are you saying it's nature or nurture? I have a different perspective because I was adopted at birth. (hence my one word answer when this thread was first started). I have lived a whole life of not looking like my family (until I had a son), not filling out family historys at doctors and such, so I have no idea if it's in my blood (I also have no idea if heart disasease, cancer or anything else is in my family history), but as for my familynasenmann wrote:That said though, there's a bit of a difference between parents who don't happen to play an instrument, or have limited interest in music, and parents who verifiably have close to zero sense for rhythm, melody, or anything connected to music.Tricky-Loops wrote:I always thought most musicians were coming from musical families, played piano with 5, drums with 8, guitar with 10 and got Fruity Loops Producer Edition donated with 11 including a collection of dozens of hardware synths from their Dad's studio whilst Daddy was working as lead guitarist and Mum as a chanson singer...
Glad to see so many people with non-musical parents...
I suspect in the latter case (rare enough anyway), prodigies are a rare thing indeed.
My dad couldn't carry a tune if it had handle, a strap and casters
My maternal grandfather had his own 'big band' back in the day and he played clarinet. (Chick Newell and the Pennsylvanians was the name) In fact my grandfather's sister was my cousin Rob's grandmother, besides being an engineer and producer Rob plays bass and I think sax.
My mother is one of those who has to sing or hum to everything and I guess my grandad did a record she sang some on but no one besides my mother has heard it. My mother has a pretty voice.
My late sister (not biological but also she was adopted) played clarinet in grade school and jr high. She also played guitar when she was very young, at age 10 she would charge kids in the neighborhood 50 cents an hour to learn to play songs like "Down in the Valley", "Jimmy Crack Corn", "Skip to My Loo" but she stopped by the time she was 12. She was 2 1/2 years older than me and when I was eight I would play her guitar and she taught me the basics but I never consider my playing to have started until I was 12 and was serious.
I started with trumpet when I was 9 or 10 and stuck with it through Jr High (barely) and my parents believed it seems that because I did not take the trumpet seriously I would not take the guitar seriously. So this has been an uphill battle all my life, sure they bought me my first guitars and dad and I built an amp, still as years went on they didn't understand my music so it was not valid. (dad would say "it has a good beat")
Flash ahead 1/4 century, my mother tells me about how my cousin is doing in California and suggests I send him a tape of my music in what I think was an attempt to get me off the music path once and for all...but it didn't, in fact he did understand my music.
So imo it's a nature thing all the way, despite a lot of discouragement from people who did not understand and who I trusted and loved more than anything my passion still persevered. The question I will never have the answer for his did this help me or hinder me, when I was young I thought it hurt me but as I grow older and my passion deepens I wonder if really they were doing me a favor
