Your musical family

[Tig]

Do you have any other musicians in your family?
What about you kids, parents, grandparents?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[Eric]

My mom and sister both play the piano casually, and my dad and sister both played french horn in high school -- my sister continues to play in some wind ensembles at present. My dad has sung in choirs for long stretches of time, but he says my mom "can't carry a tune in a bucket."

Most of my wife's extended family can sing pretty well, though I've never heard them do anything serious.

Popular music is nearly nonexistent within my immediate or extended family. They listen to it on the radio, but have next to no knowledge of it. Because of that, I've mostly been on my own when it comes to rock 'n' roll and the guitar therein. I frequently wish I had some sort of grounding in that stuff, as it would have accelerated the growth curve and discovery considerably, but I suppose I should count myself lucky for having any sort of musical background/support from my family.

[Tig]

My older brother has always been into music, especially classical and movie scores, which are today's version of classical. He played woodwinds in high school, then brass in University of Houston's marching band. Sadly, he has always hated electric guitars, but I forgive him. :thwap

My Dad's world revolves around music. He started singing as soon as he could talk! He and his piano playing buddy were the only white people they knew of who liked rhythm and blues back in the late 40's/early 50's, before Elvis showed up. They sang in all the high schools in Houston and even in a house of prostitution in Galveston when they were teens (he never got paid in the way he wanted!). The Korean war interrupted the singing, but afterward, he attended U of H and starred in a few Broadway style singing plays. He also started singing in clubs, which lead to a short recording career. Unfortunately, someone else with a very similar voice was already making it big... Andy Williams. They owned a night club for a few years but the buddy drank up most of the meager profits. Then my older brother showed up, so Dad had to work for a living, and his musical dreams were left behind. Dad still loves music, and hasn't lost his voice too much.

My Dad's love of music came from his dad, who sang opera, and his grandmother, who played piano in churches and for silent movies. We had several albums of my grandfather's operas, but they were destroyed in a fire.
Here's a photo we found promoting one of his opera performances.
http://www.thefret.net/imagehosting/92254c0ec1f8e9153.jpg
I remember my Dad, grandfather, and great grandmother all singing around the piano whenever we visited. I think those moments were the best ever for them. Music kept them together and happy.

So, while I'm not the most accomplished musician of the family, at least I share their love of music, and that's a priceless gift!

[sunvalleylaw]

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/sunvalleylaw/DadSax.jpg

My Dad is an accomplished sax player, both alto and bari. He also can play piano by ear. His twin brother (my uncle) played trumpet with him in a swing jazz band back in the day. My uncle's family has a couple good musicians in it, one who is pretty awesome, and whose daughter is now a recording and performing folk artist, having come from high end chorale music at Stanford University.

My oldest boy is taking guitar lessons and learning, and my second son is playing piano pretty darn well. My daughter is trying to play guitar, but having just turned 7, gets frustrated with trying to fret notes and chords on the guitar. She tells me it might be easier to learn piano first. She will likely start lessons of her choosing as she enters second grade. My wife also played piano as a kid, and was taking lessons again recently until we both quit our lessons for a while.

[Tig]

My daughter is trying to play guitar, but having just turned 7, gets frustrated with trying to fret notes and chords on the guitar.

Very cool Dad ya got there. I played also sax for just 6th grade, but wasn't cut out for it. My Dad brought me into a bunch of clubs to listen to the great jazz and blues players before they passed on.

I was just reading an interview with Derek Trucks, and he mentioned that as a 9 year old kid, he started using a slide as it was easier to reach notes with smaller hands. That might be something fun for your daughter, just to keep the interest up.

My 14 and 9 year old boys like music, but haven't shown much interest in making it. A good keyboard might be worth investing in. :thumbsup

[Katastrophe]

My mom and grandmother used to play piano. My sister and I were exposed to piano lessons, but neither of us stuck with it.

I played trombone in 6th grade, but didn't make the Jr. High band. By that time I knew I wanted to play guitar, and have stuck with it ever since!

My stepdaughter made honors choir this year in school, and has a beautiful voice.

Mrs. Kat used to play drums in high school (and was a member of the drill team).

[Eric]

A good keyboard might be worth investing in. :thumbsup
Want to buy mine (http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail.html?CNTID=28202)??

[markb]

Just a piano playing grandmother. Salvationist - hymns only.

[marnold]

We were always big singers--it's a Lutheran thing. We'll four-part-harmony you into next Tuesday! Anyway, My sister and aunt both play organ and piano. My other sister plays flute and piano. Two of my sons are now taking piano and my other son is taking trumpet. I'm trying to teach the eldest guitar too. Here he is playing is recital piece:

rYXTIzM5Q44

[Spudman]

Neither of my parents were musical or artistic. My moms parents had a piano in their house and my grandmother played. Both me and my brother are musicians. Maybe it just what you get exposed to while growing up that is the impetus?

[Jimi75]

My great-grandparents of my father's side were wandering gypsys that emigrated to Sicily in Italy. My grandmother told me that my grand-greatfather played the violine and his brother was a very talented guitar player. Surprisingly though, the interest in music skipped some generations until my brother and I started making music.

[MichaelE]

My mother used to play the piano quite well but hasn't in years.

I had a Great Uncle by marriage that was quite an accomplished piano player. Learned a lot of the Tin Pan Alley stuff from the '20's and '30's when he was young, and then a lot of the Big Band numbers when he was older. He's actually the family member that sparked my interest in learning the piano. He was also a very good ragtime player.

My father couldn't carry a tune in a bag and didn't play any instruments. My sister started playing clarinet in grade school and gave that up. I started playing it for awhile, but I don't like reed instruments. Took up trumpet instead.

[mainestratman]

No one on my Dad's side is musically inclined... having grown up in remote Northern Maine way back in the day, there was no time for music.. only survival.

My mother's side is a different story. While I don't recall my grandfather being overly musical, he had perfect pitch and tuned pianos by ear. He would test out his tuning by banging out something... My grandmother was incredible on piano, playing solely by ear and a ton of improvisation (the skills I got that my sister didn't)... I grew up listening to a lot of ragtime.. even after the doxology or whatnot at church when she would throw in some Beer Barrel Polka or end her set with the last measures of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during Red Sox season...

My aunts and uncles all play guitar... strumming folky tunes around a campfire stuff (they're all hippies.. lol).. one of my aunts just recently picked up accordion. All my cousins on that side are musically talented in some way.. and a couple of them are paying rent with their music.

My younger sister is one of the most phenomenal pianists you'd ever care to hear.. and yes, I'm bragging. :-) She kept going with piano lessons long after I quit, and has made her career out of sharing her knowledge and love for music with others. My older sister has started with guitar lessons as well.

[Tig]

Interesting to see how many relatives sing, play piano or guitar.
I wish I took piano lessons as a kid, though I'm sure I would have hated it back then!

I just remembered something about my Dad's recording days. In the local studio, he hung out with a young singer who later changed his style and music from rock and jazz to country, and become famous... Kenny Rogers.

http://www.carbonpoker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/kenny-rogers.jpg

[hubberjub]

Both my parents were high school music teachers right out of college. My father is a trumpet player and my mother is a singer.

[Bloozcat]

My father used to play the trombone and the baritone when he was young, my sister tried playing guitar briefly, many years ago but gave it up. My wife plays piano, but never seems to play much of anything beyond the church hymns she learned years ago. It's a pity because she reads music and could learn to play anything she set her mind to. She just doesn't seem to have the desire. I found her a deal on a piano about eight years ago. She started taking lessons again briefly, but gave it up. We've since sold the piano.

I played the trumpet and baritone in band from elementary school into my freshman year in high school before giving that up to concentrate on guitar. I played some drums years ago and got good enough to sub for a drummer in a friends band in jr. high. I was never really good, but I could keep a beat and cover for the main drummer at practices, mainly.

No one in the family sings, either, which is unfortunate...especially for me!

[guitarhack]

My Dad's family loves singing, mostly gospel and hymns. His brother and one of my cousins are song leaders in their respective churches. My grandmother was and Dad's other brother is a fine piano player. Dad was a wonderful singer but didn't perform much that I remember exept in church or around a campfire. He could play piano by ear.

My Mom's family aren't musical that way although they love listening to music and exposed me to all kinds of pop, big band, country and jazz.

I also have two sisters, neither of whom play an instrument.

My two daughters played clarinet and flute in high school band, but haven't played since then, but they each have a child interested in music! My grandson loves drumming, while my oldest granddaughter has shown a little interest in guitar and singing, so there may be a chance for a family ensemble yet!

[SuperSwede]

My dad plays the double bass. One of my brothers plays the cello and the other one plays violin and guitar.

[Tone2TheBone]

My youngest daughter plays with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. She's first violin. My oldest plays piano when she's not being a young adult and not playing Starcraft.

[Tig]

My youngest daughter plays with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. She's first violin. My oldest plays piano when she's not being a young adult and not playing Starcraft.

Congratulations of your youngest daughter's success! There is some serious competition at that level.

Video games are unfortunately more addictive to our kids than music. We have to limit the time the boys spend on them or else they would turn into little pod people!

There are no cheat codes in life, nor in playing a guitar.

[ZMAN]

I don't know that any of my family are musical but when I was younger I used to hang out with a bunch of guys who formed a blues group call the Chessmen. After the Chess record name. One of the guys who used to sing and play harmonica was Richie Newel. I think most of you might know him as King Biscuit Boy. R.I.P. He went on to become one of the best known Canadian blues singers.

[Brian Krashpad]

My dad plays a tiny smidgen of guitar, and some banjo. Not well. He's not a natural, really has to work at it. My wife used to play both some piano and clarinet back in the day, now plays neither.

My daughter plays bass with me in our church praise band every week. My son SAYS he wants to learn guitar, but is not motivated.

My next younger brother plays some guitar, as well as designs guitars (as a sidelight to being a graphic artist). None of my other 3 siblings play an instrument, though my youngest sister sang back in high school, as does her daughter.

[MAXIFUNK]

My daughter is 12 and she is taking piano and voice Lessons.

My biggest musical influence is my older cousin who plays keyboards as his main axe, but got his 1st gig with Al Green @16 when Al saw him playing bass and ask his band leader "We have a new Bass player?" he replied, "No this is the Keyboard player I was telling you about!" So sight unseen he was hire to play keys for Al at the mere age of 16. Has since done tons of touring and studio works for some the best musical acts in jazz, rock, R&B world.
Beside keys, & bass he is a killer guitar player & plays drums and violin. I hate his overachieving behind. LOL

Another Cousin the younger brother of the Keyboard player is the Drummer for Israel Vibration. Another brother from that same family tree has been touring bass player for several Reggae bands.

I have several Female cousins who can sing extremely well. 2 of which are out doing a Tribute to Phylis Hyman tour this summer. One of which I posted two of her videos under the singer thread here on the net.

I also have heard through the grapevine that some of younger cousins have some really good rap & Hip-hop Skills as well.

I also have a Uncle who is a famous blue guitarist & singer.

[SuperSwede]

...and not playing Starcraft.

+1

You raised her well!
:applause

[street music]

My son Kodiak , plays guitar a little when he finds time. MY mother has played piano by ear for over 50 years and so does one of my brothers. My grandmother played banjo and organ and several sang in groups or church, I guess I must be adopted?

[Childbride]

my father was a pianist, and a trombone player.

i learned piano as a child, and played trombone from 6th to 12th grade.

my sister plays piano and clarinet.

my daughter by proxy is quite the musician, plays multiple instruments, and is a board certified music therapist working with special needs children in georgia.

my son by proxy plays trumpet.

shiner... you never know what he plays. ;)

[deeaa]

My family doesn't have others that are much into music. My mom always liked singing and was in a choir a while, and being primary school teachers both my parents could play piano well enough to accompany/sing school songs with notes, but they never really were much into music in general.

I'm very much like my granddad was, though, he was the local violinist and entertainer in his spare time, and lived a very active life and didn't spit in the glass either, while still provided for his family built up a farm and fields in untouched, rocky woods and later built boats and violins to sell...he was quite a character, despite later in life he turned into religion and after that never played any more music or tasted alcohol etc...But I guess he had it rough in the war etc, was the only survivor of his platoon and so on, and his wife died young, so I can understand he flipped in the end.

But anyway, before that he was real active&musical, though, like me, he didn't know any notes or theory, and like me, he was constantly building or fixing something.

[bigoldron]

Can't think of any on my Daddy's side of the family. He wanted to learn the guitar when I was high school, so he bought a Yamaha acoustic and the traditional Mel Bay book. He finally learned about 3 chords. But my younger brother and I both picked it up fairly well. He wound up getting us electrics later on. My brother actually had a better ear for picking out the notes and chords, just played more "mechanically" than I did.

His two sons can both play guitar and bass pretty well. In fact, the younger one played bass for 2 years with the Georgia 4H Clovers band in high school. Both of them played in the marching band and the older one was in the University of Georgia Redcoat Marching Band for 3 years.

The musicians in my family are on my Mama's side. Several are fairly good singers (a couple of them are really good). One cousin can play drums really good and his sister can flat tear up the piano. She plays what I call the old "rolling Southern Gospel" style of piano. Her two sons are musically gifted too. One of them played drums for the UGA band and worked for several years and a coach/tutor with them. My Granddaddy was a pretty fair baritone singer too. My wife played flute in high school and can sing fairly well, as well as my 2 daughters.

[wingsdad]

Neither of my parents played instruments, but they loved listening and they loved to sing, so I grew up in a home constantly filled with them singing along with my French Canadian mom's faves playing -- Edith Piaf, Yves Montand & Gilbert Becaud -- & my dad's -- Al Jolson, Sinatra...and he loved Big Bands from the 40's -- Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman...but most of all, being a NY City native - Broadway Musicals. From Guys & Dolls to South Pacific to Oklahoma, Brigadoon and on & on. And I was lucky...took us to see most every big Broadway hit show of the 50's & early 60's original cast performances... My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, West Side Story, Camelot , Man of LaMancha. And he'd buy the soundtrack albums for every one, which I've now got.

When we'd go over to my uncle's house (dad's bro), after the grownups had a few pops, they'd lead my 5 cousins & I in songfests of the hits from those shows.

That stuff gave me a love for diversity of style, big arrangements and the magical marriage of lyrics to melody to tell stories.

A cousin on my mom's side took up the guitar in '60 or so. 4 years older than me, I marveled jealously at his playing effortlessy along with Chuck Berry, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins and the Ventures, so he insisted on putting it in my hands and teaching me. He was a lefty playing a Danelctro Silvertone strung righty upside down. He'd play a lick, hand it over and I'd play the lick rightside up. Odd way to learn, but learn I did.

[Tig]

[Bump] for the newer Fretters.

[FrankenFretter]

I guess I missed this one the first time around. Thanks for reviving it, Doug!

My mother used to play piano, and wasn't too shabby. My sister played piano, but now plays guitar (strictly acoustic for her, mostly folk music). My brother is a very good bass player (you may know him as NWBasser). My father only plays kazoo. Badly.

I seem to be the one in the family that has the hardest time learning. Maybe I can blame dad for that. I do have a decent ear for music, and play almost entirely by ear, but I seem to be slow to get things right. I also have an extremely short attention span, so I know only the first 30 seconds of about 30 songs. :D

Oh, almost forgot: We have a cousin, Chris, who also plays guitar. His father plays guitar as well.

[R_of_G]

Not sure how I missed this thread. Great topic.

No other musicians in my immediate family, though I intend to change that by fostering my daughter's ever-growing interest in music. She'll be three in a month and she loves playing music with me. Hopefully her love of music will last a lifetime.

As for other family, I have a cousin who plays some guitar and sings beautifully and an another cousin (her brother) who plays the drums. I also have a second cousin (or cousin once-removed or whatever you call it) who is a concert pianist. So far as I know that's the extent of musicianship in our family.

I did grow up with a father who despite not playing himself is very knowledgeable about music and the musicians who make it. I learned very early on from him that music is something important. He can't sing in key to save his life but that never stopped him from singing along with every last one of his favorite songs in the car when I was a kid. I used to cringe and/or laugh at it when I was a kid. Now I realize it just meant he loved his music and wasn't going to let a little thing like not being able to carry a tune stop him. Much of the time we spend together we're listening to music or watching live music videos and talking extensively about it. Those are by far my favorite father/son times.

[jpfeifer]

I missed this thread also ... glad I saw this one.

My Dad was not musical, but loved to listen to music at home. He loved Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, and lots of Bluegrass stuff. I watched lots of episodes of "Hee Haw" with him.

My mom played piano and organ at church. I was going to be a piano player for a while until my family had to sell the home piano at one point due to a recession that hit my Dad's industry pretty hard. This is when I started taking a guitar class at school in the 7th grade.

My brother and me were the only ones who got into playing music out of the 6 kids in our family. My brother ended up being a bass player and played with this band for several years before he went back to school to finish his degree:
http://www.thewithdrawals.com/main.html

I met my wife in college, playing in bands together. We played all through our college years and continued to play together at chruch services and weddings, to this day. Both of our kids caught the music bug from us and both are now both involved in music. My oldest daughter is a serious song writer and singer. I've posted some of her songs here before. Here is her page on SoundClick: http://www.soundclick.com/amandapfeifer My youngest daughter is now playing the drums and also singing.

[progrmr]

No one in my family plays besides me - my grandfather used to play once every couple of months on an old acoustic - but never seriously. Mom would like to play the piano like many people would...she just doesn't want to practice every day lol!

I got everyone covered - I can play bass, guitar and piano with varying levels of proficiency :)

[sunvalleylaw]

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w92/sunvalleylaw/DadSax.jpg

. . . My Dad.

Doing what he does. Given his current situation, I am bumping my post in this thread. God willing, we can play some more together this year.

[R_of_G]

Doing what he does. Given his current situation, I am bumping my post in this thread. God willing, we can play some more together this year.

Given the current situation, I am also bumping your post in this thread because I too hope you can play more together this year, and next year, and for many years after that.

[sunvalleylaw]

Thank you.

[Tig]

Doing what he does. Given his current situation, I am bumping my post in this thread. God willing, we can play some more together this year.

This photo takes on a new meaning for the rest of us now.
Before, I thought it was cool seeing a dad doing what he loves. My first instrument in middle school was the saxophone. I wanted to be like my jazz heros. I wasn't very good, though! Now looking at the photo of your dad, I see the same thing, but long for him to get past the treatments and back into playing. Music is a gateway to a deeper satisfying life, rich with expression. To communicate from your heart to someone's ears and heart through music is quite a gift.

[R_of_G]

Music is a gateway to a deeper satisfying life, rich with expression. To communicate from your heart to someone's ears and heart through music is quite a gift.

Well said sir.

To share that love of music with family is about as good as it gets. When my daughter looks back someday on her memories of our time together, I hope many of them involve music.

[Monkus]

My dad dabbled in guitar and steelpan when he was younger but never pursued it and is a one fingered piano champion. My mom is a classically trained singer. I have a lot of fond memories of her singing to us when we were little. She still loves the Nana Mouskouri stuff. I bought my dad a guitar and a set of harmonicas for two consecutive Christmases but he still has to get the desire to pick it back up. I also have an uncle who is an internationally acclaimed sculptor, does that count???? :)