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Instruments | Pad Patter 10.21

lmccandless

lmccandless

The Force is strong with this one.
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Mar 9, 2009
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Do you play an instrument? How about your kids?

Yesterday was Julia's very first violin concert and she did a great job! She also really wants to learn how to play the guitar. My older daughter played the flute and I play the piano. Overall, I think playing an instrument is one of those great activities that carry over into so many life skills.

The only thing I don't like...recorders. Oy. It seems to be an elementary school tradition in the US. Pass the earplugs.
:lalala
 
I'm sure I couldn't play it now but in school I played the flute. The daughter of one of our neighbors plays a flute and I smile every time I hear her practicing. It reminds me of my practice days
 
I wanted to learn to play the piano, but we didn't have one for me to practice on.
My kids wanted to play things like drums and violin but I knew that I wouldn't cope, so they stick to playing the fool!
Hubby played a Horn in the school band as a youngster.
 
Congrats on Julia's first concert! I am sure she was a star! My eldest DD had piano lessons from Grade 4 until Grade 12 and plays quiet well but my younger DD had lessons from Grade 4 until Grade 7 and moaned and complained the whole time (although she actually is the better player!) KIDS!
Me .... well I can't play an instrument but I can sing .... sing .... SING!!!
 
That's awesome - congrats! The first one was always my nervous one. I learned the flute, but didn't stick with it after elementary school - 6th grade! I was pretty horrible at it too! :giggle
 
OMG, DH gave me a guitar for Christmas last year (I have been talking about wanting to learn to play). The problem is, I can't figure out how to play it using just the one piece of paper it came with! So, for Christmas this year, I've asked for lessons. :) Thankfully there's a music store nearby-ish that gives lessons. So does owning an instrument count as "playing" it??? *giggle*
 
ITA on the recorders, lol! Every year here in 3rd grade...yay. ;)

My 3 oldest played the violin in the 4th grade and then moved to band in 5th grade. Oldest played saxophone 5th-8th grade, and guitar for a year. He stopped but now wants to learn it again. The 2nd oldest played saxophone in 5th-8th grade band as well as a wind ensemble group in 6th-8th grade, and now is playing it in high school with the pep band and as a school elective. My daughter started clarinet in 5th grade and is continuing with it through middle school.

Youngest will start that recorder next year. :)
 
I played the flute in middle school. All of my children also played in the school bands. My daughter Emma Flute 6th-8th grade. Anna 6th-11th grade. Brian trumpet 6th-8th grade. Erik Trombone 6th-8th grade. Mark Trumpet 6th-12th grade. Kurt Trumpet 6th-current 12th grade. Kurt has also self taught himself the guitar, spends hours in his room with U-tube video to learn a song.
 
I played the flute and piccolo through high school. Not sure if I could still remember how to play it though. I took piano lessons for a couple of years and really wish I had stuck with that. Now my music is limited to singing in the church choir and once in awhile a small group choir. (never solos! Eep!)

My boys both play in the the band. my 12 year old HATES it with a fiery passion, but it's more of the way our band program works. They go to a small Lutheran school and it's not big enough to have a big enough band, so we combine with several other local lutheran schools and meet only once a week for group practices at the Lutheran high school. They also have individual lessons at school. The group lessons are after school... on Friday. What kid wants to be done with school on Friday only to remember... I have band. Ugh. Anyway, my 10 year old started band this year and today is the first group band rehearsal, so hopefully my oldest will be happier to have his brother going with him too.
 
Another flute here! My mom wanted me to play piano and I spent maybe a year in lessons. When school band came up, I jumped on the chance to play something else and picked flute. I played through maybe 10th grade and then quit.

My husband never really played an instrument, but wants to play guitar, so he started lessons last year for a while (he has since "paused" his training). His guitar lives in our family room.

Clara played fiddle for a little while when she was around 7. She took lesson at the Old Town School of Folk Music. My son took guitar there too and they would sometimes play together. It was really cute, I have a few videos of them playing at a local bookstore.

At one point, I found a piano teacher who would come to our house, so both kids took lessons for a little while (trying to justify the piano taking up a chunk of real estate in our house)... but it didn't stick.

In fourth grade, Clara picked flute in the school band and that became her instrument. She played until this year. Her high school doesn't have a band and her main reason for sticking with it through 8th grade was to avoid choir and the crazy choir teacher :-/

Alex went from acoustic guitar at the Old Town School, to electric around 6th grade. He's been at School of Rock ever since. He absolutely LOVES that place and that program. He's up there a few days a week when he doesn't even have lessons, just to hang out and "jam". He has about four guitars now and has started a band with his friends from School of Rock. So much fun!
 
scrappyjedi said:
I played percussion in band in school.

Yes, that's right, I'm a drummer girl!!

Now I want to learn to play the violin and go all Lindsey Stirling. :)

Click to expand...
:giggle to drummer girl, because of my byline
And, Lindsey Sterling is a freakin rock star!!! Love her.

Tree City said:
OMG, DH gave me a guitar for Christmas last year (I have been talking about wanting to learn to play). The problem is, I can't figure out how to play it using just the one piece of paper it came with! So, for Christmas this year, I've asked for lessons. :) Thankfully there's a music store nearby-ish that gives lessons. So does owning an instrument count as "playing" it??? *giggle*
Click to expand...
There's a class at our local library, in conjunction with a "ymca" type place, called the MultiCultural center or MultiGenerational Center maybe (MGC?)... anyway. They offer a class for $20 "how to play guitar for insanely busy people " :giggle but I totally have this on my gift possibility list for my husband. I only mention it to see if you might find something similar. :)

When I was in school, I played a keyboard around 2nd grade, then violin 4th grade, cello 5th and 6th grade. I gave up music for dance and choir after that, because I absolutely loathed carrying the instruments on the bus and I barely cared enough to practice.
And to @Tree City 's comment about owning them... I have a violin and husband has 2 guitars. So if owning = playing... lol
 
Me, personally, no I cannot. I am not musically inclined ... but I do love the listen to it! It was never a big thing on my side of the family, but my husband's family has lot of people that play piano, guitar and other instruments.

My daughter also started with the violin (in 5th) and played through 8th. In HS they pull them out of core classes for group lessons and my daughter didn't want to risk being pulled from her honors core classes for violin studies, so she made the tough decision to give it up last year. I was looking forward to those HS concerts bc they are so good at that age! Oh well.

She did start playing the guitar this summer ... I take her for private lessons once a week. :) So far she really enjoys it. It's acoustic and maybe at some point she will transition over to an electric guitar. :)
 
I can play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' on the piano. That's it. My husband can play the piano, the guitar, the trumpet, and the ukulele. I'm sure he could play more if he had the time to learn. My oldest plays the trumpet in his middle school band; this is his second year. My middle child has attempted lessons on the piano, but gets distracted easily. The youngest is only interested in singing while plinking on the piano or strumming her ukulele.
 
I played piano for a SHORT while as a tweenager and young teenager . . . I don't think I would remember anything at this point.

I do sing because I love making a joyful noise . . . well, it's joyful to me, but maybe not to everyone else. LOL
 
I took 3 years of piano lessons in the mid-80's. Maybe 8th grade to 10th. I don't remember exactly. I had to stop because my parents didn't want to pay for them anymore. I still have the piano though! It traveled across the country when my husband and I moved from CA to VA. It has been loved nearly to death by many kids since then (my own and visiting friends). We bought my daughter an electronic weighted-key full size piano a couple of years ago because my old piano can't stay in tune.

My oldest daughter started singing perhaps before she could talk (and she was an early talker!). Around 7 I taught her the notes on the piano and how sheet music works. She didn't need sheet music though; she has an amazing ear and just keeps trying until whatever she's trying to play sounds right. She started taking singing lessons around age 9 and added piano a couple years later. Now she plays like this (link to her YouTube channel). A couple of weeks ago she started playing the guitar too.

So far what she knows about guitar she has learned from her dad, who learned how to play in high school. Both of them play by ear. It's like magic to me because I have no musical talent. Like @chastml the only thing I can still play on the piano is Mary Had a Little Lamb. :giggle Even in the three years I took lessons I only memorized one song, I always struggled to read music, and it never occurred to me to try to pick out a tune without sheet music in front of me.

My younger daughter and my son are also good singers but haven't chosen singing or any other instrument as a hobby. My younger daughter often sings as part of her biggest passion though, acting.

Good luck to your daughter Laura. And enjoy! I love that my girls are performers. I always have great music nearby and have been amused by numerous theater productions thanks to them.
 
Congrats to Julia on her first performance! That can be the most nerve wracking but exciting thing.

I only play the piano. I started when I was 6. All my siblings took piano too but I'm the only one who stuck with it. Now it's my job to teach and play and I love it! Never thought I would be a piano teacher when I grew up.

I've tried learning guitar 3 or 4 times in my life. But I'd practice the first 3 chords for a few days and quit because my fingertips hurt. Didn't hear the patience or commitment to develop the calluses.

Two instruments I'd love to learn are cello and electric bass. The cello sound is absolutely gorgeous. Electric bass sounds cool and the parts they improvise in jazz sound so fun.
 
Yay for first performances!!!!

I never really did the instrument thing. I tried the violin and the flute at one point, but both made me too dizzy. :dizzy The flute because I never could figure out how to breathe right, and the violin probably because of my then-undiagnosed brain/skull problem.

I used to want to learn the glockenspiel and/or the xylophone, but our schools never offered those as options. And of course, I always wanted to be a drummer. Kennedy wants to be a drummer as well, so I'm encouraging that already so I can learn along with him. :giggle

Jessica played the bass clarinet for a long time and was really good at it.
 
I tried piano when I was young, but when my teacher moved away, I never played again. Fast forward to about 4 years back and the same thing happened to my girls. We bought a piano and a month later their piano teacher decided to do early college and they didn't like the new gal. I have a brand new piano sitting in my house just taking up space. No one ever plays it. I really sold sell it.

My son used to play the drums and guitar. There would be days when my house was rocking... literally. Maybe that's why I have a hard time hearing things nowadays. We did just sell his drumset for him, so he could use the money for his mission.
 
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