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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Kenny Neal music genius/prodigy?
Kenny Neal music genius/prodigy?
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Honkin On Bobo
963 posts
Feb 20, 2012
5:18 AM
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Recently I've been listening to the blues on demand station on my TV. nice setup w/ bose speakers etc. There's no video, but while a song is playing, images of the artist are posted on the screen along with trivia about said artist, or the song, or label or music in general.
Usually i'm paying no attention to the screen, but as I look up this time, I see the following:
"Kenny Neal learned how to play harmonica, guitar, piano, trumpet and bass...all by the age of six."
Now, how the f___ is that possible??? Talk about the 10,000 hour rule. The kid's only lived about 2,000 days at that point. I'm sure a few were carved out for learning things like..er..speaking..and walking.
I know stuff is learned quicker by some kids, there are child prodigies, and I've been to the odd jam here and there where the 11-year old gets up and melts faces, but five instruments by age six?????
So I'm thinking either:
1. The trivia writer just got bored, wrote something ridiculous under the, "no one fact checks this shit" theory.
2. His label is just hyping him under a corollary to the above theory.
or,
3. "playing" has been defined as "managed to make a sound on the instrument without dropping it or crapping his diaper"
Note: I like Neal's music, i've seen him live playing multiple instruments, but five by age 6??????
Last Edited by on Feb 20, 2012 5:46 AM
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tookatooka
2725 posts
Feb 20, 2012
6:55 AM
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Know what you mean Hobo. Well there's hope for me yet because it won't be too long before I'm wearing diapers again. Maybe a good time to excel with the harp? :)
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rbeetsme
654 posts
Feb 20, 2012
7:01 AM
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I've known a few prodigies, both concentrated on one instrument. Both went to my high school. One was a drummer and the other played piano at Carnegie Hall in jr. high. The drummer is still playing, actually, a Gretsch endorsee and pretty well known in jazz. The pianist became a rabi!
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Honkin On Bobo
965 posts
Feb 20, 2012
7:24 AM
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beets,
"and the other played piano at Carnegie Hall in jr. high."
See, that's perfectly credible, rare and an awesome achievement...but I can totally see it happening.
The claim on Neal...not so much.
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dougharps
168 posts
Feb 20, 2012
7:26 AM
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Maybe "BEGAN to play"
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Doug S.
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Joe_L
1742 posts
Feb 20, 2012
7:37 AM
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Damn. What a hater?!
If he was six, seven or eight, what difference does it make now? The man has a rare and unique set of talent. He's also a gifted songwriter and singer. Many of the members of his family are musically gifted, as well. As far as his harp playing goes, he has beautiful tone.
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Honkin On Bobo
967 posts
Feb 20, 2012
7:58 AM
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"Damn. What a hater?!"
If you say so Joe.
"If he was six, seven or eight, what difference does it make now?"
Well obviously none to the enjoyment of the music today. I am interested however, in the way people learn how to play an instrument, in particular the child-adult student dichotomy and the talent v. practice debate..so this claim was of particular interest to me.
"The man has a rare and unique set of talent. He's also a gifted songwriter and singer. Many of the members of his family are musically gifted, as well. As far as his harp playing goes, he has beautiful tone."
I agree with all of the above.
Last Edited by on Feb 20, 2012 8:26 AM
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Joe_L
1743 posts
Feb 20, 2012
8:20 AM
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Did you take into consideration that Kenny' was probably around music sine he was an infant? His father was one of the artists was a very influential artist. Is it impossible that he had some command of the above instruments at a very young age?
Let's be real, quite often child prodigies do not have a great deal of mastery of an instrument when compared to people much older.
People take artistic license all the time. What's the big deal?
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rbeetsme
655 posts
Feb 20, 2012
8:42 AM
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I had not heard of Kenny Neal, thanks for the info.
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Honkin On Bobo
968 posts
Feb 20, 2012
9:21 AM
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"People take artistic license all the time. What's the big deal?"
Hey, no big deal. People post all kinds of things on here related to blues, harps and music....in varying degrees of gravitas to harp players. I'm sure this thread barely registers on that meter.
As I said, in addition to being a harp/guitar student, I'm curious about the ways that great artists learned their craft. It's probably because I'm the exact polar opposite to somebody like Neal (and many other artists), in that I picked up both later in life and feel the frustration of not progressing as fast as I would like. As a result, whenever I read the bios of musicians, I always find myself gravitating to the story of their journey of learning. When? How? Under what conditions, etc?
In this case, it was complete sependipity, that I came accross that piece of trivia. My first thought was, if true (in the sense that we all understand the word "playing" to mean), that's one of the most amazing things I've ever heard about an artist. And if wildly exaggerated, I thought, why do that? Kenny Neal is a fine artist, why make something like that up?
I fully expect that none of the above is interesting to most, but the MBH forum is pretty diverse, if it interests a few and they can add some color to the story......well cool.
Last Edited by on Feb 20, 2012 9:48 AM
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Joe_L
1744 posts
Feb 20, 2012
11:11 AM
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First of all, I don't doubt the information about Kenny Neal. Maybe, it isn't made up. It's quite possible he was playing multiple instruments at a young age.
Lucky Peterson was five years old when he appeared on the Tonight Show and the Ed Sullivan Show.
Don't forget when we are kids, there isn't as much frustration about learning of new things as there is when we are older. Plus, you don't really know the definition of the term "playing" is either. He has continued to grow as an artist througout his career, so it's safe to assume he wasn't the artist he is at 54 years old as he was at the age of 6.
People use artistic license and embellish all the time. A buddy of mine claims to have "practiced his trade in the greasy Blues bars in Chicago." Since, I didn't remember him, I asked him how we had never met. He response was, "I took artistic license with that sentence." When I asked him what he meant, he said that he spent a semester at Northwestern University and he once sat in with a Blues band at an upscale restaurant downtown. He had never been in a Blues bar in Chicago. So I asked him, "why?" He told me that helped him get gigs in California and that no one had ever called him on it before.
I know another guy who tells people that he was on the same stage as James Cotton. It wasn't at the same time or on the same night. In fact, it was months later. He felt it increased his "street cred".
People say stuff for a variety of reasons.
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7LimitJI
616 posts
Feb 20, 2012
11:41 AM
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" "playing" has been defined as "managed to make a sound on the instrument without dropping it or crapping his diaper""
I would say this describes approx 80% of the harp players on youtube !!! ;o)
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"Why don't you leave some holes when you play, and maybe some music will fall out".
"It's music,not just complicated noise".
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AirMojo
263 posts
Feb 21, 2012
7:58 AM
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Its quite possible when the person is exposed to alot of music from the time the person is an infant.
My sister majored in music and taught music, piano being her main instrument. Her two daughters both learned to play piano when they were at least 3 years old using the "Suzuki Method", where they learn to play by ear... and those girls could really play, eventually learned to read music and continued their playing and learning into adulthood.
The key is being exposed to the music, and learning very young... and excellent teachers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_method
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