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Did your parents play an instrument too?

#42
My dad played trombone and sang (quite well, actually). My mom sings a bit. My uncle plays trombone, a bit of trumpet, guitar, ukelele (or however you spell it), banjo, mandolin, and basically every other instrument he can get his hands on (including the belalaika, which I've spelled incorrectly as well), as well as singing, my aunt, his wife, sings as well. My grandparents both sing and my grandmother also plays piano, and both she and my grandmother on the other side can play a bit of upright bass. My aunt sings, my other aunt sings and plays the cello. Of my cousins, one plays piano, guitar and trumpet as well as singing, another plays drums as well as singing a little, and another plays french horn as well as singing. My sister played trombone and still sings, my other sister plays piano and clarinet as well as singing very well, as does my other cousin.

We're a fairly musical family.
 
#45
Mom played piano, organ, and sang. Dad played the radio and the stereo turntable very well. LOL! Mom got me piano lessons, and Dad had me listen to Johnny Cash and old, old rock.

I'm adopted, so none of this was "passed down" by them to me. I figure my birth dad musta been a musician, or maybe a grandparent was.

My birth name is "James", so maybe Daddy Was An Outlaw Bassist? :D

Cherie :)
 
#46
My Grandma and Mom both played piano well and were Classically trained...
my Grandpa played violin and mandolin and loved Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli's "Le Jazz Hot" music and my Dad and Uncles played guitar and were into Merle Travis, Chet Atkins, and Les Paul....

when i was a wee lad there were many musical family nights before we got a tv; sometimes hootenannie-hoedown singalongs, Jazz/Pop nights, sometimes Classical pieces and/or Show Tunes....and someone was always singin' or humming a tune...
 
#47
Yep, my father played tenor sax and jammed with Dizzy Gillespie and lots of big band stars in NYC. Sadly, he had stopped playing by the time I was born and I only heard him play flute casually once in a while around the house. No one encouraged me to get into music, even though we had a Steinway baby grand in our living room for many years.

My brother in-law was the first person to put an instrument in my hands, at age 17. It was a '37 Martin D-28, which he gave me to use as my own for the year I lived with him. He has perfect pitch and has played with many bluegrass and country stars, and turned down many offers to tour as a sideman with them. No genetic connection, but a huge cultural one I guess.
 
#48
My mother (she'll be 84 this year) plays the 4 string tenor banjo...and she plays it loudly. The string tension is so high you could use it to slice cheese. Per her recollection, she chose the banjo because it was obnoxious and she wanted to piss-off her parents. My dad plays the gut bucket....no kidding!

Other than life itself, the gift of music is one of the greatest that any parent can pass on to a child.

Riis
 
#51
I'm really pleased at the response this thread is getting. A few points people have raised have been very interesting ie. "TV killing off the family singalongs".
The research I've done (not huge amounts), anecdotaly, indicates that musical proclivity is more down to 'Nurture' than 'Nature'..Meaning that there is less likely to be an inherited gene, and more likely, once again, to be an addiction/reaction to the endorphins released in the brain whilst experiencing the pleasure of music.
Keep them coming.
P.S. JoZac...I thought I recognized you from the Partridge family. How's Danny?
 
#52
My father played bass and piano, mother studied opera, brother played trumpet and piano, sister studied opera, and I didn't play a damn thing until i was 20 years old in college. That's when I said.... I think I want to play bass! I had no idea what the bass did and didn't even have a bass hero. :) I just thought it was a cool sounding instrument and it always seemed to make everyone dance.
 
#56
My mom played mandolin in church before getting married. I started to play accordeon at 4 (really!!) than I started to study music at 7.

My first meeting with the bass was in college when I started double bass as an optional instrument beside piano and right after college I forget about the bass till 3 years ago when I bought a squier MB4 and then when my love for bass really started. Now I´m sorry that I left it for 10 years, I feel like I lost a lot when I think about how would I play it now
 
#58
Sartori said:
My dad played trombone and sang (quite well, actually). My mom sings a bit. My uncle plays trombone, a bit of trumpet, guitar, ukelele (or however you spell it), banjo, mandolin, and basically every other instrument he can get his hands on (including the belalaika, which I've spelled incorrectly as well), as well as singing, my aunt, his wife, sings as well. My grandparents both sing and my grandmother also plays piano, and both she and my grandmother on the other side can play a bit of upright bass. My aunt sings, my other aunt sings and plays the cello. Of my cousins, one plays piano, guitar and trumpet as well as singing, another plays drums as well as singing a little, and another plays french horn as well as singing. My sister played trombone and still sings, my other sister plays piano and clarinet as well as singing very well, as does my other cousin.

We're a fairly musical family.
Click to expand...

Same thing with my family. My dad (RIP) played piano and upright bass, my mom plays piano. I have one uncle who played accordeon, another who played trombone (both passed on), another uncle who plays guitar and bass, two cousins who play guitar and keyboards; my grandfathers both played, one the violin, the other the piano. My mom's mother had a Bachelor of Music (Piano) degree from the University of Montreal (killer chops!). My mom's brother was the big star of the family, he played all manner of keyboards, trumpet, sax, guitar, could even play decent drums! He even cut some records in the Province of Quebec back in the 60s and 70s. I play guitar and bass and a bit of keyboards, my wife sings in our church choir, my oldest son and my daughter sang in the high school chorus group, and my youngest son plays bass and sings. So, yes, Virginia, there IS a musical gene, and I'm so very grateful we have it!:D

Hey, Sartori, maybe we're long-lost cousins!;)
 
#59
My father plays guitar and has for many many years, he too was in a band when he was around my age.

His father was in a band in the army, he played the upright bass. Later on he played the guitar and fiddles around with a dulcimer these days too. But I always felt the "bass gene" came from him =)
 

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