tuba in high school and college, but wasn't active afterwards. The instruments just laid around the house and I ended up playing them. My mom messed around with the piano and we had an old upright for a while, but it didn't get used much. On the other hand, I had one uncle who played trombone on tour with Woody Herman for a few years, and another uncle that drummed in local jazz combos for quite a while. His son (my cousin) picked up the drums and performed locally before heading cross-country and jammed with some of the big names in the SF scene before hitting the skids. That's about it, though.

[ggunn]

My mom and dad were avid Dixieland fans; there was music coming from my dad's hi-fi (this was before stereo) all the time. My dad played banjo and my mom played piano, and they held Saturday night jam sessions (a tradition I have revived) in our family room with friends of theirs who would bring over their guitars and banjos. That was back in the 60's; I still play and so does my brother; we are in a band where we swap off on guitar and bass. My sister sang in a choral group in high school that went to Europe for a couple of festivals.

I now host the Saturday Night Jamming Society in my home studio most Saturday nights when my band doesn't have a gig.

So I guess my answer is "yes".

[tplyons]

None at all, currently. My mom played accordion growing up, and baritone in high school.

Other than that, no musical ability. My parents bought my brother an American Standard Strat in 2001 when I started playing bass, but he barely plays. I've taught him the little bit he knows, by staying a page ahead of him in the Mel Bay book, teaching myself.

My dad always expressed interest in learning too, but the guy has no sense of rhythm, and doesn't want to practice rhythm, and has no interest in learning to play anything but Gordon Lightfoot songs, so I've taught him a bit, but he doesn't want to learn much more. I wouldn't call him a player at all.

[Dekker]

Originally Posted by TimWilson

Mine wasn't like that: Mom played piano (and one of my greatest musical regrets is that I didn't take advantage of her knowledge of theory and ability to sight-read), but she didn't play much anymore by the time I got into music. Other than her, I was the only musically-inclined person in the house full of people.

Similar story for me... except my mother was a music teacher! My biggest regret is that she didn't encourage me to get into music. Sure, we had a piano at home, and all the learning material, but other than let me learn on my own, she never "taught" me. Of course, I never learned much...

Though music was always heard in the house, it wasn't "live" music, but LPs and radio.

Of course she passed away a while back, and last year I had sold/gotten rid of all her music theory books... and NOW I decide to get into music... Why couldn't I have kept the info longer :P

But seriously, they say that the "artist" ability has a strong genetic component. The problem is that the way it manifests itself is not consistant. A musician's child can be a painter, whose child can be a woodworker, etc. My family also expressed its artistry in painting/drawing.

[dave64o]

My dad was a very talented violinist when he was young but he left school early to join the Navy and that pretty much ended it. I remember my grandfather, who was a professional musician, always saying "Danny, you never should have given that up, you had so much talent.". Now that he's in his 80's, he was starting to get a little arthritic in his hands so he started playing again to help keep "loosen things up". This is the first time I ever really heard him play and I'd say my grandfather was right. For not playing for more than 60 years he sounds mighty good.

My older brother taught himself guitar and piano when he was in high school and he still plays.

On the other hand ... My mom isn't a musician though she played a little piano when she was young (her sister is the musician in that family). The piano my brother learned was my older sister's but she only took lessons for about a year when she was school and then stopped. My parents always kept it in good shape and now it's in my house for my wife and son. My younger sister took flute lessons in school and played in the band through junior high, but she hasn't played since then either.

In my immediate family ... my wife is a very talented clarinetist who plays with a local band and a local orchestra. She also plays some guitar, piano, and violin. Our 12 year old son took piano lessons for about 2 years when he was much younger but still plays for kicks once in a while. He's been playing trumpet for the last three years and has gotten quite good. As a 6th grader he's the first trumpet in the school's concert band and wind ensemble, is first trumpet in jazz band, and also plays with the string orchestra when they "go symphonic".

I'm just that hack they've all put up with for the last 40+ years.

[Phalex]

My mother sounds like yours Tim. She played piano, but only in the living room.

My father payed his way through college back in the 40's driving a lumber truck and playing sax and clarinet in a swing band.

[jaywa]

My dad was way into southern gospel music and was a bass singer so he'd always have those Blackwood Brothers and Weatherford Quartet records playing. My first exposure to live "bands" was when we'd go see those quartets and they'd have a drummer and bass player. I thought those guys were always way cooler than the old fogies out front singing! I'm certain that hearing my dad sing bass lines all those years had a lot to do with why I can "hear" bass so easily. A lot of people say they hear a "vocal" perspective in my bass playing and I think that's usually a compliment. Dad played drums in high school, also could play piano and sax by ear but for whatever reason never did that as much around the house as I would have liked. His mom was also very musical and kept a violin, a cello and an organ in their home while he was growing up which was pretty unusual considering it was a farmhouse in South Dakota.

My mom played flute in high school, also could play some piano (not by ear), and sang. Even though both my parents played piano, I never got into it that much and my younger sister turned out to be the best pianist in our family by far. My younger brother played drums through high school and he and I have jammed together a few times over the years but being he's 11 years younger than me we've never really done anything serious together.

[Sonicfrog]

I come from a family of six. We all play / or do something musically. We used to sit around the table and sing to Simon and Garfunkel, Eagles, Chad Mitchell Trio, Kingston Trio.... anything with harmonies. We all have gone on to play one instrument or another, though guitar and piano dominate.

Mom and Dad? Dad used to sing folks songs and pirate chanteys to us when we were kids :-). Mom, bless her, didn't quite get the music genes all in a row. She can't really carry much of a tune, and she took piano lessons for many years, but she just didn't quite get the feel of the thing. But at least she tried.

I am in awe of my brother's talents, and feel like a hack compared to them. They seem to do things so much more effortlessly than me, but that's good, cause it makes me try harder. I finally got to play and sing on stage with my older bro a few years back. He plays guitar and sings, but he used to play bass. I'm a bass player because of him. I wanted to play something, and he happened to have a beat-up modified P bass laying around. My little brother, a superb drummer who can pick up anything and make it sound good, now wants to take up bass... Uh Oh!

Anyway, The three of us boys have stuck with the music thing more than the girls. but we all recognize how music has enriched our lives.

Here is my sister MB, me and my older bro on guitar, goofing on "Me aand Julio" at the gathering after my Dad's funeral. I'm doing the harmonies. My sister does the "extra percussive effects".

[TimWilson]

Originally Posted by Phalex

My mother sounds like yours Tim. She played piano, but only in the living room.

Yeah! Exactly like my mom! Played beautifully in the living room on the family upright piano, but I never once heard her play outside the house. Other than that, there was no music in our house.

Only many years later did I realize what a WEALTH of musical knowledge I had right there at home, ready, willing and able to teach me what I spent hundreds of hours (and dollars) to learn later in life.

I'm SO jealous of you guys with big musical families. I hope you guys all know what a treasure it is/was to grow up with music!

[jaywa]

Originally Posted by TimWilson

I'm SO jealous of you guys with big musical families. I hope you guys all know what a treasure it is/was to grow up with music!

Truthfully, Tim, I have only really come to appreciate that as much I should in the last 5 years or so. Especially now that one of my sisters and my mom have both passed on.

Great thread, thanks for starting it.

[TimWilson]

Originally Posted by jaywa

Truthfully, Tim, I have only really come to appreciate that as much I should in the last 5 years or so. Especially now that one of my sisters and my mom have both passed on.

Great thread, thanks for starting it.

Thanks. Wish it'd show up on the home page: I think a lot of guys would respond if they could find it. But I had to put it where it belonged, and we DO need more attention on threads about the best bass for punk rock or whether or not Fender is a good bass...;0(

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Not my case. And I deeply regret it, since I've loved music all of my life but I wasn't taken seriously when I was a kid. I took piano lessons when I was 11 but nobody told me about the seriousness of learning to play an instrument, so I got bored after the first two pages of the Czerny method. During my early to mid teenage years I played lots of air drums and I wanted to become a real drummer but couldn't afford a drum kit and nobody was willing to give me one. I picked up a bass guitar for the first time when I was 19. How I wish it happened much earlier.

[Din Of Win]

Oh gosh yes:

My grandmother has been a private Violin instructor for YEEEEARS. Thanks to that my mom still plays Violin for church concerts and stuff.

My grandfather was a skilled trombonist and taught High School concert and marching band for decades. It was so touching; when he passed away last year many of his former students attended the funeral.

Both of mu uncles also play trumpet and viola respectively.

[Richland123]

Nobody in my family was ever a musician or singer until me. It was always something I wanted to do from the time I was about 7 years old. Since I was the first, it was my job to instill a love of music and create a musical tradition and my stepson and son both play guitar.

[Hoover]

In the grand scheme of things you could certainly call mine a musical family...though not like those folks whose Dad was conductor of the local symphony and Mom was a professional opera singer!

Both of my parents were dancers, and they were involved in a lot of musical theater. My Mom played a little piano and sang; I get the feeling she & her sister were encouraged a lot more than my Dad ever was growing up. (Dad couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, though he did play bongos in a beatnik combo when he was in college in the late 1950's.)

When I was growing up they were extremely encouraging, bought us a piano for me & my sister to pound on, drove me to lessons and rehearsals and gigs, tolerated my drumming, tolerated my band practices in the garage...

My Mom still keeps at it; she took up clarinet at age 68, and just recently bought a new electric piano so she could plunk out tunes. And both parents are still dancing actively.

[capnsandwich]

I started early as a musician. My gift was recognized at age 3 when I played my first song by ear on my grandma's organ. I quickly moved to piano and was playing Chariots of Fire by age 5. I had no idea where my musical gift came from. I never met my biological dad but my mom says that I didn't get it from his side of the family. My mom could sing but that's about it.

Then my grandfather passed away 2 years ago. I found out that he played the banjo, guitar, and fiddle all very well. I also found out that his brothers all played instruments and that 2 of my uncles played. I'm now in the process of raising my kids up and as they grow they will be surrounded by music. I've got my son listening to some Matthew Garrison stuff right now as we speak. He's only 20 months old. My daughter's only 6 weeks old and she loves Beethoven, and by saying she loves Beethoven I'm saying that she can go to sleep with that on. She really hasn't shown much favor either way yet.

[Chipsonfire]

My mom fiddled with guitar a bit as a teenager, but stopped around the same time. My sister played sax for a short time, but also stopped when I was still pretty young. My little brother has really come into his own since I left for college. Used to play trumpet (first/second chair at school) and picked up guitar as a hobby, then was asked to play baritone, now plays tuba and is still playing guitar from time to time. Hes got talent, but little knowledge of theory outside of reading.

[jmattbassplaya]

My mom sang alto in her church for a number of years and supposively was really good at the time. She also was like a few other moms on here and was a professional 'living room' pianist. My dad didn`t play anything, but he did listen to a lot of classical music. I say that only because I ended up listening to only classical music for the first 5 years of my life, and I honestly think those years really helped me establish my song writing abilities.