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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
You will not believe what my son did today
You will not believe what my son did today
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1231 posts
Jul 07, 2012
9:28 PM
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Ok, so I've always made sure my kids had access to numerous instruments, and while my daughter, Audrey, 11, is a great singer (all-county chorus), my son, David 10, expressed a little bit of interest today in starting to play harmonica, which he's never actually tried to do.
So, I was showing him some stuff in the car, first thing we did: He had a D harmonica, I had an A. I had him playing a D chord and he was playing 1-4 blow. Notes DF#AD. So, I was playing a B on a Paddy tuned A harmonica to transform that D chord into a BM7 (to show how one note can make a huge difference in transformation of sound)
He said "Dad, hang on a minute, I want to try an experiment." Then I hear A 1-4 blow TONGUE-BLOCK OCTAVE!
I was freaking out and yelling "What did you do? What did you do?"
He said "I put my tongue in the middle so I get those two notes on the side."
My exact words:
"You are Sh..ting me!" I hate to use that language in front of my son, but I was in shock. I'm still in shock.
he's 10 and he doesn't play harmonica.
And, of course, it reminded me of my grandfather, when he heard an A chord on his D harmonica, so he started playing it in A, thus coming up with cross harp on his own.
I'm still in a bit of shock and can't believe this just happened. So, I had the talk with him, hey, this is the point where you go from screwing around to start this journey, you'll learn to play and you can sit with me and my buddies, when you get about 14, you'll find some friends who play and you'll start some death metal band called Orphanage Explosion or something that you're mother and I will hate, but that's OK. It's your music. Make it your own and play it like you mean it.
So we got home and he going through my gig bag and pulling out chromatics and he's playing tongue block octaves all over the place AND THEY ARE ALL CLEAN!
He doesn't know it yet, but he's getting my 16 hole tomorrow- I can live with just the 12-holes.
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David
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At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies
Elk River Harmonicas on Facebook
"I ain't gonna sing no 'Home on the Range.' No. sir. Not if it means I rot in here another month. I'm gonna sing what I'm a gonna be! A free man in the morning!"
Andy Griffith (as Lonesome Rhodes, "A Face in the Crowd).
Last Edited by on Jul 07, 2012 11:37 PM
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HarpNinja
2551 posts
Jul 07, 2012
9:33 PM
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Pft...Dennis Gruenling has been tb'ing notes for years...
In all seriousness, that is super awesome! The Force is strong in that boy.
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
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nacoran
5938 posts
Jul 07, 2012
11:19 PM
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It took me a couple months of playing a lot before I started playing splits. Sounds like he's a natural. :)
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Nate
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bonedog569
563 posts
Jul 07, 2012
11:38 PM
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Glad to hear the next generation will be carrying along the Payne musical heritage - even if it does meander into death metal for a spell. Hand him a mandolin and see what happens.
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1233 posts
Jul 08, 2012
12:01 AM
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;) It's available anytime he wants to mess it with it. Has been for years. Those kids were playing around with my instruments (supervised to varying degrees) since they were babies - and they have never damaged any of them. (will type knocking on wood cancel the jinx I just cast?)
When they were babies, I talked to a lot of good musicians about childhood, etc. and forming my game plan for rearing my two which wound up being - making the tools available, but let them do whatever they wanted, even if that were playing nothing.
I was talking to bluegrass musicians, mostly, the ones who had children who were good musicians all had this in common:
1) They never pushed their children.
2) They let the kids play whatever the hell they wanted.
3) At first, the kids played bluegrass with the old man.
4) Then the kids decided that bluegrass was boring and went on to play punk rock or Plague Metal or something - and the parent was OK with that.
5) By their mid 20s, the kids were playing with the old man again - and they were a different kind of musician from the father because of their different musical experiences - and they brought a lot of fresh, different things to the table.
In my case, the music was just there in the house all the time with dad playing the mandolin and harmonica. I primarily think of him as a guitar player, but he was learning mandolin during my formative years and that's what I heard.
Harmonica was my rebellion instrument from band class. I'd been playing around on harp for some years before, but I didn't get serious until I decided I wasn't playing sax and I hate the saxophone to this day - and that's only because I hated playing it as a kid.
I was a newspaper reporter, so I talked to a lot of people in those days. I found in cases where the children had been pushed to play music, they didn't play as adults and when children were pushed to play music, they:
1) would rebel and play nothing at all.
2) Would comply with everything the parent instructed, but lack uniqueness.
This might last, might not. I don't know. It's fine either way, he can do what he wants.
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies
Elk River Harmonicas on Facebook
"I ain't gonna sing no 'Home on the Range.' No. sir. Not if it means I rot in here another month. I'm gonna sing what I'm a gonna be! A free man in the morning!"
Andy Griffith (as Lonesome Rhodes, "A Face in the Crowd).
Last Edited by on Jul 08, 2012 12:04 AM
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laurent2015
306 posts
Jul 08, 2012
7:56 AM
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At that age, there are likely two "motors" to make "music"
* they are themselves surprised by what they succeed in
* they please dad or mom (or both).
At this stage, there are no reason why your son wouldn't go on.
And the response of the parents, after their son's little show, would never be:"good my son, now go and make the dishes" or "go and clean daddy's car".
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robbert
97 posts
Jul 08, 2012
8:27 AM
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Sweet, Dave. My 14 yr old son was not pushed, but music was around him, me working on harp and his mom being a pianist player...we let him take the lead...pentatonic flutes in school and a lot of singing in class...he took up the cello in school also, then picked up enough electric bass to be in a band.
Somehow, along the way, taught himself guitar, and keyboard. All on his own. This summer, he's tried marching band, jazz band, and is participating in a choir. He's rehearsing with another local teen group w to be their vocalist...they just seem to find their way if they are meant to, and if love of music is present in the household. Might be a little different for classical or jazz...?
Wynton Marsalis said his dad told him as a kid,"You want to be different from the others? Do what they don't - practice!" I'm probably misquoting, but it went something like that.
I hope your son has a great time with music. There is certainly a great time to be had!
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robbert
98 posts
Jul 08, 2012
8:27 AM
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Sweet, Dave. My 14 yr old son was not pushed, but music was around him, me working on harp and his mom being a pianist player...we let him take the lead...pentatonic flutes in school and a lot of singing in class...he took up the cello in school also, then picked up enough electric bass to be in a band.
Somehow, along the way, taught himself guitar, and keyboard. All on his own. This summer, he's tried marching band, jazz band, and is participating in a choir. He's rehearsing with another local teen group w to be their vocalist...they just seem to find their way if they are meant to, and if love of music is present in the household. Might be a little different for classical or jazz...?
Wynton Marsalis said his dad told him as a kid,"You want to be different from the others? Do what they don't - practice!" I'm probably misquoting, but it went something like that.
I hope your son has a great time with music. There is certainly a great time to be had!
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lumpy wafflesquirt
593 posts
Jul 08, 2012
2:31 PM
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Odd having read this today.
We prompted our son to practice his violin today and he got it out and then burst into tears. When asked what was wrong he said 'I don't like violin' he has been playing for a couple of years. I just told him to put it away. He couldn't say what he didn't like about it, I asked if it was the sound or the feeling or the way he had to hold it. It's a shame because he makes quite a good sound on it. We aren't going to force him to play, but hopefully in the future he will either return to it or take up another instrument.
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"Come on Brackett let's get changed"
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Todd Parrott
962 posts
Jul 08, 2012
10:19 PM
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Dave, that is really cool, man!
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Harpengr
40 posts
Jul 09, 2012
8:45 AM
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Great Dave! Isn't it a blessing when your kids do something like that. Kind of a reward for parenting.
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snakes
669 posts
Jul 11, 2012
4:19 PM
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Awesome - congrats Dave!
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snakes in Snohomish
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