My son wants a guitar. What to do?

[shoebox22]

Tele-Tubby - One music experience I'll pass along. My older sister wanted piano lessons early, got them, and being my older sister, didn't stick with them and wasted my parents money. I came along and begged for lessons for years and didn't get to start until way later in life because I was going to be "just like my sister". Grrrr. I was the one with the musical talent and missed years of music lessons that my classmates got because of that.

Long story short (that I applied to my own kids). Each child is an individual.

I ended up with a very talented artist, a so-so but happy pianist, and a good drummer.

[sabby]

Do you see the disaffected look? Now that's a rockstar in the making.

[Otis Aintright]

Do you see the disaffected look? Now that's a rockstar in the making.

You are correct. Hey, Bongolation, intellectually I do agree with your point, but you and I both know that if the rascal is going to play rock 'n roll, he is, at some point, going to want to curl up his lip, like Elvis, kick a monitor right off the stage and just move heaven and earth on the rideout.

If he's playing keyboard, he'll have to get up, make his way through the dummies up front, kick the damned monitor, make his way back to the piano/organ/Korg, and by the time he gets set back up to go to scary, the time will be past. And you know timing is everything.

[BradKM]

Refusing piano lessons is a big regret of mine as well. That and dropping out of Boy Scouts when I was just short of making Eagle. But I've never wished I'd taken piano instead of guitar...just that I'd taken both.

[photoweborama]

I have no idea what this thread is all about, but don't listen to me... otherwise it will cost you....

[NeoFauve]

...
If I had a kid (I don't) who wanted to play music and in particular guitar, I would really, really discourage him/her from the instrument and try to get him/her to take up keyboard.

Guitar -- and especially bass guitar -- is really a dry hole. Coming from a guy with around thirty-five guitars and basses at the moment, that's a bitter confession.
...

Get the kid a good MIDI controller and download every softsynth VSTi on eMule.

True.
But at four years old lil'-TT's facination w/dad's LP is a purely romantic thing. No logic, no career aspirations. He digs what dad's up to and wants to try it. I say let it happen.
Maybe he'll develop some serious aptitude in a couple years and can pursue music in a studious way.
I think now is a time to engage with the basic noise and feel of it.
It's gotta be kind of a sweet moment for Tele-Tubby.
Enjoy.

[Skip]

Tele Tubby for once I believe Neo is right ;) .... any fascination with music is great at any age... with my sons I nurture the path to music as I may, it just so happens we have allot of guitars around and when they want to use em that's OK to...we also have keyboards, piano and organ and I encourage that and Daniel is taking off with the organ as well... but it is there for him to experience and play around with and that is important. But you will see at the age of 12/13 playing in front of people and having girls applaud and giving him more than a glance of their attention is playing guitar and rock music... Mozart on the piano does not get the same audience :ahem or attentions

[clayville]

Here's my l'il nipper with his axe... a lefty!

[Skip]

:yay Clayville... fantastic!
kids are just the most fun there is

[TT100]

Great pic photoweborama (I remember seeing that one before) Clayville too.

At this point Joseph, my son, is going to be a diver, pilot, motorcyclist and guitarist. He digs putting on his mask & snorkel then duckwalking underwater at the YMCA's waterpark, sneaking up to moms and poking them in the rear.

Funny to see a little green snorkel cross the shallow end of the pool back and forth for an hour. The kid is all or nothing. He told me this morning at breakfast "Last day (yesterday) on the way to the library we listened to classical music and on the way home we listened to rock and roll." "Which did you like more?" "Rock and roll!"

TT

[NeoFauve]

Tele Tubby for once I believe Neo is right ;) ....

[thetallcoolone]

"Which did you like more?" "Rock and roll!"
TT

"Sex, drugs and Rock and Roll"
You're one third into ahelluva ride, my poor man!

[Strummin' Ronin]

"Last day (yesterday) on the way to the library we listened to classical music and on the way home we listened to rock and roll." "Which did you like more?" "Rock and roll!"

not just for the rock bit, but I am so happy for the kid that he gets a wide exposure to different musical styles.

[photoweborama]

To revive this thread again, on my trip to China, I not only learned a lot about China, but at least half of the people on the trip were teachers and collage professors. I learned a lot about teaching also.

Your son is just the right age to start. I used to think it was too young.

What you want to do is look into the Suzuki method of music teaching. It's based on what he called the “Mother Tongue” method of education.

Even though my son is 11 I'm incorporating the Suzuki method into his musical education now that I know a little about it.

You might want to look into it.

[Ayns]

This thread *is* a joke,......... yeah ?

[moonpie]

Why would you say that?

[photoweborama]

No joke. I think the youth market is the fastest growing market in music today. I've presented that to Gibson, and it fell on deaf ears.

It has to do with what the call the Tween market. That's where the money is. Not yet a teen, and older than a child. Our parents grew up in a generation that did not know the potential of Rock & Roll. Therefore, we got our guitars, but very little encouragement because they just did not understand it.

Today, we parents know the potential of being a musician, and we influence our kids to learn. We think it is cool, and the potential to make a decent living, or at the least have a hobby that will make some decent money.

So, we dump a lot of money into our kids at that age. LOTS of it. Not only because it is cool to see our kids playing, but it is also really CUTE. When they become teens, they have to make their own money, and don't spend as much on this stuff. When they are kids, they are not interested, but in the tween years, the parents are still buying for their kids, and will drop lots of cash on them.

That is where the boy bands really knew how to market, and they made billions.

[Ayns]

Why would you say that?

Sorry, it must just be me pissing myself laughing at the ludicrous presumption of TT's original post.

[Ayns]

Phtot,

Gibson's making most of its sales to sad old wannabee losers like me, not kids.

[photoweborama]

Look at the photo of my son on an earlier post. I'm not the only parent doing this. I can only guess how good I could have been with the right encouragement from my parents and decent equipment.

I’m not going to hold my son back in any way as my parents did. And besides, we have a deal, that if he looses interest, I get his Les Paul, and his new Vox…

[moonpie]

You're a sneaky man Pop:yay