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What Do They Want To Play?

#41
My son is only 8 months old but he plays a mean egg shaker. I can speak from my experience as a kid, though. My dad played drums and guitar, so those were my first instruments. I always wanted to do what he did. My younger brother came along and always wanted to do the opposite. He doesn’t play any instruments but I swear he has more natural talent for it than my old man or I combined.
 
#42
My kids are all grown (28, 26, and 23) and all three learned instruments when they were younger (viola, bassoon, and guitar respectively). My eldest does not play anything now, my middle can strum a guitar reasonably well, and my youngest is in the process of acquiring gear for a small home studio: mic, keyboard, digitizing turntable so he can manipulate his ever-growing vinyl collection. Of the three, my youngest is deepest into music: he is knowledgeable about jazz, R&B, hip hop, and rock n roll and has an eclectic collection of records ranging from obscure 1940s Western Swing to Coltrane to Kendrick Lamar. I have a lot of fun talking with him about music and watching him expand his tastes and his capabilities. It wouldn't surprise me if he picked up the guitar again at some point along his musical journey.
 
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#43
My kids are 25 to 35 years old. They grew up in a house with electric and classical guitars, basses, uprights, and a piano and electronic keyboard. Offered lessons on any instrument they wanted. Two did well on piano lessons. One noodled on bass and guitar. Only one did not attempt an instrument but she sang. None are players today but two noodle. That's their choice.

I am downsizing and giving away stuff to them including musical instruments. If they sell it on Ebay, I am OK with that.

PS, I broke my fathers heart when I switched from guitar to bass. When he was dying, I would play some stuff on the nylon string, most Laurendo Alemieda show stuff and it would cheer him up. His guitar collection was willed to me, but I divided it up with his grandkids, which made him happy.
 
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#44
My older son (18) played drums pretty young (back when I was playing drums mainly) then asked for a guitar around 15. Mostly gave up, although he plays drums in church occasionally.
My younger son (15) just asked to learn guitar, so i bought him one last week. Looking forward to teaching him and playing with him, he has good taste in music.
Hoping it might spark interest in my older son again.
 
#49
My two sons are now older but both started on guitar at about the age of 9. They've known me to be gigging, practicing and rehearsing their entire lives.

Number 1 son plays upright bass, bass guitar and guitar. He has a non-music related BA degree.

Number 2 son plays guitar, classical guitar, classical violin, piano, and ukulele. He has a BA in music.

But I'm the only one gigging right now.
 
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#51
My boy is 30. Briefly wanted to play any form of loud guitar in his teens then walked away. A friend's boy played accordian for a while,he was pretty good but stopped when he hit his teens. Another friend's lad is 15, can play a bit bass but is much more interested in football and snooker.

When I asked the guys at work,not a single one has a kid with any interest in playing an instrument.

I reckon the Taylor Swift thing might be true,most of the buskers I see are young lassies with acoustics.
 
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#52
Daughter (20) - Played oboe in high school. BG in the college pep band. Graduated and probably won't continue.
Son (18) - Trumpet in high school. Don't expect he'll continue.
Son (16) - Played flute for like five minutes in school. Now a synth-y guy. Made his own sequencer and various rudimentary synths from parts. Just bought a Korg Monologue with his own money.
Son (15) - Plays anything. Plays drums, BG, EG, some keyboard, trumpet, sings a little.

Just gave the two youngest an old G5 with Performer loaded on it, a small interface, a handful of inexpensive mics. They are excited. That should be interesting.
 
#53
kodiakblair said:
I reckon the Taylor Swift thing might be true,most of the buskers I see are young lassies with acoustics.
Click to expand...

We're seeing more and more of that at open mics around here these days. But I also see lots of kids who are wizards at composing on computers, and many of them can play multiple real instruments as well. Our local high school's jazz band has all sorts of splinter groups coming off it, really looking forward to seeing what comes of that.
 
#57
My 17-year-old daughter plays acoustic guitar and ukulele. She can figure things out on a piano and reads music better than she gives herself credit for. She said maybe a month ago she wants to learn bass.

My 14-year-old son was "forced" to play piano for a couple years and was doing ok at it, really. Even after we let him end that, he stayed interested in composing music via MIDI keyboard which he dabbles at now and then. Baseball takes most of his time, though.

- John
 
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#58
kodiakblair said:
@Passinwind
I think it great for music the girls are getting involved. They want to write and sing "songs", I'll take that over the wannabe shredders any day.
Click to expand...

Same here. Country music is very big in my area, and multi generational bands have always been a tradition in country music. So even though it's not necessarily my favorite style, I embrace the possibilities.
 
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#60
ZenG said:
...I realize this might be a bit biased because if the son or daughter sees dad playing bass they may want to be just like dad.....but still..
Click to expand...
My son wasn't biased when he chose the guitar. He really liked my old Iron Maiden and Rush albums. It was only after buying his guitar that I bought me a bass. I was 50. I had been playing keyboard in my teens, so I had knowledge of rhythm and chords.
 

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