Getting your kids involved

[nathan a]

Vol Knob, those pictures of your kids are wonderful! Looks like such a happy family.

But just to be a douchebag  :evil4:... Mussorgsky composed "Pictures at an exhibition". Ravel arranged a famous orchestration of the pieces, but he didn't write the music  :cool01:

 

[Mor Paul]

My 10 year old

Sorry, but being in a small school band where the only other trumpet player is crap, incorrect playing gets on my nerves. Cool that your kids are interested early, though. I didn't start trumpet until 6th grade. I chose the easiest-looking instrument.
:toothy12:
Here's what I've been taught. The pinky (it's hard to tell, but anyways...) should be on top of the half-ring thing. It raises your hand up to push the keys straight down, instead of at an angle. Also, I've been taught that having your cheeks filled like that is not good. I don't do this one like I should, but fingers should be curved so fingertips are on the valves.

I learned incorrectly my first year, so I've still got to break that curved finger habit.


Good luck to him on his musical future    I'm sure this came off differently than I'd like.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

The easiest way to make a kid have in an interest in music, tell them not to.  I joke, but make music fun and accessible.  Have an instrument they can play whenever they want and encourage them in it.  I suggest lessons, but they'll commit to it if it's their idea.

 

[Vol. Knob]

Max, I know.  That pic was taken right after we brought the trumpet home.  Wrong technique, yes, but its hilarious, it looks like his eyes are gonna bug out.

 

[Mor Paul]

Best of luck to him. I wish my parents were musical.

 

[guitlouie]

My son and I are STILL rebuilding his guitar.  We started this summer, but then there was a move, school, soccer,....stuff.  I am giving him the rest of the parts he needs for his Christmas present.  It was as easy as saying to him one day, "Hey Bud, lets take your guitar apart and rip the finish off with the sander".  This is my older boy who can correctly identify AC/DC, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, and countless others by hearing just a few bars.  He is eight.  Although his 4 year old brother beat him to Jimi Hendrix the other day when Voodoo Chile was on the radio.  We have nine guitars in this house as well as a Keyboard (wish it was a real piano, but, space, ya know) drum kit, trumpet, saxaphone, Bass, recording equipment, microphones, harmonicas, and tons of other little percussion and wind instruments.  I'm not pushing them, but I am not not pushing them either.  We listen to music together daily.  We discuss it.  I ask them their opinions of what I like.  I offer my opinion of what they like.  I especially tell them that it is OK to like what they like, regardless of my or anyone else's opinion.  That's it.


Oh, and congratulations.  Be with them, and they will want to be with you.  Don't forget to try to teach them manners and junk like that too!  :laughing11:

 

[Mor Paul]

This is my older boy who can correctly identify AC/DC, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, and countless others by hearing just a few bars.  He is eight.  Although his 4 year old brother beat him to Jimi Hendrix the other day when Voodoo Chile was on the radio.  We have nine guitars in this house as well as a Keyboard (wish it was a real piano, but, space, ya know) drum kit, trumpet, saxaphone, Bass, recording equipment, microphones, harmonicas, and tons of other little percussion and wind instruments.

Nice! 2 guitars, one bass, a trumpet, a trombone, and nonfunctional keyboard here. I need more! Looks like your children have good tastes.

 

[kreig]

There is a project for you Max, get that keyboard working ! :icon_thumright:

 

[Mor Paul]

If I can find a cord, I can do single notes. I just can't do chords on it. It doesn't work right. The bottom 12 keys, if I remember right, are the only ones that can do chords. I may get a new one, and see if I can wire the old one into a computer input... hmm...

 

[Nick Ellingworth]

You've nearly got a monophonic keyboard there, if only you could get rid of that bottom octave's ability to play chords and make it sound like an old Minimoog....  :icon_biggrin:

 

[Mor Paul]

Mellotron, please.

 

[Nick Ellingworth]

Ok the 'tron is better. I'd love to get my hands on one of those but they are really expensive.

 

[Graffiti62]

Wow!  Thanks so much for all of the warm responses. I told my wife all that was written by you guys, and this is the first time she actually wanted to read something on the guitar board. We named her Gabriella Lisa, and she's as healthy as can be. We're learning, in the first few days that we have her home, that her lungs are quite developed. This is a fact that she reinforces every two or three hours, day or night. When she was in the womb, I used to take a small pair of laptop speakers I wired together with an audio jack and put them up next to my wife's belly to see what moved her. Even before birth, she showed that she was into Cream, CCR, Johnny Cash and Kim Mitchell.

I'll make sure that there's enough music around her, and also I'll make sure she has something to play with too. The maple-top Tele that I'm slowly working on will be off limits, but the budget Squier that I'm doing up, and my Fender acoustic will be out for her to play with. As long as she doesn't pull the Pete Townshend stuff, I'll be all right with it.

The parts for the budget project are on order, and I'll be posting pics when I get the elctronics together. I'll also make sure that there are pictures of the little one with the guitar once the project is done.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Ehhh... You probably figured this one out by yourself, but however much we love our music and our instruments, some of the things we mess around with might be slightly harmful to little ones. No tube heads before they're five or six, guitar picks are NOT suitable for teething on, keep the Tung Oil locked away till they're eighteen. No wait, that's the Drambuie. Watch out with string ends that could poke out little eyes. Children are exceptionally creative at auto-destruction, they don't really need aid from adults at that.

 

[DocNrock]

Congratulations!  :icon_thumright:

 

[mayfly]

some of the things we mess around with might be slightly harmful to little ones.

Yea - you tend to figure this out fast.  For example, all my boy accessible guitars - even the beaters - have planet waves tuners.  Not because they are great tuners (which they are), but because there are no string ends hanging out waiting to poke him.

All the other dangerous stuff is either locked away or there are strict rules about.

BTW - Graffiti62 - are you getting much sleep these days?

 

[OzziePete]

Mellotron, please.

Do you have a Mellotron at home Max?

I think those keyboards were used for that trippy synth string sound at the start of Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles.

If you can get a Mellotron working they'd be a handy thing to use occasionally on some songs.

One of those would be fun to see what sounds you could get out of it. :hello2:

 

[Graffiti62]

some of the things we mess around with might be slightly harmful to little ones.

BTW - Graffiti62 - are you getting much sleep these days?

This past week, not a heck of a lot. The only reason I'm up this late is due to a bellyache, and to feed the little one. For now, my wife and I are switching off with the wakeups. When I go back into work full time again, we've got a system worked out. My job has me coming in as early as 5 am and as late as 10:30 am. On the mornings I have to be to work 7 or earlier, she takes care of the baby. If I have to be in 8 or later, I do. I was able to sneak into work a little bit on Friday to help out with the workload my department is having. The handy thing about having your baby in the hospital you work at is that you're a half a floor away if your wife wants to get some time to herself with the little one.

The unfortunate thing about that is how my company has their web filter set up. Almost all pictures and anything YouTube related is blocked because of personal storage issues. I work as a computer technician, but sadly my supervisors won't bless the access, even in the name of gorgeous guitars.

 

[Mor Paul]

Mellotron, please.

Do you have a Mellotron at home Max?

I think those keyboards were used for that trippy synth string sound at the start of Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles.

If you can get a Mellotron working they'd be a handy thing to use occasionally on some songs.

One of those would be fun to see what sounds you could get out of it. :hello2:

I wish. Those things seem really interesting. I may be buying an upright piano soon, though.

 

[mayfly]

I know this is an old thread, but I'd like to share a bit from an article in the january issue of Premier Guitar:

"Gentle readers, if any of you have or soon will have children, here's an exercise that will make life far better for you and your offspring.  In honor of your child:

1 - Take your two most valuable instruments of of their cases.
2 - Hold an instrument in each hand in front of you, parallel to your body.
3 - Smack them together hard enough to do some damage - at least a paint ding.
4 - Turn the instruments around and repeat.

Well done.  Now you are ready to play music with your child."

The article goes on to say that, if I may paraphrase, you have two choices:

1 - let the kids have access to the guitars and accept the occasional ding.
-or -
2 - deny them access and then they'll put the occasional ding in them anyway, to which you will no doubt freak out about.

Going with 1 you'll have a kid who is into music, bonds with you, and (eventually) respects instruments.
Going with 2 and you'll have a kid who plays your guitars behind your back and thinks you're an uptight dick.

so far #1 is working for me