Guitar Center

Make Music Learning Fun

Its only in recent years that I have really appreciated the advantage that I had through growing up in a very musical family. Both my mother and father were amateur musicians, my mum playing piano and dad playing jazz guitar.

Having children of my own I can see how they have benefited from having access to guitars and other musical instruments as they’ve grown up. We’ve never pushed them toward learning to play an instrument like piano or violin. Instead they’ve been allowed to develop their own interest, just as I was, and this approach has clearly been good for them.

Our youngest son has shown no interest in making music whatsoever. He is a very keen sportsman, loves football and online gaming. However his older brother was bashing out rhythms on a toy drum kit from about the age of three. By the time he was seven he was easily capable of accompanying my rock and roll guitar playing on his child size drum kit.

My daughter has always like to challenge her mother and me, ever since she was a very little girl. In recent years she has begun to take a keen interest in music and for her this is all about playing Drum and Bass music at phenomenal volume levels which tend to regularly upset the neighbours. Her interest in DJ equipment and modern dance music has led to her developing skills in music production using computers and it’s looking like she will progress to a music technology course at college.

I think that parental influence is a significant factor in the developing interests of our children. We’ve tried to provide very clearly defined boundaries while encouraging them to be independent. As they grow older it is clear that they are developing into independent, self reliant and capabel adults. We just wish that our daughter would play her dance music a little more quietly and stop upsetting our neighbours.