Kids and Instruments

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Violin Lessons

My 10-year-old is taking violin lessons. With one lesson under her belt, so far, she absolutely loves it, and her teacher! I’d love to hear your stories of your kids taking musical lessons!

My son took guitar lessons at 12 years old, but after only a couple months he stopped because he wouldn’t rehearse. I told him that if he doesn’t rehearse, I won’t pay for it. Sadly, he quit.

He argued with me that his lessons were the place to do that. I told him, “No, your lesson is where your teacher teaches you. In between lessons, you practice what you’ve been taught. Then, you can move on to the next lesson.” His commitment faded rapidly and so did my checkbook.

Shoutout to the great local rock guitarist, Paul Benjamin, for doing his best trying to teach Atticus to play the guitar. I, too, attempted the guitar when I was 12 years old. Alas, my dream of being the next Jimi Hendrix faded when it became too difficult for my brain and fingers to keep up with my lessons. But I can play a helluva air guitar!

Now with my daughter beginning violin lessons, I am hopeful that she will stick with it. When I was taking guitar lessons as a kid, my twin sister Lynda was also taking violin lessons.

After watching The Song Remains The Same” movie by Led Zeppelin, I absolutely had to go home and try playing my guitar with my sister’s violin bow like Jimmy Page. I destroyed my sister‘s bow and had to mow a bunch of yards to make enough money to buy her a new one. I just keep thinking, “That’s rock ‘n’ roll!”

A friend of mine told me once that his son wanted to play the piano. He was very happy about that because learning a musical instrument can help unlock a part of the brain and force it to think in a different way, which can also help in the analytic thought process. I never thought about that, but it makes total sense.