What are we teaching our kid's music wise.
This is surely going to be one of the longest responses in this thread but it's a subject both my wife & I feel very strongly about.
I think nowdays its more important than ever to talk to kids about what music & misicianship really is,without instruction there is very little music on the radio or tv that shows children the difference between highly talented composers & musicians vs poet's who are good at looping a beat with two turntables & a microphone.
I dont want to get into the big debate about good rap vs bad rap because thats not my intent,my kids listen to rap & im ok with it,my point is that that without instruction kids will never know what a real composer/musician does or be able to appreaciate real skill or melody .
Taking our son to see Zappa plays Zappa live opened his eye's to music,after that his main interest in music was no longer fluff music & rap,before taking him when i'd play FZ or other complicated music it was like rats fleeing a sinking ship, but once he could relate what he heard to what he saw now he stops & listens,he will even comment on the beauty of certian passages or ask me to burn him a copy of the cd thats playing,i'll catch him listening to Miles Davis every once in a while & when i do i know it's because he can visualize the flow of the music.
Hearing Miles Davis's *****es Brew when i was a kid kicked my a$$ & made me crave more music.
There were 3 parts in the show that invoked an adult response followed by questions from him after the song or peice was over, i'll never forget the effect it had on him.
When they announced that this peice was going to be played i let him know what this peice was & that it was not written with the intent to ever be played by real musicians,it was composed strictly for the Synclavier,i also let him know that what he was about to hear was only a small part of a much larger picture on the album & that every note all the musicians played was written & placed in order by one man.
He said the song sucked but what got him was how one man was able to write every note that the whole "band" played through the entire "song".
The next song that blew him away was because of Steve Vai's ability to play note's he'd never heard,seeing how great guitarists work the instrument in person left him wanting more,he'd heard this song a million times in my home & never thought twice about,he never realized just how much was going on to make the music,now he has the album.
He was on his feet screaming at the end of the song,both my wife & i were proud as hell,Dweezil Zappa even made a comment (not directed at us ) about being glad to see so many adults turning kids on to composed music.
The last song that stuck in his mind the most & left the biggest lasting impression on him was ST Ettienne,not a complicated song but very melodic,he was entranced while listening & watching.
After the show we talked about what he thought about what he heard & saw,he said that ST Eienne was the most beautiful guitar he ever heard & wanted more music like that,he did say that most of the music had no appeal to him at all but what he did like the sound of he has retained & started xpanding from,moving away from rap & fluff, being drawn more twords music based on composure & musicianship.
