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Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

thewalrus.ca

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Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#161

Post by ycombobreaker »

WA wrote: post #152
maroonblazer wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was forced to take classical piano for 6 years starting at age 8. Hated it. Begged my parents to let me quit. They wouldn't. Then we moved across the country and they said "Ok, you can quit piano." In my new town I struck up a conversation on the school bus with two kids, one played bass and the other played drums. Said they would get together in the drummer's basement and "jam". "What's this 'jamming' you speak of…

I don’t understand the conclusion. Why are you glad that your parents forced you for 6 years, if this had basically nothing to do with your later-found joy for music? Couldn’t the same invitation have happened if you just tried piano for a couple months and remembered your one jazz tune?

A couple of months of weekly piano instruction is simply not enough exposure for most young students to even have "one jazz tune" under their belt. It's likely that the jam session invitation was predicated upon some minimum skill level with the instrument--something that 6 years of even begrudging practice provided.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#162

Post by amachefe »

WA wrote: post #152
maroonblazer wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was forced to take classical piano for 6 years starting at age 8. Hated it. Begged my parents to let me quit. They wouldn't. Then we moved across the country and they said "Ok, you can quit piano." In my new town I struck up a conversation on the school bus with two kids, one played bass and the other played drums. Said they would get together in the drummer's basement and "jam". "What's this 'jamming' you speak of…

I don’t understand the conclusion. Why are you glad that your parents forced you for 6 years, if this had basically nothing to do with your later-found joy for music? Couldn’t the same invitation have happened if you just tried piano for a couple months and remembered your one jazz tune?

Maybe because kids don't really know what they wanted.

If he didn't play the first 6years, he won't be able to enjoy "jamming" with friends

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#163

Post by kibibyte »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #157
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #96

My mom made me and both of my brothers take 9 years of piano lessons. Today, not one of us plays - I don't think any of us even has a keyboard in our houses. The reason for this is simply that we were never allowed to play the kind of music we liked . Which was, of course, rock. Or blues, or country. Or, really, anything with a beat. Nope; it was all classical all the time. And piano lessons were the only time we wer…

I wonder why parents do this. Parental cargo cutting? Cheap baby sitting?

Parental cargo culting, probably. "It makes you smarter" (tenuous, as hinted in article), "all the other parents are doing it to their children"/"I want my child to be better than theirs" (this can be very cultural), "it looks good on your college applications" (this becomes a reason later on, and is also very tenuous), etc.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#164

Post by balfirevic »

mathieuh wrote: post #160
pclmulqdq wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people fluent in sheet music don't appreciate how incomprehensible and information-dense it really is. If you just want to play a song, it's the wrong way to go.

I can sight read tab to a pretty high level, e.g. I was able to sight read my way through most of Capricho Árabe at first glance if that means anything to anyone. I just started teaching myself classical guitar in August and I've completely fallen in love, it's all I listen to and I practise hours per day. But I am now teaching myself standard notation because I am running up against the limit of tab. I keep having t…

> I can sight read tab to a pretty high level

I don't think you can sight-read tabs, AFAIK sight-reading means being able to play something without seeing or hearing it before, and tabs don't have rhythm information.

> Honestly at this point I wish I'd started with standard notation, or at least learnt both at the same time.

Well, it would have required the same (or more effort) then, couple of months should hardly make a difference. Good luck!

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#165

Post by balfirevic »

oifjsidjf wrote: post #6

If a kid already dislikes or is apathic to something (eg being forced to learn an instrument) then being forced into it by the parents will make him hate it for life.

> being forced into it by the parents will make him hate it for life

And possibly the parents too.

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#166

Post by worldsavior »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #96

My mom made me and both of my brothers take 9 years of piano lessons. Today, not one of us plays - I don't think any of us even has a keyboard in our houses. The reason for this is simply that we were never allowed to play the kind of music we liked . Which was, of course, rock. Or blues, or country. Or, really, anything with a beat. Nope; it was all classical all the time. And piano lessons were the only time we wer…

So why don't you play rock blues or whatever now? Is it because of trauma?

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#167

Post by thatjoeoverthr »

I would love any input. My five year old daughter asked for a guitar on Christmas. I took her to the music store and let her pick a ukelele. She loves to play at it hard and sing, and doesn’t “get” that she’s just strumming blindly and making noise. it’s adorable but I wonder if there is something I can do to nudge her. At the moment I’m thinking to

1) act impressed when she plays 2) get my own and let her see how I learn to play it

(I tried borrowing hers but she’s very territorial about her guitar.)

These are not high stakes but it would be so nice to see it go somewhere.

What do?

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#169

Post by yodsanklai »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #96

My mom made me and both of my brothers take 9 years of piano lessons. Today, not one of us plays - I don't think any of us even has a keyboard in our houses. The reason for this is simply that we were never allowed to play the kind of music we liked . Which was, of course, rock. Or blues, or country. Or, really, anything with a beat. Nope; it was all classical all the time. And piano lessons were the only time we wer…

I had similar experience. I was literally crying as I didn't want to go the music class at school (the teacher was extremely strict and scary). The next year, we changed town and the new teacher was awesome. There were posters of all metal bands of the time in the classroom and the class was much more fun.

> Which was, of course, rock.

Nowadays, you can see rock prodigy kids playing guitar on YouTube. Sometimes I wonder how they feel about their instrument and the music they play. Do they even like it?

Re: Kids and music lessons: why do many promising players quit early?

#170

Post by shhdhsheh »

WA wrote: post #152
maroonblazer wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was forced to take classical piano for 6 years starting at age 8. Hated it. Begged my parents to let me quit. They wouldn't. Then we moved across the country and they said "Ok, you can quit piano." In my new town I struck up a conversation on the school bus with two kids, one played bass and the other played drums. Said they would get together in the drummer's basement and "jam". "What's this 'jamming' you speak of…

I don’t understand the conclusion. Why are you glad that your parents forced you for 6 years, if this had basically nothing to do with your later-found joy for music? Couldn’t the same invitation have happened if you just tried piano for a couple months and remembered your one jazz tune?

Is that really so far fetched?

I would love to have my parents Force that on me.

Now I'm here, would like to learn and play music but I don't have much time and music feels like a steep mountain to even start.

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