JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Musician Message Forum Jamming with your kid/parent

My 10-year-old son decided to get back into playing guitar, so he used the money he'd been saving for an iPod Touch to pick this up, instead:

(Lightly used. $65.)

I'm so proud.
Having a little lesson/jam session with him after work today. He already has a Squire Strat that he's got for Christmas '07. He'd put it aside for a while,a s he only had one of those Smokey battery-powered amps with a 2" speaker. Frustrated him. Now, he's ready to get back into it; or so he says. Anyway, I'm excited to play with him.

Any of you ever jam with your child or your parent? How did it go? I think of it as playing catch for the athletically challenged.

(Neither of my parents are anything close to musical.)

Hey Pop, I have always afforded the musical whims of my son. He has always had some kind of guitar to play or a keyboard and even a drum set. About 2 yrs. ago he took off musically and is tearing it up. Last Christmas we got him a Gibson SG. In march, for his birthday, we got him a Line 6 amp.

I've tried jammin with him but I don't do Metallica very well on my acoustics. Someday I hope he settles down. It would be the highlight of my life to play in public with him. I'll work on my attitude...

He started off with a Marshall microstack, one of my old practice amps.

My Guitar teacher often jams with his kids... they have great timeing ... one is 6 the other is 9 I think

Cheers

That's really cool of you to do a jam sesh with your son.
Good luck

Todd, if your son has any playing times like ai had with my dad, then he is going to treasure those moments later in life. Be like my dad did, and just let me play, mistakes and all. He knew in time I would figure things out myself and actually learn more of the options that way.

Have FUN! Very cool!

And,,,,,a MARSHALL!!!!

I used my dad's little brown and tan weave Fender, (6" speaker, I believe it was.

Also played piano with him as he played his mandolin and sometimes his banjo.

Maybe one day your son will have whatever you are playing now hanging on the wall in his music room at his house.

How great is that! It's very inspiring to witness that energy a child brings into music.

We often jam at our house. Both my wife and me plays, so sometimes we jam at the piano or the midi keyboard scrolling though the sample libraries, sometimes at the mic, sometimes with guitars and mandolins, and sometimes just with some congas, harmonicas, shakers, or other stuff thats lying around.

My 3 year old is part of it all, and she improvises songs over what we play, or improvise on the instruments! Mostly she sings melodies from the Disney movies, but she already can sing several childrens songs all the way though.

Im really happy about it, as my parents were nothing musical, in the instrumental sense of the word, anyway. So Im the first one taking up music in my family. I guess because I didn't had a talent for carving wood art, painting and reciting poetry, like the others :-) LOL

It's so fun to have music integrated in home like that, making it a natural part of life, instead of something anecdotal that just happen in a talent competition on TV..

Jamming with your kids is the best! I played a gig last Sunday night and had both of my daughters come onstage to perform "Stupid Boys". I don't know who was more thrilled...the girls getting sustained applause from an adult audience...or me watching them beam!

Fantasic. You will both keep enjoying this. Justice spends a couple hours a week singing to me and sometimes we jam on synths. The best times ....

Tom

My parents didn't play music, but I have played with parents of friends. Jamming with people is such a simple way to connect with people on a higher level. I plan on playing with my kids someday.

Well, Emma (16) used to come out and play with me at the Coffee shops when she was younger...

but a couple of years ago she went and got her own band so only once in a blue moon now she'll sit in with my band, usually on the annual Buddy Holly tribute night.....
And, I always love it when she does

That is so cool.
My daughter used to play her flute with me at church sometimes and sang with my teen choir for a little while. I liked it when she did that.

That's really cool, Todd! Hope he stays with it. Springstreen, et al, were all 10 years-old kids plunking around early in their lives. So, you never know!

Neither of my kids (37 and 40) have ever had an interest...not even the slightest hint oif an interest...to learn to play an instrument. Neither can sing better than a wounded buffalo. Sorry kids! They enjoy listening to music on occasion, but are not real big music fans. My son tends to like the earlier, easy stuff...The Eagles, Foreigner, Stix, etc. The two acts that he really enjoys a lot are Michael Buble' and Steve Tyrell.

My daughter is just a casual listener. Whatever is one is okay, unless it's Traditional Country or one of the fringe rock sub-genres (Indusrial, Grunge, etc.) Music is just the marginal soundtrack of their lives...it's often in the background but never takes a major role. They are lukewarm to my music. They have, maybe 4 or 5 of my songs on their MP3 player...that's out of almost 700 songs!

Glad to hear about your son, though.

Alan

OK, this is an interesting twist for me from my recent post here. At one of my monthly Friday night gigs, I was told there was a screw up and my usual night was taken and I was offered the Friday night before July 4th. I went a head and took it anyways knowing that I probably would be doing it solo since all my band members will be at their cabins or relatives for the holiday weekend. When Emma found out she ask me if I would split the $ with her if she played with me. I said sure and today we spent 2 hours going over songs and she wants to practice more with me before the gig. Nice father's day present.

WAY COOL

The best kind of Father's Day present!
Nice.

Well, here are a few photos from our show together last night. Emma did great, although it was a little hard to get her to smile while she was playing.

I often sing with my dad who also used to be a singer in a band. every time we sing together it always feels good...

sweet..!

That is so cool, Steve. Hard to smile when you are playing the flute.

Brought my son to guitars when he was about 9 or 10. He went on to be a fairly proficient bass player on the local scene. And now he's teaching his son guitar.

I've been trying to get my son to play bass with me but he's got too much of his own family going on now.

For the daughter, no instrument seemed to stick. Keyboard, guitar, flutes, dulcimer... nothing worked. But both her sons are now under the instruction of Grandpa. Both have their electrics and acoustics. Though they bend toward electrics.

No.2 Grandson always walks me through the Musicians Friend catalog when it arrives, pointing out equipment he needs. Like me, he's a sucker for a red guitar.

**

I noticed that my son was looking over my shoulder more and more as I was recording.....I grabbed him up and insisted that he record a bass track...
He did and we developed a really cool jam from that ...
I was a fantastic time for me...hope to do that more..
:-)

That must be so rewarding for you. Wish I could do so with my son. He has not a dime's worth of interest in doing what his father did before him. Oh, well,,,
John

My grandpa started a mariachi group with my sisters, cousins, and I a while back and we are still keeping the tradition alive. We are a fourth generation family mariachi and I'm really proud and happy to be a part of it.

I'm glad this post came back up. My son and I have played out together at 2 coffee shop open mics. Last night, his first biker bar open mic. He really enjoyed that and the audience was very appreciative. He said afterward that we had to do that again.

The first open mic he almost chickened out, but came up on stage the last minute. He's a lead and rhythm player but he plays bass for me. The second open mic we forgot the song list and had to improvise. I think I threw him for a loop when I played songs that we didn't practice. We only had to play 3 and 4 songs respectively.

Then, last night, we played 7 songs, he had to improvise on the last 3. But he did well, and is getting a grasp on versatility and following patterns. The crowd at "The Hair of the Dog" bar in Niagara Falls were super, very supportive. Our conversation on the way home was all about doing it again.

He's hooked, just have to reel him in...

My dad used to play form 4 hands with me and my brother. It was challenging for a while but it was really great. My little Max (6)likes singing some tunes and wants to compose songs with me so I'm all for that. These moments are wonderful. Max likes making some instruments and goining in when I play my music. I really enjoy "jamming" with him I think it's so rewarding to have a go at jamming whith your kid(s)

My son Christopher, my eldest of three, started playing around with the guitar and has worked on a couple of songs with me.

(Our first live performance can be found at www.soundclick.com/dougmurphy search out videos and you can watch.)

I was sooooo excited to have him 1. take up the guitar, 2. want to learn some of my songs and 3. jamming with me live. IT WAS GREAT!!

We are planning some more performances/music videos also. (I think the music video "Because of the Brew" is up on Soundclick too.)