Any Musical Instruments passed down in your Family?

[Chris Drinkwater]

Yeah, you got that right. People just need to learn to choose better parents!

 

You're right, there, Dick. It can have a negative effect, too. An uncle of mine, who is a keen amateur Flamenco guitar player, wanted his two daughters to learn to play musical instruments when they were young. One chose to learn the flute, the other, the piano. He made them practice everyday for at least half an hour. They did make progress but eventually got so fed up with being forced, so to speak, to play and practise regularly, that they stopped enjoying it and gave up playing altogether in their late teens. His attitude, which he thought was encouraging, wasn't to them and seems to have put them off for life.

 

Chris

[Fergus_fiddler]

 

Fergus, you say 'we' .... but tell me, which one of you did she TEST?

 

Cheers

Dick

 

I think she tested my 'good one' side. The wild rogue is not working since a long time ago, now...

 

Unless you refer, of course, to the gas man - spanish version for the milkman, about this subjects :lol: -

 

Cheers,

Fer

[Fergus_fiddler]

You're right, there, Dick. It can have a negative effect, too. An uncle of mine, who is a keen amateur Flamenco guitar player, wanted his two daughters to learn to play musical instruments when they were young. One chose to learn the flute, the other, the piano. He made them practice everyday for at least half an hour. They did make progress but eventually got so fed up with being forced, so to speak, to play and practise regularly, that they stopped enjoying it and gave up playing altogether in their late teens. His attitude, which he thought was encouraging, wasn't to them and seems to have put them off for life.

 

Chris

 

Now my Mum is very proud about my music... not when I begun! So, I reckon that if you want your child - works even better with teenagers - to be a musician, simply try to discourage him/her to try it! By Nature laws, he/she would do exactly the opposite you adviced...

 

Cheers,

Fer

[Anglo-Irishman]

Now my Mum is very proud about my music... not when I begun! So, I reckon that if you want your child - works even better with teenagers - to be a musician, simply try to discourage him/her to try it! By Nature laws, he/she would do exactly the opposite you adviced...

 

 

Fer,

I made a very good choice of parents

As I said, they let me take their instruments and try them out (after stressing that I had to be careful, because they were delicate and valuable), and answered any questions I might have about playing and music.

 

At 13, I had got to a point on the fiddle where I could play simple tunes with accurate intonation. This prompted my mother to say to my father in my presence, "It would be worthwhile getting him violin lessons." No doubt she was right, but the effect was that I put the fiddle in its case, slammed the lid, and shoved it under the sofa, where it remained for well-nigh six weeks! In the meantime, I regaled myself with the mandolin, for which you can't get lessons so easily. My mother seemed to understand this demonstration, and after the six weeks I gradually started playing the fiddle again.

 

Rearing children is a bit like tight-rope walking ...

 

Cheers,

John

[Fergus_fiddler]

John, you have to be an amazing fiddler

 

I begun to play when I was 22 - I'm 40 next October - & still think I'm a decent fiddler: You're very lucky of being born in the tradition - something I'll try to fix in the future with the next generation -. For sure I'll not try to force my child to play. I think my very strong magnetism will suggest him / her to play the fiddle

 

BTW, I've visited your page - although I can't understand german - & seen the pictures of you and your band playing. This seems f*****g good. I really like that!

 

Cheers,

Fer

Edited March 21, 2010 by Fergus_fiddler

[Anglo-Irishman]

John, you have to be an amazing fiddler

 

I'm not!

My mother was probably right about my suitability for violin lessons, but there's more to violin and fiddle than good intonation, and I never learned the rest. When we founded our group back in 1991, I might have worked up the fiddle, as I did my other instruments, but we had a competent fiddler, so I concentrated on the instruments that no-one else played, viz. mandolin, banjo and whistles, taking up the anglo again.

 

Talking about the genetic aspect:

When we pressured our son to choose an instrument to learn at Music School, he chose the trombone. This has in common with the violin that the intonation depends entirely on the accurate positioning of the hand (the slide has no notches or markers, just as the violin has no frets). My son doesn't regard himself as particularly musical - he can't improvise, for instance - but his intonation is always dead on (and he can sight-read, which I never could).

This "good ear" seems to run in the family, because my father, when at National School (which had no instrument available), was always asked to start the songs because he could pitch them correctly without an external reference. And as I recall his fiddling, it wasn't very spectacular, but it was in tune!

 

For sure I'll not try to force my child to play. I think my very strong magnetism will suggest him / her to play the fiddle

 

Very wise!

It was the magnetism of seeing how my father enjoyed playing his mouth organ, mandolin and fiddle that made me want to do it, too. And the magnetism of my mother's autoharp accompaniment when she sang in public made me want to make music for others, too. They didn't have to tell me that learning music was a Good Thing. It was my own realisation, and I was free to act on it without the stigma of obedience!

 

Cheers,

John

[David Barnert]

I have my father's two accordions, which sit unplayed since his passing in 1979, and his two guitars, which I play frequently. Also my mother's soprano recorder (a cheapie: I have nicer recorders of various sizes). My sister has my father's grand piano.

[Jeff H]

My Great Grandfather arrived in the United States in 1883. He had emigrated from Salnau,Austria,Bohemia according to the ships records.

With him was his 2 1/2 row 2 reed octave tuned low end D/G button accordeon. 10 Buttons each in the first 2 rows and 4 in the 1/2 row.

The treble buttons are glass or porcelain spheres. The six bass buttons appear to be turned bone; rather long elegant mushrooms.

The Bellows are all leather with no metal corners, red and blue. Internally the reeds are handmade and on brass frames.

The action is quite complex with the fingerboard mounted in the middle of the soundboard. Kinda of a Norton double knocker affair

I play this accordeon frequently. He played it for the family and for dances and parties in Seattle for 50 years.